Nikon Corporation

Nippon Kogaku K.k.

Nippon Kagaku K.k.

Seiro Murakami

Kenji Nishi

Yasuaki Tanaka

Akikazu Tanimoto

Toshio Matsuura

Yuji Imai

Kazuya Ohta

Hideo Mizutani

Kyoichi Suwa

Hiroshi Chiba

Yutaka Ichihara

Susumu Makinouchi

Tohru Kiuchi

Makoto Uehara

Kazuo Ushida

Hidemi Kawai

Masaichi Murakami

Yasuyuki Sakakibara

Takaharu Miura

Muneki Hamajima

A mask stage RSand a substrate stage WSare synchronously moved, and a mask stage RSand a substrate stage RSare synchronously moved, in a state in which a mask on the mask stage RSand a mask on the mask stage RSare irradiated with illumination light beams from illumination optical systems IOP, IOPrespectively. The reaction force on a base board due to the movement of the stages can be canceled to suppress the vibration of an exposure apparatus by moving the mask stage RSand the mask stage RSin mutually opposite directions. The throughput can be improved by performing alignment operation on substrate stages WS, WSconcurrently with the exposure operation.

Exposure apparatus and methods utilizing plural mask and object stages movable in opposite directions, and methods of producing devices using the same

An apparatus for exposing a pattern, formed on a mask, on each of a plurality of partitioned areas on a photosensitive substrate by a step-and-repeat scheme includes a projection optical system for projecting the pattern of the mask on the photosensitive substrate, a substrate stage for holding the photosensitive substrate and two-dimensionally moving the photosensitive substrate within a plane perpendicular to the optical axis of the projection optical system, a detection unit for projecting a pattern image having a predetermined shape on the photosensitive substrate and photoelectrically detecting light reflected by the photosensitive substrate to detect a position at each of a plurality of points on the photosensitive substrate along the optical axis of the projection optical system, and a measurement unit for, when each of a plurality of measurement points in a partitioned area on which a pattern of the mask is to be exposed next coincides with or approaches the pattern image, detecting an offset amount between an imaging plane of the projection optical system and the next partitioned area along the optical axis during a stepping operation of the substrate stage, wherein the imaging plane and the next partitioned area are relatively moved along the optical axis in accordance with the measured offset amount before the pattern of the mask is exposed on the next partitioned area.

Exposure method and apparatus

A projection optical system of a projection exposure apparatus according to the present invention has a plurality of optical members made of glass materials at least one of which has a temperature characteristic of index of refraction different from that of the other glass material. Further, a temperature control device for controlling a temperature of at least one of the optical members is provided. An imaging characteristic of the projection optical system is controlled. The imaging characteristic to be controlled is a non-linear magnification or curvature of field. The temperature control device sets the temperature to be controlled to a variable target temperature determined in accordance with the imaging characteristic of the projection optical system. An exposing operation for transferring a mask pattern to a photosensitive substrate is started after the temperature of the optical member to be controlled reaches a predetermined allowable range of the target temperature.

Projection exposure apparatus wherein focusing of the apparatus is

A projection exposure apparatus wherein a pattern formed on a mask is projected onto a substrate through a projection optical system. The apparatus has an illumination optical system for illuminating the mask by exposure light, and a first adjusting member which is disposed in the illumination optical system to change telecentricity on the substrate. The apparatus further has a second adjusting member for adjusting at least one of the position of the substrate in the direction of an optical axis of the projection optical system and the tilt of the substrate, and a control system for controlling the first and second adjusting members. The control system locally corrects the position of a spatial image formed by the projection optical system.

Projection exposure apparatus correcting tilt of telecentricity

In a scanning-type projection exposure system, curvature of a movable mirror that is used to measure mask stage coordinate positions is determined while the mask stage is moved in the scanning direction, by measuring coordinate positions, perpendicular to the scan direction, of the mask stage and of a mask mark elongated in the scan direction. The results of the measurements are used for correcting or compensating positional deviation during scanning. Rotational deviation of a mask pattern area is determined and is corrected or compensated. Also, a mask is aligned with respect to a coordinate system of the mask stage as pre-processing for exposure, using a mask alignment mark having two crossing linear patterns and determining a coordinate position of the crossing point by moving the mask relative to an observation area.

Method of driving mask stage and method of mask alignment

An apparatus for detecting a position of a reference pattern or mark formed in a substrate to be aligned with a photomask pattern performs the following functions: scanning a reference pattern having at least two edges and generating a time-serial pattern signal corresponding to the scanned pattern; extracting all scanning positions at which a waveform of the pattern signal has a shape corresponding to an edge of the pattern within a predetermined scanning range including the pattern; selecting one pair from all possible pairs of a plurality of extracted scanning positions in accordance with a degree to which a pattern signal between the two scanning positions defined by each pair satisfies predetermined waveform conditions; and determining as a pattern position a predetermined position at which the interval between the two scanning positions of the selected pair is divided into two intervals by a predetermined ratio.

Apparatus for detecting position of reference pattern

An alignment system includes an element bearing a plurality of patterns on the surface thereof, the plurality of patterns being arranged in a predetermined direction, a stage for holding the element, scanning means for scanning the plurality of patterns of the element held by the stage in the predetermined direction and making position signals indicative of the positions of the plurality of patterns in the predetermined direction on the element, and operation means for operating and putting out a signal indicative of a position which is in a predetermined relation with the positions of the plurality of patterns in the predetermined direction, on the basis of the position signals.

Position detecting system

A position alignment apparatus aligns a photosensitive substrate and a mask (projection image) at high speed and with high precision. The apparatus has a projection optical system for projecting a pattern image on a mask or reticle onto a photosensitive substrate, a detector for detecting a two-dimensional misalignment of a projected pattern image and a wafer, and means for moving the wafer along orthogonal x- and y-axis directions and for rotating the wafer along a rotational direction within a plane defined by the x- and y-axis directions so as to eliminate the misalignment, wherein the detector has first detecting means with an optical system for detecting at least a misalignment of the wafer along the x-axis direction through the projection lens, and second detecting means with an optical system separate from the projection lens and for detecting at least a misalignment of the wafer along a rotational direction.

Alignment apparatus

Position detecting method and a apparatus detect a position of substrate formed with a diffraction grating mark and a linearly extending stepped edge mark spaced from the diffraction grating. In the method and apparatus, those marks are relatively scanned by light beam, and position of the substrate is detected based on light information generated by both the marks and the scanning position.

Position detection method and apparatus

Disclosed is a system for the signal processing of pattern profile information detected by optically or electronically scanning a pattern on an object such as a semiconductor wafer or a mask. The system includes a pattern information detector responsive to the scanning to generate an electric detection signal of a time series corresponding to the pattern along the scanning direction, position detecting means for generating a position signal discriminative for example of the direction of scanning each time the scanning advances a predetermined unit amount, and sampling extract means responsive to the position signals to successively sample the detection signal and obtain digital data of the pattern excluding any overlapping data of the pattern sampled at the same positions whereby even if the scanning involves minute oscillations of the scanning speed, the resulting noise in the detection signal is eliminated and an accurate pattern information signal corresponding to the absolute positions is extracted.

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Chiba, Japan

Seiro Murakami