Nikon Corporation

Yasushi Mizuno

Naoyuki Kobayashi

Kenichi Shiraishi

Soichi Owa

Akikazu Tanimoto

Katsushi Nakano

Osamu Tanitsu

Tsuneyuki Hagiwara

Masahiro Nakagawa

Mitsunori Toyoda

Naonori Kita

Hisashi Nishinaga

Ikuo Hikima

Masaki Kato

Hirohisa Tanaka

Masaya Yamamoto

Toru Fujii

Nozomu Emura

Hiroyuki Hirota

Kyoji Nakamura

Kouji Muramatsu

Norio Miyake

Koji Kaise

Eizo Ohya

Ryuji Takaya

Risa Yoshimoto

Hitoshi Mizuno

An exposure apparatus that scans and exposes a substrate via an optical modulator in which a plurality of elements are controlled according to an image pattern, the exposure apparatus includes a first stage that supports a first substrate, a second stage that supports a second substrate different from the first substrate, a measurement part that measures information about the second substrate, and a generation part that generates control data, which controls the plurality of elements during scanning and exposing the second substrate, based on the information during an exposure process of the first substrate, wherein the measurement part measures the information about the second substrate during the exposure process of the first substrate.

Exposure apparatus, method for manufacturing device, method for manufacturing flat panel display, and exposure method

An optical device includes a plurality of laser light sources, an output module having an optical modulator, and a time divider that is disposed between the plurality of laser light sources and the output module and that is configured to divide laser beams emitted from the plurality of laser light sources in time.

Optical device, exposure device, method for manufacturing flat panel display, and method for manufacturing device

There is provided an illumination method for illuminating an illumination objective surface by using a light from a light source. The illumination method includes setting control amount for controlling a plurality of optical elements, to control a state of an incident light coming into each of the plurality of optical elements, the plurality of optical elements being arranged in parallel and being capable of controlling the state of the incident light; illuminating the illumination objective surface with the light from the light source via the plurality of optical elements; monitoring integrated energy of the light from the light source; and correcting the control amount for the plurality of optical elements on the basis of a result of the monitoring of the integrated energy.

Illumination method, illumination optical device, and exposure device

An exposure apparatus includes an optical member that can be provided on a stage. The optical member has a first surface contacting a liquid when moved to face a projection system, and a second surface contacting a gas and transmitting light having come from the projection system via the liquid and the first surface. The optical member is configured such that at least a large-angle ray of the light, which has an angle with an optical axis of the projection system sufficiently large to undergo total reflection at an end surface of the projection system when the liquid is absent, travels from the projection system to the second surface without passing through gas. The second surface transmits the large-angle ray, which is received by the light-receiving surface.

Exposure apparatus, exposure method, and method for producing device

An exposure apparatus irradiates a substrate with light via a projection system and liquid, and includes a stage that moves below the projection system, and a light-receiving element having a light-receiving surface. An optical member provided on the stage has a first surface contacting the liquid when moved to face the projection system, and a second surface contacting a gas and transmitting light having come from the projection system via the liquid and the first surface. The optical member is configured such that at least a large-angle ray of the light, which has an angle with an optical axis of the projection system sufficiently large to undergo total reflection at an end surface of the projection system when the liquid is absent, travels from the projection system to the second surface without passing through gas. The second surface transmits the large-angle ray, which is received by the light-receiving surface.

According to one embodiment, an illumination optical system is provided with an optical integrator which forms a predetermined light intensity distribution on an illumination pupil plane in an illumination optical path of the illumination optical system with incidence of exposure light from a light source device thereinto; a transmission filter arranged on the reticle side with respect to the optical integrator and in a first adjustment region set including the illumination pupil plane in an optical-axis direction of the illumination optical system, and having a transmittance characteristic varying according to positions of the exposure light incident thereinto; and a movement mechanism which moves the transmission filter along the optical-axis direction in the first adjustment region.

Illumination optical system, exposure apparatus, and device manufacturing method

An illumination optical system is one for illuminating a surface to be illuminated with light from a light source, which has a distribution forming optical system including an optical integrator and forming a pupil intensity distribution on an illumination pupil located behind the optical integrator, and an optical attenuator arranged on a predetermined surface in an optical path behind the optical integrator and having an attenuation characteristic of varying an attenuation rate depending upon an angle of incidence to the predetermined surface.

Illumination optical system, exposure apparatus, device manufacturing method, compensation filter, and exposure optical system

An exposure apparatus includes an optical element via which a patterned beam is projected onto a substrate through exposure liquid filled in a space between the optical element and the substrate. The apparatus also includes a member having a flow passage in which exposure liquid flows, the flow passage being in fluidic communication with the space. The apparatus also includes a cleaning system which cleans the member.

Exposure apparatus and method for producing device

A cleaning of a liquid immersion exposure apparatus is performed at a different time than an exposure operation. A stage is placed under a liquid supply inlet during a cleaning operation. The cleaning operation is performed at the different time than the exposure operation in which an immersion liquid is supplied onto a substrate held on a holder of the stage. The immersion liquid is supplied from a liquid supply inlet during the cleaning operation. The immersion liquid is supplied to a portion of the stage different from a portion at which the substrate is held by the holder of the stage.

A part of exposure beam through a liquid via a projection optical system enters a light-transmitting section, enters an optical member without passing through gas, and is focused. The exposure apparatus receives the exposure light from the projection optical system to perform various measurements even if the numerical aperture of the projection optical system increases.

There is provided an exposure apparatus capable of forming a desirable device pattern by removing unnecessary liquid when performing exposure by projecting a pattern onto the substrate via a projection optical system and the liquid. The exposure device projects an image of the pattern onto the substrate P via the projection optical system and the liquid so as to expose the substrate P. The exposure device includes a liquid removing mechanismwhich removes the liquid remaining on a partarranged in the vicinity of the image plane of the projection optical system.

A lithographic apparatus includes a substrate table which holds a substrate, a projection system which projects a patterned beam of radiation onto the substrate, the projection system having a final optical element adjacent the substrate, a liquid supply system which provides a liquid to a space between the projection system and the substrate table, and a cleaning system which cleans the substrate table.

An exposure apparatus includes an optical element via which a patterned beam is projected onto a substrate through exposure liquid filled in a space between the optical element and the substrate. The apparatus also includes a member having a surface and movable to a position at which the surface of the member faces the optical element. The apparatus also includes a cleaning system which cleans the surface of the member.

Growing community of inventors

Saitama, Japan

Yasushi Mizuno