Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Arizona Board of Regents on Behalf of the University of Arizona

Yasuyuki Unno

Isao Matsubara

William J Dallas

Seiji Takeuchi

Masami Yonekawa

Akinori Ohkubo

Takamitsu Komaki

Chung-Chieh Yu

Tooru Kawashima

Seiji Orii

Takahiro Matsumoto

Masayoshi Sekine

Shigeyuki Suda

Ichiro Tanaka

Takafumi Miyaharu

Nozomu Hayashi

Toshiki Iwai

Ryo Nakayama

Tom D Milster

A detection apparatus that detects a position deviation between an original and a substrate is provided. The apparatus includes an illumination optical system configured to illuminate a first diffraction grating arranged on the original and a second diffraction grating arranged on the substrate, and a detection optical system configured to detect interference light formed by diffracted light diffracted by the first diffraction grating and diffracted light diffracted by the second diffraction grating. The illumination optical system performs dipole illumination by light including two poles in a pupil plane of the illumination optical system, and polarization directions of light beams emitted from the two poles, respectively, and incident on the substrate are orthogonal to each other.

Detection apparatus, lithography apparatus, and article manufacturing method

A detector that detects relative positions of a first object and a second object in directions different from each other on a predetermined plane, includes an illumination optical system configured to illuminate a first mark provided on the first object and a second mark provided on the second object, and a detection optical system configured to detect interference light of diffracted lights from the first mark and the second mark illuminated by the illumination optical system. A light intensity distribution is formed, on a pupil plane of the illumination optical system, to illuminate the first mark and the second mark from a direction tilted with respect to a normal of the predetermined plane. A pupil plane of the detection optical system allows the interference light to pass through and block at least a part light other than the interference light.

Detector that detects relative positions of marks while blocking non-interference light

A detection device includes an illumination optical system and a detection optical system. The illumination optical system is configured to illuminate a first diffraction grating having a first period in a first direction and a second diffraction grating having a second period different from the first period. The detection optical system is configured to detect light diffracted by the first and second diffraction gratings. The illumination optical system includes an optical member configured to form, on a pupil plane, a first pole and a second pole opposite to the first pole. The illumination optical system causes lights from the first and second poles to obliquely enter the first and second diffraction gratings from the first direction to illuminate the first and second diffraction gratings. The detection optical system detects diffracted light diffracted by one of the first and second diffraction gratings and by an other diffraction grating.

Detection device, imprint apparatus, planarization device, detection method, and article manufacturing method

An optical system for a holographic microscope includes: a light source configured to emit a light beam; a grating configured to split the light beam into a reference beam and an object beam; a lens unit configured to irradiate a sample by the reference and object beams split by the grating; a spatial filter including a first region for the reference beam and a second region for the object beam; and a detector configured to detect an interference pattern caused by the reference and object beams.

Optical system for a holographic microscope including a spatial filter

A wavefront aberration measuring method forms a plurality of spot images by causing light, which is transmitted through a test optical system, to be incident on a lenslet array, and measures positions of the spot images. Based on the measured positions of the spot images, a wavefront aberration of the test optical system is calculated. When the positions of the spot images are measured, at least one lenslet forming the lenslet array is shielded from light, and the spot images are measured.

Method and device of measuring wavefront aberration, method of manufacturing optical system, and recording medium

A wavefront aberration measuring method forms a plurality of spot images by causing light, which is transmitted through a test optical system, to be incident on a lenslet array, and measures positions of the spot images. Optical paths from the positions of the measured spot images toward a light source are calculated, parameters of the test optical system when light rays from the positions of the spot images converge at the light source are specified, and a wavefront aberration of the test optical system corresponding to the parameters of the test optical system is calculated.

The present invention provides a hologram which forms a light intensity distribution on a predetermined plane by using incident light. The hologram includes a plurality of cells configured to control both a phase of a first polarized light component in a first polarization direction of the incident light and a phase of a second polarized light component in a second polarization direction perpendicular to the first polarization direction, to form a phase difference distribution between phase distributions for the first and second polarized light components. The plurality of cells are designed so that a number of phase difference levels of the phase difference distribution is less than a number of phase levels of the phase distribution of the first polarized light component.

Hologram with cells to control phase in two polarization directions and exposure apparatus

An apparatus for measuring a wavefront of light traveling through test optics includes: a light source; a lenslet array where light from the light source travels through; a detector array configured to acquire a light intensity distribution through the lenslet array; and a processing unit, wherein the processing unit executes data processing with the acquired light intensity distribution, the data processing comprising an estimation process using a beamlet-based propagation model or a ray-based propagation model as a forward propagation model.

Wavefront optical measuring apparatus

An interferometric method for detecting information about a sample includes emitting a laser beam; splitting the laser beam into a reference beam and an object beam; transmitting the object beam through the sample in an incident angle; combining the reference beam with the object beam passed through the sample to form an interference pattern; detecting the interference pattern, and non-linearly scanning the object beam in order to detect a plurality of interference patterns.

Interferometric method and digital holographic microscope

The present invention provides a hologram which forms a light intensity distribution on a predetermined plane by using an incident light. The hologram includes a plurality of cells configured to control both a phase of a first polarized light component of the incident light and a phase of a second polarized light component. The plurality of cells are designed to form a portion in an overlap region in which a first light intensity distribution region formed on the predetermined plane by the first polarized light component and a second light intensity distribution region formed on the predetermined plane by the second polarized light component are superposed on each other. The phase of the first polarized light component is diffused in the portion formed in the overlap region.

Hologram, hologram data generation method, and exposure apparatus

Measuring an aerial image with an aerial image measuring device having a light detector and a light blocking layer for separating polarization components of light incident thereon. The light blocking layer has first and second apertures structured differently from each other, wherein the different structures transmit at least one of the polarization components differently. The detector provides separate samples for light transmitted through the first and second apertures. Separate image profiles for each polarization component of the aerial image are generated using the samples provided by the detector. Image recovery for each of the generated image profiles is performed to generate estimated image profiles for each polarization component of the aerial image that exclude the effects of transmission through the first and second apertures of the aerial image measuring device.

Device, method, and system for measuring image profiles produced by an optical lithography system

A method for measuring a surface profile of an object, the method includes, acquiring information about a first direction where a step of a surface of the object extends relative to a scanning direction, setting phase distribution applied to the irradiation beam according to the information, and scanning the object in the scanning direction with the irradiation beam.

Method and apparatus for measuring surface profile of an object

At least one exemplary embodiment is directed to a detection aperture that varies the effective aperture index of refraction or provides scattering structures to improve the detected resolution and/or intensity of a sampled image. In at least one exemplary embodiment a medium is inserted into the aperture, to match transmittance of polarization through the aperture, and to control the relative transmittance of polarizations through the aperture. In yet another exemplary embodiment structures are provided to scatter or redirect diffracted aperture light to improve detection resolution and/or intensity.

Apparatus and method for improving detected resolution and/or intensity of a sampled image

At least one exemplary embodiment is directed to detection aperture array which includes a shield layer; and a plurality of apertures, where the plurality of apertures are formed in the shield layer and filled with a first medium having an effective index of refraction, wherein the plurality of apertures includes at least two apertures separated by a pitch, wherein the plurality of apertures has a measurement value wherein the measurement value includes at least one of the effective refractive index and a pitch value, wherein the measurement value is changed so that TM and TE modes in incident image light passes through the plurality of apertures with about the same transmittance level, wherein when the measurement value is the pitch value then the TM and TE transmittance level are about the same when an angle of incidence of an image light varies.

Apparatus for measuring aerial images produced by an optical lithography system

An optical element and a manufacturing method therefor, an exposure apparatus, and a device manufacturing method that can reduce the effect of intrinsic birefringence under high NA conditions. According to an optical element as one aspect of the present invention, an angle between a [0 0 1] axis of an isometric crystal and an optical axis is less than 10&#xb0;, and preferably 0&#xb0;.

Growing community of inventors

Utsunomiya, Japan

Yasuyuki Unno