Toshiba Memory Corporation

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Yoshimitsu Kato

Nobuhiro Komine

Kazufumi Shiozawa

Toshihide Kawachi

Masamichi Kishimoto

According to one embodiment, there is provided an exposure apparatus, including a focus detecting system, a stage, and a controller. On the stage, a substrate is to be mounted. The controller performs focus measurement on an incomplete shot area, part of which is outside a pattern forming area of the substrate, by the focus detecting system. The controller obtains amounts of defocus of a plurality of planes that are candidates for approximating the incomplete shot area according to the result of measuring the incomplete shot area. The controller decides on a plane to approximate the incomplete shot area from among the plurality of planes according to the amounts of defocus of the plurality of planes. The controller drives the stage using a focus-leveling value according to the decided-on plane so as to control a surface position of the incomplete shot area.

Exposure apparatus, surface position control method, exposure method, and semiconductor device manufacturing method

According to one embodiment, wafer lithography equipment includes an exposure unit transferring a circuit pattern onto a wafer, a measurement unit measuring a dimension of the circuit pattern and a calculator. The calculator includes calculating a first difference. The first difference is the difference between a first dimension and a second dimension. The first dimension is obtained by substituting a first exposure amount and a first focus distance into an approximate response surface function. The second dimension is measured by the measurement unit. The calculator also includes calculating a second difference. The second difference is the sum total of the first difference for all of the circuit patterns. The calculator also includes calculating a second exposure amount and a second focus distance causing the difference between the approximate response surface function and the second difference to be a minimum. The calculator also includes calculating a correction exposure amount.

Wafer lithography equipment

According to one embodiment, a pattern formed through light exposure is observed under two or more different optical conditions, and a focus shift and exposure amount in the light exposure are estimated based on a brightness value of the pattern under each of the optical conditions.

Light exposure condition analysis method, nontransitory computer readable medium storing a light exposure condition analysis program, and manufacturing method for a semiconductor device

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Yokkaichi, Japan

Yoshimitsu Kato