Nikon Corporation

Jeol Ltd.

Nixon Corporation

Yoshiki Kida

Kenji Nishi

Masahiko Okumura

Hiroshi Ikeda

Hiroto Suematsu

Hiroyuki Nagasaka

Ryoji Tanaka

Yosuke Shirata

Yoshiaki Yamakoshi

Tsuneo Miyai

Tetsuo Miyamoto

The situation of a liquid immersion region (LR) formed on the surface of a substrate (P) is detected while changing at least one of the movement condition of the substrate (P) and the liquid immersion condition when forming the liquid immersion region (LR), and an exposure condition is determined based on the detection results.

Exposure condition determination method, exposure method, exposure apparatus, and device manufacturing method involving detection of the situation of a liquid immersion region

An adjusting method that adjusts an immersion exposure apparatus that comprises a first holder, which holds a substrate, and a second holder, which holds the substrate before the substrate is held by the first holder, and that exposes the substrate, which is held by the first holder, through a liquid. The adjusting method comprises: holding a thermometer with the first holder; holding the thermometer with the second holder; and adjusting the temperature of at least one of the first holder and the second holder based on the detection result of the thermometer held by the first holder and the detection result of the thermometer held by the second holder.

Exposure apparatus adjusting method, exposure apparatus, and device fabricating method

An exposure apparatus EX is provided with a measuring unitwhich measures at least one of property and components of a liquid LQ in a state that a liquid immersion area LR is formed on an object different from a substrate P to be exposed. There is provided an exposure apparatus which can accurately perform exposure process and measurement process through the liquid by judging the state of the liquid in advance and by performing a procedure as appropriate.

Exposure apparatus, exposure method, and device producing method

An exposure apparatus is provided with a measuring unit which measures at least one of property and components of a liquid in a state that a liquid immersion area is formed on an object different from a substrate P to be exposed. There is provided an exposure apparatus which can accurately perform exposure process and measurement process through the liquid by judging the state of the liquid in advance and by performing a procedure as appropriate.

An NMR probe is offered which enables aH/F compatibility mode having a sample coil, a hollow tubular body, and two rod electrodes disposed inside the tubular body substantially in a parallel relationship to each other. The tubular body is formed by a conductive wall at ground potential. An RF input-output portion corresponding to the resonant frequency ofH nucleus is connected with the one end of the coil via a tuning and matching device. Another RF input-output port corresponding to the resonant frequency ofF nucleus is connected with an end of the coil via another tuning and matching device.

NMR probe

An NMR probe permits measurements to be made with its inner coil without replacing the probe. The NMR probe has three coils disposed to surround a sample tube. An inner coil can resonate with the HF and LF. An intermediate coil can resonate with the HF and LF, and produces an RF magnetic field perpendicular to the RF field produced by the inner coil. An outermost coil can resonate at least at a lock frequency. The outermost coil produces an RF magnetic field which is perpendicular to the RF field produced by the intermediate coil but which is coincident in direction with the RF field produced by the inner coil.

The exposure apparatus comprises a projection optical system that has an image field capable of exposing a shot area in a scanning exposure apparatus in one shot. This allows a 1 in 1 exposure, with the shot area being the maximum exposable range of the scanning exposure apparatus. In addition, the main control unit changes the control factor of the exposure system contributing to the throughput, in accordance with the minimum line width of the pattern. The control factor is changed so that the state (or the value) moves into a state where more priority is put on throughput, only when reduction in exposure accuracy is allowed. This makes it possible to improve the throughput while maintaining the exposure accuracy, compared with the case when the exposure system is controlled based on the same value at all times.

Exposure apparatus, surface position adjustment unit, mask, and device manufacturing method

A local signal supply device for an NMR spectrometer comprises a local signal generator, the output of which is divided into the same number of portions as there are local signal-selecting switches. The local signal-selecting switches independently select necessary local signals and supply them to corresponding resonance frequency signal generators.

Local signal-supplying device for NMR spectrometer

An object of the invention is to provide a substrate transport apparatus which enables prompt transfer of a substrate, and a substrate processing apparatus incorporating this. A substrate transport apparatus of the invention comprises a transport arm ( ) for supporting a peripheral portion of a substrate (W) at at least two places on the peripheral portion, and transporting the substrate to a stage ( ). The transport arm comprises: a first arm ( ) having a first support portion ( ) for supporting a rear face of one side of the peripheral portions of the substrate in a transport direction (C-D) of the substrate, and a first facing portion ( ) provided on the first support portion and facing a side face of the one peripheral portion of the substrate; a second arm ( ) having a second support portion ( ) for supporting a rear face of the other side of the peripheral portions of the substrate in the transport direction of the substrate, and a second facing portion ( ) provided on the second support portion, and facing a side face of the other peripheral portion of the substrate; and a drive mechanism ( ) for driving each of the first arm and the second arm so as to approach and separate from each other.

Substrate transport apparatus and method

A method and apparatus for positioning a wafer with respect to a reticle in a projection exposure apparatus for a photolithographic process capable of high speed search alignment of a wafer without any limitation imposed on the arrangement of the search marks on the wafer. For the first wafer in one lit, a first alignment sensor system is used to detect the positions of first and second search marks, and define a coordinate system with reference to the positions of the search marks based on the detection results. Then, while the first search mark is detected by the first alignment sensor system, the position of a street-line is detected by a second alignment sensor system and stored. For any of the second and later wafers in the lot, while the first search mark is detected by the first alignment sensor system, the position of a street-line is detected by the second alignment sensor system, and the offsets between the detected position and the stored position are used to define a coordinate system which refers to the search marks.

Method and apparatus for positioning substrate

A method for positioning a wafer with respect to a reticle in a projection exposure apparatus for a photolithographic process capable of high speed search alignment of a wafer without any limitation imposed on the arrangement of the search marks on the wafer. For the first wafer in one lot, a first alignment sensor system is used to detect the positions of first and second search marks, and define a coordinate system with reference to the positions of the search marks based on the detection results. Then, while the first search mark is detected by the first alignment sensor system, the position of a street-line is detected by a second alignment sensor system and stored. For any of the second and later wafers in the lot, while the first search mark is detected by the first alignment sensor system, the position of a street-line is detected by the second alignment sensor system, and the offsets between the detected position and the stored position are used to define a coordinate system which refers to the search marks.

Method for positioning substrate

A method provides a technique for exposing a pattern on a mask that is held by a mask stage onto a substrate. The method includes a first step of detecting a mark on the mask that is held at a first position by the mask stage and determining a corresponding position of the mask stage; a second step of detecting the mark on the mask that is held at a second position different from the first position by the mask stage and determining a corresponding position of the mask stage; a third step of determining a position of the mask relative to the mask stage in accordance with the detection results in the first and second steps; a fourth step of aligning the mask with the substrate; and a fifth step of exposing the pattern on the mask onto the substrate.

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Tokyo, Japan

Yoshiki Kida