Nikon Corporation

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Yuji Kudo

Naomasa Shiraishi

Takashi Mori

Osamu Tanitsu

Saburo Kamiya

Tetsuo Takahashi

Yasuhiro Omura

Kazuhiko Fukazawa

Yoshikazu Hori

Masao Fukuyama

Hironori Ikezawa

Taro Ogata

Mutsumi Suzuki

Koichi Matsumoto

Yutaka Ichihara

Masato Shibuya

Mitsunori Toyoda

Yoshihiko Fujimori

Kayo Sugiyama

Takeshi Iwasaki

In an evaluation device, an analyzer is rotated so that the azimuth of the transmission axis of the analyzer has an inclination angle of 90 degrees&#xb1;3 degrees with respect to the transmission axis of a polarizer. An imaging camera captures a regularly reflected image of a wafer under each condition, and an image processing unit evaluates the shape of a repeating pattern and detects dose defects and focus defects on the basis of the two images of the wafer captured by the imaging camera.

Evaluation device and evaluation method

In an evaluation device an analyzer is rotated so that the azimuth of the transmission axis of the analyzer has an inclination angle of 90 degrees&#xb1;3 degrees with respect to the transmission axis of a polarizer. An imaging camera captures a regularly reflected image of a wafer under each condition, and an image processing unit evaluates the shape of a repeating pattern and detects dose defects and focus defects on the basis of the two images of the wafer captured by the imaging camera.

A liquid immersion type projection optical system that can stably prevent the outflow of immersion liquid into inside of an optical system and can maintain good imaging performance. In the projection optical system of the present invention, an optical path between a light transmitting member (Lp) disposed closest to a second surface (W) side and the second surface is filled with a liquid (Lm) having a refractive index greater than 1.1, and a light shielding film () for shielding the passing of light is formed on the side surfaces () of the light transmitting member. When D is a space between the second surface and the light shielding film, &#x398; is a maximum incident angle of an image forming beam which reaches the second surface, and Ym is a maximum image height on the second surface, the condition of 0.25&#x3c;D/Ym&#xd7;tan &#x398;&#x3c;1.7 is satisfied.

Projection optical system, exposure system, and exposure method

A surface inspection method inspects a surface of a wafer having a repeated pattern formed by double patterning. The method includes: a first step (S) which applies an inspection light to a surface of a wafer; a second step (S) which detects a diffracted light from the surface of the wafer to which the inspection light has been applied; and a third step (S) which checks whether a defect is present in the repeated pattern according to the diffracted light detected in the second step. The second step detects a diffracted light corresponding to a pattern having a pitch multiplied by 2 with respect to the pitch of the repeated pattern.

Surface inspection method and surface inspection device

A projection optical system provided with at least one of optical members made of a calcium fluoride single crystal,

Projection optical system, method of manufacturing projection optical system, exposure apparatus, and exposure method

A projection exposure apparatus including an irradiation optical system including a light source and irradiating a mask with irradiation light beams, a projection optical system for projecting an image of a pattern of the mask on a substrate, a plurality of first fly-eye type optical integrators each having an emission side focal plane disposed on a Fourier transformed surface with respect to the pattern of the mask in the irradiation optical system or on a plane adjacent to the same and having a center located at a plurality of positions which are eccentric from the optical axis of the irradiation optical system, a plurality of second fly-eye type optical integrators each having an emission side focal plane disposed on a Fourier transformed plane with respect to the incidental end of each of a plurality of the first fly-eye type optical integrators or on a plane adjacent to the same and being disposed to correspond to a plurality of the first fly-eye type optical integrators, and a light divider for dividing and causing the irradiation light beams from the light source to be incident on each of a plurality of the second fly-eye type optical integrators.

Projection exposure apparatus

An organic electroluminescent device comprises a pair of electrodes, and a layer structure provided between the pair of electrodes and including a charge transport layer capable of transporting electrons or holes and an emission layer comprising a major proportion of an organic material capable of emitting light on application of a voltage thereto via the pair of electrodes. The organic material undergoes concentration quenching and the emission layer has a thickness of 4 nm or below. The emission layer may be made of an electroluminescent organic material, which has a fluorescent lifetime shorter than an organic material present in the charge transport layer.

Electroluminescent device having a very thin emission layer

Optical integrator, illumination optical apparatus, exposure apparatus and observation apparatus

An organic electroluminescent device comprises a pair of electrodes and a layer structure provided between the paired electrodes and including, at least, an emission layer comprising a specific type of oligomer. The layer structure may further comprise an electron injection layer and an electron transport layer, one of which comprises a specific type of oligomer. Alternatively, the layer structure may be of the type which comprises an organic layer having a charge transport interference layer in the inside thereof along with an emission layer.

Organic electroluminescent device

Optical exposure apparatus and methods of using same, for patterning a workpiece and photo-cleaning the optical components in the apparatus, which can be contaminated by moisture and organic compounds in the atmosphere. The apparatus comprises an illumination optical system having a light source and one or more optical components, and a projection lens having an object plane and an image plane and one or more optical components. The optical exposure apparatus includes an exposure optical path or an exposure light beam through a predetermined space in the optical exposure system. An optical path deflection member for deflecting light is introduced into the exposure optical path so as to create a second optical path that differs from the exposure optical path. Also disclosed is a method of photo-cleaning the aforementioned optical components, including the steps of forming an exposure optical path and then changing this path to create a second optical path that differs from the exposure optical path. An additional method of photo-cleaning a projection lens is disclosed, including the steps of providing an illumination light beam along an optical axis, providing and inserting a photo-cleaning optical member having refractive power into the beam, and refracting the beam so as to illuminate the lens surfaces comprising the projection lens.

Optical exposure apparatus and photo-cleaning method

This invention pertains to systems for extending the pulse length of pulsed sources of optical radiation. These systems reduce peak optical pulse power without reducing average optical power. The pulse-width extending systems split optical pulses into pulse portions, introduce relative delays among the pulse portions, and then redirect the pulse portions (or portions thereof) along a common axis. Such pulse-width extending systems are especially useful in projection-exposure apparatus for the manufacture of semiconductor devices where short wavelength, high power optical sources tend to damage optical components.

Pulse-width extending optical systems, projection-exposure apparatus comprising same, and manufacturing methods using same

A projection exposure apparatus including an Irradiation optical system including a light source and irradiating a mask with irradiation light beams, a projection optical system for projecting an image of a pattern of the mask on a substrate, a plurality of first fly-eye type optical integrators each having an emission side focal plane disposed on a Fourier transformed surface with respect to the pattern of the mask in the irradiation optical system or on a plane adjacent to the same and having a center located at a plurality of positions which are eccentric from the optical axis of the irradiation optical system, a plurality of second fly-eye type optical integrators each having an emission side focal plane disposed on a Fourier transformed plane with respect to the incidental end of each of a plurality of the first fly-eye type optical integrators or on a plane adjacent to the same and being disposed to correspond to a plurality of the first fly-eye type optical integrators, and a light divider for dividing and causing the irradiation light beams from the light source to be incident on each of a plurality of the second fly-eye type optical integrators.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Yuji Kudo