Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Satoshi Akimoto

Shigeyuki Uzawa

Shinji Wakui

Tomohiro Harayama

The present invention provides a control apparatus including a feed-forward controller configured to perform feed-forward control of a controlled object, the apparatus being configured to obtain a first response data sequence of the controlled object measured by applying a first manipulated variable to the controlled object, and determining, assuming that a second response data sequence of the controlled object to be obtained if a second manipulated variable data sequence, obtained by respectively multiplying the first manipulated variable by gains as variables which can vary with time, is applied to the controlled object, is expressed as a linear combination of the first response data sequence with the gains as coefficients of the liner combination, the gains so that a discrepancy between the second response data sequence and a target data sequence falls within a tolerance.

Control apparatus, lithography apparatus, and method of manufacturing article

A liquid immersion exposure apparatus including a stage which carries a substrate, a projection lens unit which projects a pattern onto the substrate, a unit which supplies liquid to a space between the substrate and the projection lens unit and recovers the liquid from the space, and a controller which controls driving of the stage. The controller changes a driving profile of the stage according to a liquid immersion condition.

Liquid immersion exposure apparatus, method of controlling the same, and device manufacturing method

In an exposure apparatus having a plurality of substrate stages moving between a plurality of stations, errors due to the combination of the stage and a position measuring unit, such as Abbe error and errors due to the surface configuration of a reflection mirror, are precisely corrected to reduce the position error of the substrate stage. The exposure apparatus includes a control device having a storage unit and a correction unit. The storage unit stores the correction information established every combination of the plurality of substrate stages and a plurality of position measuring units, and the correction unit corrects the result measured by the plurality of position measuring units on the basis of the correction information corresponding to the combination of the substrate stages and the position measuring units among pieces of correction information stored in the storage unit.

Exposure apparatus

A stage apparatus including a stage capable of moving an object, first and second measurement units adapted to measure a displacement of the stage in a predetermined direction based on a variation of an optical path length of measurement light, which are arranged so as to have an overlap area to simultaneously measure a stage position while the stage is being moved, a switching unit to switch measurement by the first measurement unit to measurement by the second measurement unit by delivering a measurement value from the first measurement unit to the second measurement unit in the overlap area, and a correction unit, in the stage position upon switching by the switching unit, to correct a wavelength variation of the measurement light based on the measurement value delivered from the first measurement unit to the second measurement unit.

Stage apparatus including a correction unit to correct a wavelength variation of measurement light based on measured displacement of a stage

A stage apparatus including a stage movable in a first direction and a second direction, different from the first direction, the first and second directions being a horizontal direction, and first and second measurement systems each having a laser interferometer and a mirror system including a first reflecting mirror elongated in the first direction and a second reflecting mirror elongated in the second direction, and measuring a position of the stage with respect to a vertical direction based on measurement of a length of a laser beam light path formed by the mirror system. A switching unit transfers a measurement value from the first measurement system in use to the second measurement system and switches the measurement system in use from the first measurement system to the second measurement system within an overlapping zone of measurement systems. A first correcting unit corrects the transferred measurement value.

Stage apparatus and control method including first and second measurement systems for measuring a stage position and a switching unit for switching between the measurement systems

A scanning exposure apparatus includes a projection optical system, a stage to move while holding a substrate, a measurement system to measure a position of the substrate in an optical axis direction of the projection optical system, a generation system to generate a driving signal, in which a change amount being controlled to be equal to or less than an upper limit value, to the stage based on the result of measurement by the measurement system, and a setting system to set the upper limit value based on a running status of the stage.

Scanning exposure apparatus and device manufacturing method

In a step & scan projection exposure apparatus having a controller for setting for each step driving a step driving profile on the basis of a scan synchronization error, the step driving profile can be set by the exposure region layout, step direction, scan driving profile, and the like. Also, the step driving profile is determined by parameters such as the accelerations and speeds of reticle and wafer stages, the time taken until synchronous scan driving starts after step driving, and the time taken until exposure starts after the start of synchronous scan driving. A method of maintaining the apparatus by using a network, a semiconductor device manufacturing method, and a semiconductor manufacturing factory are also provided.

Step and scan projection exposure apparatus, maintenance method therefor, and semiconductor device manufacturing method and semiconductor manufacturing factory using the apparatus

A projection exposure apparatus includes projection optics for projecting a pattern, which has been formed on a mask or reticle, onto a wafer placed on a stage; an XYZ stage on which the substrate is placed and which is movable along the direction of the optic axis of the projection optics and in a direction orthogonal to the direction of the optic axis; a surface position measurement unit capable of measuring a predetermined position along the optic axis of the projection optics and the relative position of the surface of the substrate on the state; and a vibration measurement unit capable of measuring vibration of the projection optics. The XYZ stage is driven and controlled based upon results of measurement from the surface position measurement unit and vibration measurement unit, thereby reducing deviation between the wafer surface and imaging plane and improving contrast and resolving power.

Projection exposure apparatus and method of controlling same

An exposure apparatus, which has a projection optical system, a Z-stage movable in the optical axis direction of the projection optical system, an X-Y stage movable in a planar direction perpendicular to the optical axis direction, and a sensor for measuring the positional relationship between a substrate placed on the Z-stage and a predetermined position in the optical axis direction and/or any tilt of the substrate, sequentially moves and aligns the X-Y stage to change the area to be exposed on the substrate, executes a measurement using the sensor, and exposes while correcting the positional relationship between the substrate and the predetermined position in the optical axis direction and/or any tilt of the substrate in accordance with the measurement result, has a control unit for adjusting the measurement start timing of the sensor in correspondence with a change in area to be exposed on the substrate.

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Utsunomiya, Japan

Satoshi Akimoto