Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Seiya Miura

Michio Kohno

Kazuhiko Mishima

Hironori Maeda

Ken Minoda

Akiyoshi Suzuki

Minoru Yoshii

Seiji Takeuchi

Toshihiko Tsuji

Yoshinori Ohsaki

Yoshihiro Shiode

Masaki Mizutani

Kyoichi Miyazaki

Kenichiro Mori

Tetsuya Mori

Takehiko Iwanaga

Shinichiro Hirai

Tsutomu Takenaka

Nobuhiro Kodachi

An imprint lithography apparatus uses a mold having a pattern formed thereon and transfers the pattern to an imprint material fed to a substrate. The apparatus includes a light-receiving element; a detection system that irradiates a mark formed on the substrate and a mark formed on the mold with light which is reflected therefrom, and guides the light reflected from the mark formed on the substrate and from the mark formed on the mold to the light-receiving element; a relay optical system that causes the light reflected to focus between the mold and the detection system; an illumination system that emits illumination light for curing the imprint material; an optical element having a surface that transmits one of the illumination light and the light from the detection system and reflects the other; and a plate-shaped optical member that corrects aberration of the relay optical system.

Imprint lithography apparatus and device manufacturing method therefor

An imprint apparatus, which is configured to transfer a pattern to an imprint material supplied on a substrate by using a mold having the pattern formed thereon, includes a light-receiving element, a detection system configured to illuminate a mark formed on the substrate and a mark formed on the mold, and guide light reflected from the mark formed on the substrate and the mark formed on the mold to the light-receiving element, and a relay optical system. The relay optical system is configured to form images of the light reflected from the mark formed on the substrate and the mark formed on the mold between the relay optical system and the detection system. The detection system is configured to guide the light image-formed by the relay optical system to the light-receiving element.

Imprint apparatus, imprint method, and device manufacturing method

The present invention provides a forming method of forming a through electrode, in a second substrate joined on a first substrate having an electrode pad, to electrically connect a pattern to be formed on the second substrate to the electrode pad, the method comprising steps of detecting a position of a first mark formed on the first substrate and a position of a second mark formed on the second substrate in a state in which the first substrate and the second substrate are joined, determining, based on the position of the first mark and the position of the second mark detected in the detecting, a point to form the through electrode in the second substrate so as to electrically connect the pattern to the electrode pad, and forming the through electrode at the determined point.

Forming method and method of manufacturing article

An exposure apparatus includes an image sensor, a measurement optical system configured to guide measurement light to obliquely enter the projection optical system, and further, to guide the measurement light returned from the projection optical system to the image sensor, and a control unit configured to calculate surface position information of the substrate based on the output from the image sensor. The control unit calculates the surface position information of the substrate based on an interval between the image, of a mark arranged on the original stage, formed by the measurement light, which has passed through the mark, and the image of the mark formed by the measurement light reflected by the mark.

Exposure apparatus and device manufacturing method

An exposure apparatus including an illumination optical system to illuminate an original with exposure light of plural wavelengths, a projection optical system to project an image of a pattern of the original onto a substrate, an original-side reference pattern provided at an original side of the projection optical system, a substrate-side reference pattern provided at a substrate side of the projection optical system, and an image plane detecting system configured so that the original-side reference pattern is illuminated with the exposure light or light equivalent to the exposure light with respect to a wavelength component rate.

Exposure apparatus and image plane detecting method

The invention disclosed herein concerns technology that ensures, in a projection exposure process using a transmission type reticle, exposure with an even finish size throughout the entire exposure region, without adverse influence of external disturbance light such as back-surface reflection, for example. Specifically, the invention provides a reticle, a semiconductor exposure apparatus and method, and a semiconductor device manufacturing method, wherein a reticle used there includes a pattern region in which a circuit pattern is formed, a light blocking region of a width d formed at an outside periphery of the pattern region, and an anti-reflection film formed on a surface of the reticle remote from the pattern region, wherein the width d of the light blocking film satisfies a relation where nis a refractive index of a medium at a light entrance side of the reticle, nis a refractive index of the reticle, t is a thickness of the reticle, and &#x3b8; is an incidence angle of light upon the reticle.

Reticle, semiconductor exposure apparatus and method, and semiconductor device manufacturing method

An exposure method for an exposure apparatus that exposes a mask pattern onto a plate using a projection optical system includes the steps of obtaining information about flatness of a first mask, condition of an image plane when projecting a pattern of the first mask by using the projection optical system, information about a driving amount of a driving system, which can change an imaging condition on the plate based on the condition of the image plane, and information about flatness of a second mask, changing information about the driving amount by using information about flatness of the first and second masks, and driving the driving system based on changed information about the driving amount of the driving system to project a pattern of the second mask onto the plate using the projection optical system.

Exposure method and apparatus

An exposure apparatus includes a projection optical system for projecting a pattern on a reticle mounted on a first stage onto an object mounted on a second stage, a first reference plate provided on the reticle or a surface equivalent to the reticle, the first reference plate having three or more first reference marks each of which serves as a reference for an alignment between the reticle and the object, a measuring unit for measuring focus position at imaging positions of the first reference marks and for measuring an image surface of the projection optical system, and a correcting unit for correcting a relationship between the image surface and a reference surface as a reference of a measurement by the measuring unit.

Exposure apparatus

To provide an exposure apparatus with which a wafer surface to be exposed can be aligned with a best imaging plane with respect to a reduced focal depth and a high resolution can be attained. The exposure apparatus for exposing a pattern formed on a reticle to an object to be exposed includes: a detecting unit for measuring a position of the object to be exposed at a plurality of first measurement positions that meet a predetermined relative positional relationship in an exposure region of the object to be exposed to which the pattern is exposed and for measuring a position of the object to be exposed at a plurality of second measurement positions that meet the predetermined relative positional relationship in regions outside the exposure region; and a control unit for controlling at least one of a position, a height, and a tilt of the object to be exposed based on information on the position of the object to be exposed which is measured by the detecting unit.

Exposure apparatus, exposure method, and device manufacturing method

A method and apparatus for inspecting a surface state are used to examine first and second surfaces, e.g., two surfaces of a glass substrate on which a device pattern is formed, or one surface of a glass substrate and a pellicle for preventing attachment of foreign particles. When the first surface is illuminated from the first surface side while the second surface is illuminated from the second surface side, the first and second surfaces are illuminated with polarized light beams polarized in directions orthogonal to each other, respectively, and reflectively scattered light from the first surface is detected through an analyzer which intercepts the same polarized light as the polarized light illuminating the second surface. The S/N ratio of examination of the first surface is thereby improved.

Method and apparatus for inspecting a surface state

An image reading device for detecting a foreign object on a substrate includes a lens array for forming an erect image of the object in response to the foreign object being illuminated by a light source, and a sensor array for reading the formed image of the object. The sensor array includes a plurality of pixels, with at least some of the pixels having a dead zone. The lens array and the sensor array are arranged such that the substrate and the photosensing surface of the sensor array are situated at positions separated by substantially the same distance from two conjugate points present when the lens array forms the erect image of the object. The arrangement results in the image being defocused on the sensor array such that a predetermined number of pixels sense the formed image of the object, thus assuring that the foreign object is detected even if the image is projected on a dead zone of a given pixel.

Image reading device, and inspection apparatus and exposure apparatus

An inspection system inspecting an original with a pellicle, which system includes a light source for providing a light beam, a first detecting device for receiving light produced as a result of passage of the light beam through the pellicle, a second detecting device for receiving light produced as a result of non-passage of the light beam through the pellicle, and a processing system for determining information related to transmissivity of the pellicle, on the basis of outputs of the first and second detecting devices.

Inspection system for original with pellicle

A surface inspection device and method wherein an illumination system is arranged so that light from a laser diode is transformed into parallel light which is then directed through a half waveplate to a surface of a reticle to be inspected. A detecting system is arranged so that scattered light from a particle on the surface, for example, is collected by a lens array onto a sensor array. The direction of polarization of the parallel light defined by the half waveplate is made substantially parallel to a plane containing optical axes of the illumination system and the detecting system. Thus, even if an error occurs in the angle of incidence of the parallel light upon the reticle, a change in scattered light intensity due to interference between scattered light is kept small to assure accurate discrimination of the particle.

Surface inspecting device

A surface state inspecting device includes an illumination system for illuminating a surface to be inspected, with a beam having non-uniform sectional intensity distribution, a uniforming system for substantially uniforming the sectional intensity distribution of the beam, and an inspecting portion for detecting scattered light from the surface to determine the state of the surface.

Growing community of inventors

Utsunomiya, Japan

Seiya Miura