Nikon Corporation

Sony Corporation

Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd.

Yasuhiro Hidaka

Tadashi Nagayama

Motofusa Ishikawa

Kazuhiko Inoue

Tohru Kiuchi

Leonard Wai Fung Kho

Alex Ka Tim Poon

Kaname Ogawa

Saburo Kamiya

Masaaki Kojima

Hiroki Shiina

Shingo Yoshioka

Toru Kawaguchi

Kazuhiro Fujiwara

Hidehiko Okumura

Hisashi Tazawa

Tohru Kawaguchi

Shinji Satou

A surface position detection apparatus capable of highly precisely detecting the surface position of a surface to be detected without substantially being affected by relative positional displacement due to a polarization component occurring in a light flux having passed through a reflective surface. In the apparatus, a projection system has a projection side prism member having first reflective surfaces, and a light receiving system has a light receiving prism member having second reflective surfaces arranged in correspondence with the projection side prism member. The surface position detection apparatus further has a member for compensating relative positional displacement due to a polarization component of a light flux having passed through the first and second reflective surfaces.

Surface position detection apparatus, exposure apparatus, and exposure method

A surface position detecting apparatus includes a light projection system that projects a beam from an oblique direction onto a detection target surface, and a light reception system that receives a beam reflected on the detection target surface, said surface position detecting apparatus adapted to detect a surface position of the detection target surface based on an output from the light reception system. At least one of the light projection system and the light reception system includes a total reflection prism member including an internal reflection surface which totally reflects an incident beam. Upon detection of the surface position of the detection target surface, a refractive index of an optical material forming the total reflection prism member and an angle of incidence of the incident beam to the internal reflection surface of the total reflection prism member are set so as to satisfy a predetermined relation.

Surface positioning detecting apparatus, exposure apparatus and device manufacturing method

The present invention provides carboxymethylcellulose or a salt thereof that can prevent defects such as streaks and pinholes from occurring in the obtained electrode when it is used as a binder for an electrode of a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery. The present invention provides carboxymethylcellulose or a salt thereof of which ratio of a dry mass A to a dry mass B is less than 50 ppm when 2 liters of a 0.3 mass % aqueous solution of the dry mass B of the carboxymethylcellulose or a salt thereof is prepared, the entire amount of the aqueous solution is filtrated through a 250-mesh filter under a reduced pressure of &#x2212;200 mmHg, and the dry mass A of a residue on the filter is measured after filtration. The applications of the carboxymethylcellulose or a salt thereof are also provided.

Carboxymethylcellulose or salt thereof for electrodes of nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery and aqueous solution thereof

A surface position detection apparatus capable of highly precisely detecting the surface position of a surface to be detected without substantially being affected by relative positional displacement due to a polarization component occurring in a light flux having passed through a reflective surface. In the apparatus, a projection system has a projection side prism member () having first reflective surfaces (), and a light receiving system has a light receiving prism member () having second reflective surfaces () arranged in correspondence with the projection side prism member. The surface position detection apparatus further has a member for compensating relative positional displacement due to a polarization component of a light flux having passed through the first and second reflective surfaces.

A surface position detecting apparatus disclosed herein has a light-sending optical system SL to guide light to a detection target surface, a light-receiving optical system to guide the light to a light-receiving surface, a detector arranged on the light-receiving surface, a splitter to split the light guided to the detection target surface W, into measurement light and reference light on a field basis, and a combiner to combine the measurement light traveling via the detection target surface W toward the light-receiving optical system, with the reference light traveling toward the light-receiving optical system without passing via the detection target surface W, on a field basis; and the detector independently detects the reference light and the measurement light on the light-receiving surface.

Surface position detecting apparatus, exposure apparatus, and device manufacturing method

A surface position detecting apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention has a light-sending optical system which makes first light and second light from first and second patterns incident at different incidence angles to a predetermined surface to project an intermediate image of the first pattern and an intermediate image of the second pattern onto the predetermined surface; a light-receiving optical system which guides the first light and the second light reflected by the predetermined surface, to a first observation surface and to a second observation surface, respectively, to form an observation image of the first pattern and an observation image of the second pattern on the first and second observation surfaces; and a detecting section which detects a piece of position information of the observation image of the first pattern and a piece of position information of the observation image of the second pattern and calculates a surface position of the predetermined surface, based on the pieces of position information. The light-sending optical system has a sending-side reflecting section which reflects the second light having passed via sending-side common optical members, an even number of times to make the second light incident at the incidence angle smaller than that of the first light to the predetermined surface.

Surface position detecting apparatus, exposure apparatus, surface position detecting method, and device manufacturing method

A recording apparatus and a recording method that can record both moving picture data and still picture data in a form reproducible by various reproducing apparatus. The moving picture data is compressed by an MPEG system by an MPEG encoder, formed into data for recording corresponding to a predetermined recording format by a format forming unit, and then recorded on a DVD. The still picture data is compressed by a JPEG system by a JPEG encoder, and recorded on the DVD separately from the moving picture data. In predetermined timing, the still picture data compressed by the JPEG system and recorded on the DVD is read, the still picture data is converted into I-pictures of the MPEG system by a format converting unit, and then the I-pictures of the MPEG system are recorded onto the DVD in the predetermined format via the format forming unit.

Recording device and recording method

A surface position detecting apparatus is arranged to be able to detect a surface position of a detection target surface with high accuracy, while restraining influence of a relative positional deviation between polarization components in a beam totally reflected on an internal reflection surface of a prism member, on detection of the surface position of the detection target surface. At least one of a light projection system and a light reception system is provided with a total reflection prism member () having an internal reflection surface () which totally reflects an incident beam. For restraining influence of the relative positional deviation between polarization components of the beam totally reflected on the internal reflection surface of the total reflection prism member, on the detection of the surface position of the detection target surface (Wa), a refractive index of an optical material forming the total reflection prism member and an angle of incidence of the incident beam to the internal reflection surface of the total reflection prism member are set so as to satisfy a predetermined relation.

Surface position detecting apparatus, exposure apparatus and device manufacturing method

An apparatus is provided with a light-sending optical system which makes first light from a first pattern and second light from a second pattern incident to a predetermined surface to project intermediate images of the first and second patterns onto the predetermined surface respectively; a light-receiving optical system which guides the first and second light reflected on the predetermined surface, to first and second observation surfaces to form observation images of the first and second patterns, respectively; and a detecting section which detects position information of the observation images of the first and second patterns on the first and second observation surfaces respectively and which calculates a surface position of the predetermined surface, based on the position information. The light-sending optical system projects the intermediate image of the second pattern as an inverted image in a predetermined direction relative to the intermediate image of the first pattern.

An exposure apparatus includes a mask-moving section movable in a first direction while holding a mask formed with a pattern; an illumination system which forms first and second illumination areas separated each other by a spacing distance in the first direction; a substrate-moving section movable in a second direction while holding a photosensitive substrate; a projection optical system which forms first and second projected images of the patterns of the first and second illumination areas; and a restricting section which restricts the first and second projected images to be within first and second projection areas respectively. A spacing distance between a first conjugate area with the first projection area and a second conjugate area with the second projection area is set to be such a spacing distance that scanning exposures are successively performed for first and second transfer areas provided adjacently in the second direction.

Exposure apparatus, exposure method, and method for producing device

A surface position detecting apparatus comprises a light-sending optical system which makes first light from a first pattern and second light from a second pattern incident at different incidence angles to a predetermined surface to project an intermediate image of the first pattern and an intermediate image of the second pattern onto the predetermined surface; a light-receiving optical system which guides the first light and the second light reflected on the predetermined surface, to a first observation surface and to a second observation surface, respectively, to form an observation image of the first pattern on the first observation surface and an observation image of the second pattern on the second observation surface; and a detecting section which detects position information of the observation image of the first pattern on the first observation surface and position information of the observation image of the second pattern on the second observation surface and which calculates a surface position of the predetermined surface, based on the position information of the observation image of the first pattern and the position information of the observation image of the second pattern.

A surface position detecting apparatus which detects position information of a predetermined surface in an object, comprising a first optical system which projects light from an oblique direction to the predetermined surface; a second optical system which receive the light from the object; a detecting system which receives the light from the second optical system and which detects the position information of the predetermined surface in a direction intersecting the predetermined surface based on the light; and a phase difference imparting system which is arranged in an optical path of at least one of the first and second optical systems and which imparts a phase difference between different portions from each other of light traveling via a surface other than the predetermined surface in the object, in the light from the second optical system.

Surface position detecting apparatus, surface position detecting method, exposure apparatus, and device manufacturing method

A measurement system () for measuring the position of a stage () along a first axis includes a first system () having a first beam source (A) that directs a first beam (H) on a first path that is parallel with a second axis and a first redirector (D) that redirects the first beam so that the redirected first beam (H) is on a first redirected path that is parallel with the first axis irrespective to the orientation of the first redirector (D) about a third axis. The measurement system () can include a shield () that protects the first beam (H) from environmental conditions.

Growing community of inventors

Kumagaya, Japan

Yasuhiro Hidaka