Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Nuflare Technology, Inc.

Soichiro Mitsui

Kiminobu Akeno

Toru Tojo

Hideki Ito

Riki Ogawa

Michihiro Kawaguchi

Keisuke Yamaguchi

Shun Kanezawa

Kenichi Murooka

A substrate coverincludes a conductive portionhaving a shape corresponding to a peripheral edge region of a substrate. Since at least part of the conductive portion includes transmissive portionseach formed of a light transmissive member, it is configured so as to allow desired light to penetrate through. The position of each edge portion of the substrate is detected in such a manner that the substrate is disposed with the substrate coverplaced thereon between light irradiation means and a light detecting unit, irradiation light directed from the light irradiation means located above the substrate to the edge portion of the substrate is made to penetrate through at least part of the substrate cover, the edge portion of the substrate is then irradiated with light from the irradiation means.

Substrate cover and charged particle beam writing method using same

A method of generating writing pattern data of a reflective mask for use in a non-telecentric exposure tool comprises obtaining a vertical position profile by measuring vertical positions of a plurality of X, Y coordinates arbitrarily set on the surface of a blank mask substrate when mounted on a mask stage, or by measuring and calculating a flatness profile, calculating unevenness of the blank mask substrate surface from the vertical position profile, calculating a shift amount of an image position, generated in a wafer mounted on a wafer stage of the exposure tool, in accordance with the unevenness of the blank mask substrate and parameters of a non-telecentric optics of the exposure tool, and obtaining corrected writing pattern data by correcting design pattern data of the reflective mask based on the shift amount of the image position and a reduction ratio of a projection optics of the exposure tool.

Method of generating writing pattern data of mask and method of writing mask

A position detecting apparatus includes a first illuminating unit that radiates light onto a substrate in a direction substantially parallel to the front and the rear surfaces of the substrate from the direction of a lateral face of the substrate; a second illuminating unit that radiates light onto the front surface of the substrate, in a direction substantially perpendicular to the front surface of the substrate; an image pickup unit that takes an image of the substrate from a rear surface side thereof; and an edge-position detecting unit that detects an edge position of the substrate, based on a first image that is taken while the light is being radiated from the first illuminating unit and a second image that is taken while the light is being radiated from the second illuminating unit, respectively.

Position detecting apparatus and position detecting method

A defect inspection apparatus includes an illumination optical system which sets a transmission illumination region and a reflection illumination region on an inspection target surface of a mask, first and second imaging units having first and second visual fields which are set on the inspection target surface, an imaging optical system that provides images, which are present on the first and second visual fields, on the first and second imaging units, a defect detection unit which detects a defect of the mask on the basis of the images provided on the first and second imaging units, and a control unit which controls a positional relationship between setting positions of the transmission illumination region and the reflection illumination region and setting positions of the first and second visual fields.

Defect inspection apparatus

An alignment method for substrates includes preparing an alignment apparatus having a movement mechanism to move a target substrate in horizontal and vertical directions, a rotation mechanism to rotate the substrate in a horizontal plane, an illumination tool to irradiate the substrate, an image sensor to pick up an substrate image, an edge position sensor to sense the substrate edge positions, and a control computer, transferring the substrate from a previous stage using the moving mechanism, measuring the substrate position using the image sensor which picks up the image on a back surface of the substrate, while irradiating the substrate with the illumination tool from a sidewise direction, calculating positional shifts regarding X, Y, and &#x3b8; of the mask, using the edge position sensor and control computer, correcting the positional shifts of the mask by the moving and rotation mechanisms, and transferring the substrate to a next stage.

Alignment method

An alignment apparatus for substrates comprises a first movement mechanism moving a substrate to be treated in a horizontal direction, a second movement mechanism moving the substrate in a vertical direction, a rotation mechanism rotating the substrate in a substrate plane, an illumination tool irradiating the substrate from a sidewise direction in a state where the substrate is held in a desired height position by the second movement mechanism, an image sensor picking up an image on a back surface of the substrate in an irradiated state, an edge position sensor sensing plural edge positions of the substrate from an image obtained by the image sensor, and a control computer obtaining a positional shift of the substrate based on the edge positions sensed by the edge position sensor and correcting a positional shift of the horizontal and rotation directions by the first movement and rotation mechanisms.

Alignment apparatus for substrates

An X-ray lithography system and an X-ray exposure method are provided which is able to perform distortion correction and magnification correction in pattern projection, by using an X-ray reflection mirror whose radius of curvature is changed so as to differentiate its reflection characteristic according to an in-plane incident position of an X-ray beam. More particularly, the X-ray lithography system comprises an X-ray reflection mirror driving unit connected to the X-ray reflection mirror, for changing a position of the X-ray beam incident into the X-ray reflection mirror, a relative positional information acquiring unit for acquiring relative positional information between a pattern on the X-ray mask and a pattern on the wafer as an exposed substrate during exposure, a two dimensional information acquiring unit for acquiring two dimensional information of the X-ray beam during exposure, and an X-ray reflection mirror controlling unit for feedback-controlling the X-ray reflection mirror driving unit in real time, based on the relative positional information and the two dimensional information during exposure by the X-ray beam. Thus, while feedback-controlling an incident position and an incident angle of the X-ray beam into the X-ray reflection mirror and relative positional relationship between the X-ray reflection mirror and the X-ray mask, exposure can be performed by setting a divergence angle or collimation of the X-ray beam to desired values on a surface of the X-ray mask. Accordingly, the mask pattern can be aligned and projected onto each exposure field on the wafer in which distortion is caused due to various manufacturing processes.

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Kawasaki, Japan

Soichiro Mitsui