Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Nobutoshi Mizusawa

Ryuichi Ebinuma

Shunichi Uzawa

Takao Kariya

Yuji Chiba

Kunitaka Ozawa

Shinichi Hara

Hiroshi Kurosawa

Mitsuaki Amemiya

Koji Uda

Yutaka Tanaka

Isamu Shimoda

Eigo Kawakami

Kazunori Iwamoto

Masahiro Haruta

Yutaka Watanabe

Shigeyuki Suda

Eiji Sakamoto

Yasuaki Fukuda

Takeshi Miyachi

Shin Matsui

Hidehiko Fujioka

Mitsuji Marumo

Mamoru Miyawaki

Naoto Abe

Kenji Saitoh

Yukuo Nishimura

Hiroshi Takagi

Ryuichi Arai

Takashi Noma

Makoto Higomura

Toshiaki Asano

Yukio Masuda

Takahiko Ishiwatari

Mitsunobu Nakazawa

Kohji Uda

Masayuki A Suzuki

Masahiko Okunuki

Noboru Koumura

Noriyuki Nose

Kazuyuki Kasumi

Hiroshi Maehara

Satoshi Yuasa

Shigeru Terashima

Makiko Mori

Hiroyuki Sugata

Hitoshi Oda

Takayuki Hasegawa

Tetsuzo Mori

Mitsutoshi Kuno

Takashi Hamamoto

Kuniji Osabe

Shumichi Uzawa

Shinichirou Uno

Kouhei Nakata

An apparatus for transferring a pattern of a mask onto a substrate with radiation light from a synchrotron radiation light source, includes a first mirror for collectively reflecting radiation light from the synchrotron radiation light source, and a second mirror for reflecting radiation light from the first mirror and for projecting the same to the mask. When a light ray advancing from a light emission point of the light source toward a center of a predetermined region of the mask, to be transferred to the substrate, is taken as a chief ray, when a normal to each of the first and second mirrors at an incidence position of a corresponding chief ray is taken as a Z axis, when a direction perpendicular to a plane defined by the Z axis of each mirror and a corresponding chief ray is taken as an X axis, and when a Y axis is taken along a direction perpendicular to the Z axis and X axis of each mirror, the first mirror has a reflection surface of a shape which is concave with respect to the X axis direction and concave with respect to the Y axis direction, while the second mirror has a reflection surface of a shape which is convex with respect to the Y axis direction.

Exposure apparatus for synchrotron radiation lithography

A substrate holding device includes a vacuum supplying device for supplying a vacuum to a holding surface to hold a substrate, a hollow member surrounding at least a portion of the holding surface and movable between a position in which the holding member protrudes from the holding surface and a position in which the hollow member does not protrude from the holding surface, and a moving mechanism for relatively moving between the hollow member and the holding surface.

Substrate holding device and exposing apparatus using the same

A substrate holding apparatus in which first and second vacuum clamping devices each have a holding surface for holding a portion of a substrate, a first driving device for rotating the first vacuum clamping device relative to the second vacuum clamping device, and a second driving device for reciprocally moving the first vacuum clamping device between a position in which it protrudes by a predetermined amount from the holding surface of the second vacuum clamping device and a position in which it does not protrude from that holding surface. Also disclosed is a substrate holding device in which a vacuum clamping device creates a vacuum clamp force on the holding surface thereof, a cylindrical delivering member surrounds at least a portion of the holding surface and is reciprocally movable between a position in which it protrudes by a predetermined amount from the holding surface and a position in which it does not protrude from the holding surface, and a driving device for moving the delivering member.

There is disclosed a mask supporting device comprising a chuck mechanism for supporting a mask substrate provided with a rectangular window in which a mask pattern is formed, and a frame for reinforcing the mask substrate, and a mechanism for applying, to said frame of the mask, loads from mutually orthogonal directions. The mechanism for applying loads includes a fixed reference contacting two positions on the external periphery of the mask frame and two pressing mechanism for applying loads to the mask frame from two directions respectively opposed to the two contact positions.

Mask supporting device and correction method therefor, and exposure

A mask and a mask supporting mechanism wherein the outside periphery of a mask frame, having a rectangular shape, which supports the mask, is supported at three supporting points which are substantially the same distance from the center line of a mask membrane, whereby the mask frame is positioned with respect to X, Y and .theta. directions. Two pressing mechanisms press the mask frame at two points substantially opposed to two of the supporting points. The mask is supported at three points on the bottom surface thereof for positioning in the Z direction.

Mask and mask supporting mechanism

A synchrotron exposure includes a synchrotron radiation source for generating a synchrotron radiation beam, and exposure unit having a mask stage for holding a mask and a wafer stage for holding a waver, a beam port for directing the radiation beam to the exposure unit, a mirror unit having a mirror for reflecting the radiation beam, a pre-alignment system for aligning the wafer relative to the wafer stage, a fine-alignment system for aligning the wafer held by the wafer stage relative to the mask held by the mask stage, a mask storage apparatus for storing the mask, a wafer storage apparatus for storing the wafer, a mask conveying apparatus for conveying the mask between the mask storage apparatus and the mask stage and a wafer conveying apparatus for conveying a wafer between the wafer storage apparatus and the wafer stage.

Alignment apparatus and SOR X-ray exposure apparatus having same

A recording apparatus is provided with an upper unit having a recording head for discharging ink for effecting recording on a recording medium in response to information, and at least a portion of the electric circuit of the apparatus, a lower unit having a platen for maintaining the recording medium in the recording station by the recording head, the lower unit capable of being spaced apart relative to the upper unit, and a conveying member for conveying the recording medium to the recording station. The upper unit and the lower unit are capable of being spaced apart and opened in the recording station by the recording head.

Recording apparatus and ink cartridge

A method of controlling a conveying device having a gripping hand for gripping an article to be conveyed and a conveying mechanism for conveying the gripping hand, wherein a pressing force applied to the gripping hand through the article being conveyed is detected and the conveying operation of the conveying mechanism is stopped when the pressing force exceeds a predetermined force.

Substrate conveying device and method of controlling the same

A temperature controlling device suitably usable in a semiconductor microcircuit manufacturing exposure apparatus exposes a semiconductor wafer to a mask to print a pattern of the mask on the wafer. The device includes a constant-temperature liquid medium supplying system for controlling temperature of a liquid at high precision, a distributing system for distributing the supplied liquid medium into plural flow passages, to supply the liquid medium to plural subjects of control such as, for example, a mask stage, a wafer stage and the like. The device further includes a plurality of temperature controls each being provided in corresponding one of the flow passages, for correction of any variance in temperature of the distributed liquid medium, resulting from pressure loss energies in the respective flow passages. Thus, temperatures of plural subjects of control can be controlled efficiently and with a simple structure.

Temperature controlling device for mask and wafer holders

A recording apparatus is provided with an upper unit having a recording head for discharging ink for effecting recording on a recording medium in response to information, and at least a portion of the electric circuit of the apparatus, a lower unit having a platen for maintaining the recording medium in the recording station by the recording head, the lower unit capable of being spaced apart relative to the upper unit, and a conveying member for conveying the recording medium to the recording station. The upper unit and the lower unit are capable of being spaced apart and opened in the recording station by the recording head. The recording apparatus further having a blower which introduces air and directs an air stream through the apparatus and past a full page width recording head. The air stream directs ink mist generated by the printhead through a recording medium discharge port such that ink mist is removed from the apparatus body by riding the air stream or by adhering to the recording medium. Internal contamination of the recording apparatus is avoided.

Recording apparatus having an ink mist evacuation system

A semiconductor device manufacturing SOR X-ray exposure apparatus wherein, after a mask and a semiconductor wafer are aligned, and SOR X-ray is used to transfer a semiconductor device pattern on the mask onto a resist on the semiconductor wafer. The apparatus includes a mirror unit and an exposure unit for exposing the wafer through the mask to the X-ray from the mirror unit. The mirror unit includes an X-ray mirror for diverging the X-ray in a desired direction, a first chamber for providing a desired vacuum ambience around the X-ray mirror and a first supporting device for supplying the X-ray mirror. The exposure unit includes a shutter for controlling the exposure, a mask stage for holding the mask, a wafer stage for holding the wafer, a second chamber for providing a desired He ambience around the mask stage and the wafer stage, a frame structure for mounting the mask stage and the wafer stage and a second supporting device for supporting the frame structure. By this, a more highly integrated semiconductor device can be produced.

Alignment apparatus and SOR x-ray exposure apparatus having same

A method of manufacturing of semiconductor devices, includes exposing different portions of a semiconductor substrate with a first exposure apparatus having a first exposure range; placing and aligning the semiconductor substrate with respect to a second exposure range of a second exposure apparatus, which range is larger than the first exposure range of the first exposure apparatus; detecting an alignment error of each of the portions of the semiconductor substrate as covered by the second exposure range of the second exposure apparatus; calculating an overall alignment error of those portions of the semiconductor substrate with respect to the entire second exposure range of the second exposure apparatus, on the basis of the detected alignment errors; and controlling the exposure operation of the second exposure apparatus on the basis of the calculated overall alignment error.

Exposure method

A method of producing an X-ray mask includes a step of forming a mask pattern on a mask substrate having an amount of warp, and a step of bonding the mask substrate to a mask frame. In both steps, the mask substrate maintains a shape obtained due to the amount of warp. Since the mask substrate is fixed to the mask frame in a warped state, distortion is not produced in the mask pattern. As a result, an X-ray mask, which is suitable for very precise exposure, is provided.

X-ray mask, and exposure apparatus and device production using the mask

An exposure apparatus for exposing a semiconductor wafer to a semiconductor device pattern formed in a mask. The exposure energy is, for example, X-rays contains in synchrotron orbit radiation. A blade for limiting the area irradiated with the exposure energy on a mask or wafer is integrally movable in an alignment detecting unit for detecting the alignment mark. Four of such blades are provided to provide a square exposure area. The blades are movable independently by the associated alignment detecting units. Each of the blades is finely movable relative to the associated alignment detecting unit. The shape or size or the like of the blade is determined in consideration of the position of the blade in the direction of the exposure energy irradiation, and the maximum and minimum exposure view angle. The blade is cooled. The exposure area can be changed highly accurately and efficiently with a simple structure.

Exposure apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Yamato, Japan

Nobutoshi Mizusawa