Nikon Corporation

Nippon Kogaku K.k.

Yukio Kakizaki

Hiroshi Tanaka

Hiroshi Shirasu

Keiichi Tanaka

Kinya Kato

Kazuaki Suzuki

Kei Nara

Tomohide Hamada

Tetsuo Taniguchi

Kazunori Imamura

Kesayoshi Amano

Toshikazu Umatate

Toru Kiuchi

Hiromitsu Iwata

Jiro Kobayashi

Akikazu Tanimoto

Susumu Mori

Makoto Uehara

Toshio Matsuura

Fuminori Hayano

Seiji Miyazaki

Yukiharu Okubo

Tsuyoshi Naraki

Kazumasa Endo

Junji Hazama

Tsuyoshi Narabe

Hisao Izawa

Muneyasu Yokota

Yasushi Yoda

Hiroaki Narushima

Nobutoshi Abe

Shuhei Takagi

Kinya Kats

Yoshio Fukami

Hidetoshi Mori

The upper end of a static gas bearing member of a wafer side seal unit is connected to an edge section on the outgoing side of an exposure beam of a chamber in an air tight state via bellows, and the lower end surface is in a state forming a predetermined clearance with a wafer and a wafer holder. By this arrangement, the inside of the chamber is isolated from the outside. Accordingly, it becomes possible to maintain a vacuum environment in the periphery of the optical path of the exposure beam without arranging a vacuum chamber to house a wafer, a wafer holder, and a wafer stage, which allows the size of the entire exposure apparatus to be reduced, and also makes it easy to have access to the vicinity of the wafer stage.

Movable body apparatus, exposure apparatus and optical system unit, and device manufacturing method

Stage apparatus are disclosed for holding an object (e.g., substrate or reticle, for example) in a microlithography system, especially a system for performing microlithography in a vacuum environment. The stage apparatus provides movement of a stage (intended to hold the object) in X and Y directions of a guide plane. The stage is mounted to an arm member having at least first and second ends situated symmetrically relative to the stage. The ends include linear-motor movers that interact with corresponding stators, and include gas bearings on surfaces that slide relative to other surfaces as the stage is moved within the guide plane. The linear-motor movers can be one- or two-dimensional movers and desirably allow &thgr;-direction motion of the stage. Other configurations include guide members and sliders that undergo sliding motion relative to the guide members via non-contacting gas bearings. The sliders can be driven by a combination of a linear motor and a gas cylinder, the latter assisting the driving force by the linear motor during acceleration and deceleration of the stage.

Stage apparatus including non-containing gas bearings and microlithography apparatus comprising same

The projection exposure apparatus can include an illumination optical system for illuminating a portion of a mask pattern on a mask with an exposing radiation flux of a predetermined shape, a fixed support, a projection optical system fixed to the fixed support for projecting the image of the illuminated portion of the mask pattern onto a substrate, and a carriage for integrally holding the mask and the substrate, the carriage being movable in a predetermined direction with respect to the projection optical system successively exposing the substrate with the image of the mask pattern formed by the exposing radiation flux. The projection exposure apparatus further includes a long mirror elongated in the predetermined direction and fixed to the fixed support, the length of the long mirror being at least equal to the stroke of the carriage movement in the predetermined direction, and a measurement system for measuring the position of the mask and the position of the substrate with respect to the long mirror to determine the position of the mask relative to the substrate in a direction perpendicular to the predetermined direction.

Projection exposure apparatus

A projection exposure apparatus is provided. The projection exposure apparatus includes an illumination optical system for illuminating a portion of a mask pattern on a mask with an exposing radiation flux of a predetermined shape, a fixed support, a projection optical system fixed to the fixed support for projecting the image of the illuminated portion of the mask pattern onto a substrate, and a carriage for integrally holding the mask and the substrate, the carriage being movable in a predetermined direction with respect to the projection optical system to successively exposing the substrate with the image of the mask pattern formed by the exposing radiation flux. The projection exposure apparatus further includes a long mirror elongated in the predetermined direction and fixed to the fixed support, the length of the long mirror being at least equal to the stroke of the carriage movement in the predetermined direction, and a measurement system for measuring the position of the mask and the position of the substrate with respect to the long mirror to determine the position of the mask relative to the substrate in a direction perpendicular to the predetermined direction.

A projection optical apparatus for projection an image of an object onto a workpiece, which is suitable for use, for example, as an exposure apparatus used in the manufacture of integrated circuits. The projection optical apparatus includes an image forming optical system whose optical characteristic is changed by the light energy supplied from the illuminated object. A change of the optical characteristic of the optical system is determined by the use of a predetermined parameter whereby when the distribution of the light energy on the pupil of the optical system is changed, the parameter is correct in such a manner that the change of the optical characteristic determined by the parameter is changed in correspondence to the change in the distribution of the light energy.

Projection optical apparatus

Apparatus and methods are disclosed for transferring a pattern defined by a mask onto a surface of a substrate. The apparatus includes an illumination optical system for illuminating the pattern on the mask. A projection optical system forms an erect image of the pattern on the substrate. For exposure, the mask and substrate are movable together in a scanning direction relative to the projection optical system. First and second relative-displacement measuring systems, the first being separated from the second by a predetermined distance perpendicular to the scanning direction, measure displacement of the mask relative to the substrate in the scanning direction. First and second detection systems detect displacement of the mask and substrate, respectively, in the direction perpendicular to the scanning direction. A position-adjusting system adjusts the position of at least one of the mask and substrate. A calculation system calculates a position-adjusting amount based on outputs from the first and second relative-displacement measuring systems and from the first and second detection systems. A control system controls the position-adjusting system based on an output from the calculation system.

Exposure apparatus

In order to reduce mask pattern transfer error caused by expansion of the mask substrate during transferring the circuit pattern onto the photosensitive substrate, a mask substrate is loosely supported on a plurality of mounts on the mask stage so that the mask substrate can freely expand in response to changes in its temperature. A measuring instrument (such as a temperature sensor or an interferometer) is used to measure a value representing the expansion amount of the mask substrate. Alignment and positioning of the mask substrate and the photosensitive substrate is adjusted in response to the expansion amount of the reticle, based on the measured value.

Mask substrate, projection exposure apparatus equipped with the mask

Disclosed is a double-side exposure apparatus having a substrate holder for holding a photosensitizable substrate; a first exposure system containing a first light source, a first illumination unit for striking a ray of light emitted from the first light source in a first mask, and a first projection optical unit for projecting an image of the first mask onto a front surface of the photosensitizable substrate; and a second exposure system, mounted at the side opposite to the first exposure system, containing a second light source, a second illumination unit for striking a ray of light emitted from the first light source in a second mask, and a second projection optical unit for projecting an image of the second mask onto a back surface of the photosensitizable substrate; wherein the pattern of the first mask is exposed to the front surface of the photosensitizable substrate and the pattern of the second mask is exposed to the back surface thereof substantially simultaneously with exposure of the pattern of the first mask to the front surface thereof. Also, further disclosed is an exposing method for exposure of both surfaces of a substrate with the double-side exposure apparatus having the structure as described above, which involves aligning a first mask for a first exposing surface of a substrate with a second mask for a second exposing surface of the substrate in a state that no the substrate is interposed between a first projection optical unit for projecting a pattern of the first mask to the first exposing surface of the substrate and a second projection optical unit for projecting a pattern of the second mask to the second exposing surface of the substrate.

Apparatus and method for simultaneously transferring a mask pattern to

This invention relates to an exposure apparatus for synchronously scanning a mask and a photosensitive substrate with respect to a plurality of projection optical systems, thereby properly transferring an entire pattern area on the mask onto the photosensitive substrate. A plurality of sets of mask-side reference marks and substrate-side reference marks are arranged at positions corresponding to each other on the mask surface and the photosensitive substrate surface and at least at two positions conjugate with the plurality of projection optical systems. The displacement amount between an image of a mask-side reference mark or a substrate-side reference mark formed on the corresponding substrate-side reference mark or mask-side reference mark through the projection optical system and the position of the substrate-side reference mark and the mask-side reference mark is measured. The imaging characteristics of the plurality of projection optical systems are corrected in accordance with the displacement amount.

A conveyor arm apparatus unloads one by one a plurality of wafers which are stored in a holding chamber such that a surface of one wafer faces a back surface of another wafer at a predetermined distance. Two beams parallel to a semiconductor wafer mounting surface of a conveyor arm are projected into the holding chamber and the two beams passing through a gap between adjacent wafers are detected. Thus, the relative position of the conveyor arm and the wafers in the holding chamber can be confirmed.

Conveyor arm apparatus with gap detection

A system for placing thereron an object to be inspected, scanning the surface of the object to be inspected by a light spot and inspecting a foreign substance on the basis of light information produced by the foreign substance on the surface of the object to be inspected includes light information producing means including a member for producing light information substantially similar to the light information produced by the foreign substance, and means for disposing the member on a surface substantially identical to the surface of the object to be inspected placed on the system.

Foreign substance inspecting system including a calibration standard

A stage device comprises an XY-stage movable two-dimensionally in a predetermined reference plane, a Z-stage provided on the XY-stage and capable of a vernier movement in a Z-direction substantially perpendicular to said reference plane, and a levelling stage provided on the Z-stage and capable of an arbitrary inclining movement with respect to the reference plane. There is also provided a laser interferometer for measuring the position of a stage base portion in the X- or Y-direction by projecting a light beam onto a mirror provided on the Z-stage, and the measuring axis of the interferometer is so selected as to be contained in the reference plane. The levelling stage can be inclined in an arbitrary direction with means for driving plural points of the levelling stage independently in the Z-direction. Further it is so designed that the moving points are approximately positioned on the reference plane when the driving points are in a predetermined neutral stage.

Stage device with levelling mechanism

An optical path length compensating device comprises a first objective having one focus coincident with a two-dimensional plane and provided for movement along the two-dimensional plane, a second objective having one focus coincident with a predetermined focal plane, first and second reflecting means provided in the optical path between the first objective and the second objective for movement along the optical path, the first reflecting means including at least one reflecting surface for turning the optical path from the first objective by a predetermined angle in a plane parallel to the two-dimensional plane, the second reflecting means including at least one pair of reflecting surfaces for directing the light from the first reflecting means to the second objective, means for moving the first objective and the first reflecting means in operative association with each other, and means for moving the second reflecting means so that the other focus of the first objective and the other focus of the second objective are coincident with each other.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Yukio Kakizaki