Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Setsuo Yoshida

Noriyasu Hasegawa

Yoshihiro Shiode

Zenichi Hamaya

Hitoshi Nakano

Tosiya Asano

Tatsuya Hayashi

Satoshi Natsume

Keita Sakai

Ryuji Ohmuro

Yuzo Kato

Jun Hosoya

Junichi Kasuya

Masayuki Tanabe

Takaaki Kobayashi

Susumu Fukita

The present invention provides a forming apparatus that forms a composition on a substrate using a mold including a contact region to be brought into contact with the composition, comprising: a deformation unit configured to deform the contact region; and a controller configured to perform, for each of a first shot region and a second shot region on the substrate, a process of bringing the contact region and the composition on the substrate into contact with each other while controlling the deformation of the contact region, wherein an area where the mold faces the substrate during the process is different between the first and second shot regions, and wherein the controller is configured to change, between the first and second shot regions, a process condition for bringing the contact region and the composition into contact with each other.

Forming apparatus and method of manufacturing article

An imprint apparatus comprises a mold holder configured to move while holding the mold, and a substrate holder including a plurality of suction regions for chucking the substrate and configured to move while holding the substrate. When performing the mold separation, among the plurality of suction regions, a suction force of a suction region at a position where the mold is to be separated from the imprint material is made weaker than a suction force of a suction region on a peripheral side of the substrate than the position where the mold is to be separated, and the mold holder is tilted after at least one of the mold holder and the substrate holder is moved by a predetermined amount so as to widen a gap between the mold and the substrate.

Imprint apparatus, imprint method, and article manufacturing method

An imprint apparatus molds an uncured resin on a substrate and cures the resin to form a pattern of the cured resin on the substrate. The apparatus includes a mold holding unit that holds the mold, a substrate holding unit that holds the substrate, a deforming unit that deforms the mold held by the mold holding unit into a convex shape toward the substrate, a driving unit that changes an attitude of the mold or the substrate during a releasing operation in which the mold deformed into the convex shape is released from the resin to thereby make the position of a contact region at which the mold is brought into contact with the resin movable, a measuring unit that acquires image information indicating a state of the contact region, and a control unit configured to control the operation of the driving unit based on the image information.

Imprint apparatus

A determination method for determining a pattern of a mold is disclosed. The pattern of the mold is used in imprint processing of forming a pattern on imprint material by performing the steps of pressing the imprint material on a substrate against the pattern of the mold in an atmosphere containing condensable gas to be liquefied due to compression, curing the imprint material, and releasing the mold from the imprint material. A processor calculates a shrinkage amount of the pattern on the imprint material. The pattern on the imprint material shrinks by desorbing condensate liquid, which is produced through liquefaction of the condensable gas between the imprint material and the pattern of the mold in the pressing step and which is dissolved in the imprint material, from the imprint material after completion of the pressing step.

Method for determining pattern of mold for imprint, imprint method, and apparatus

An imprint apparatus includes a deforming unit configured to deform the mold held by the mold holding unit into a convex shape toward the substrate; a driving unit configured to change an attitude of the mold or the substrate during a pressing in which the mold deformed is pressed against the uncured resin to thereby make a position of a contact region at which the mold is brought into contact with the uncured resin movable; a control unit configured to calculate a plane coordinates of a centroid of the contact region based on an image information of the contact region acquired by a measuring unit and to control an operation of the driving unit such that the plane coordinates position of the centroid is directed toward the plane coordinates position of the centroid of a pattern-forming region on the substrate, which has been calculated or has been acquired in advance.

The imprint apparatus of the present invention molds an imprint material on a substrate using a mold and cures the imprint material to form a pattern on the substrate. The apparatus includes a holder configured to attract the mold to hold the mold; and a pressure reduction device configured to reduce a back pressure of the mold held by the holder, wherein the apparatus is configured to reduce the back pressure by the pressure reduction device in parallel with release of the mold from the imprint material.

Imprint apparatus and article manufacturing method

An optical element holding structure comprises a first holding member holding an optical element, a second holding member holding the first holding member, a third holding member holding the second holding member, first elastic members positioned between the first and second holding members and can elastically deform in the radial direction and second elastic members positioned between the second and third holding members in a radial direction thereof and can elastically deform in the radial direction, the plurality of first elastic members and the plurality of second elastic members are arranged in a circumferential direction about an optical axis of the optical element as the center, and a phase of the plurality of first elastic members is shifted from a phase of the plurality of second elastic members in the circumferential direction about the optical axis of the optical element as the center.

Optical element holding structure, exposure apparatus, and device manufacturing method

In an optical unit having a holding structure which brings a junk ring or the like into contact with an optical surface of a lens, the optical surface suffers from a serious elastic deformation leading to deterioration of optical performance. Upon holding the lens, therefore, a face other than the optical surface is provided on the lens so that the lens is held by applying a force to the face from element holding members.

Optical unit, exposure unit and optical devices

A retainer for holding a rotationally symmetrical optical element, includes a retaining member that holds the optical element via three support parts arranged at approximately 120&deg; intervals, and a joint member that joints the optical element with the retaining member, wherein &verbar;(z &minus;0.6w )&minus;(z &plus;1.2)&verbar;&lE;1 is met, where z is a coordinate of a gravity center of the optical element, z is a coordinate of a center position of a width of said joint member in the z axis direction by which said joint member contacts the optical element, and w is the width of said joint member in the z axis direction by which said joint member contacts the optical element.

Retainer

A lens moving mechanism for finely moving at least a lens portion of an objective lens in a direction of an optical axis of the objective lens. The lens moving mechanism includes a holding member holding the lens portion and a disc-like disc cam member provided with a cam surface, which lies in a peripheral portion of the disc-like disc cam member. The disc cam member is rotated to thereby move the holding member on a track conforming to the cam surface.

Lens moving mechanism for finely moving a portion of an objective lens

The present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling the lens position of a zoom lens. The zoom lens comprises a plurality of lens units movable along the optical axis for zooming, a focal length setting unit for setting the focal length of the zoom lens, an object distance setting unit for setting an object distance, a store containing a plurality of inherent coefficients and an arithmetic logic unit which specifies focal length information and object distance information as variables, and uses the coefficients in calculating a position to which a lens unit should move.

Apparatus for controlling the lens position of a zoom lens

A diaphragm device of reduced diameter in the entirety comprising a base plate having a substantially round central opening, first diaphragm blades whose one ends are supported about respective pivot pins on the base plate, a first member arranged to turn all the first diaphragm blades about the pivot pins, the same number of second diaphragm blades as that of the first diaphragm blades arranged in confronting relation to the first diaphragm blades and whose one ends are supported about respective pivot pins on the base plate, and a second member arranged to turn all the second diaphragm blades about the pivot pins.

Growing community of inventors

Saitama, Japan

Setsuo Yoshida