The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 01, 1998
Filed:
Nov. 22, 1996
Takeo Hashimoto, Tokyo, JP;
NEC Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An exposure method which makes it possible to determine the amount of exposure and the placement error with the use of fewer monitoring patterns is provided. A scribing region of an exposure mask includes a first monitoring pattern of geometric shapes and a second monitoring pattern of geometric shapes. The shapes of the first pattern are arranged at a constant pitch and have the same size. The shapes of the second pattern are arranged at the same pitch as that of the shapes of the first pattern and have different sizes from each other. By illuminating the substrate twice using the exposure mask, first and second images of the circuit pattern region and first and second images of the scribing region are formed on the substrate so that the second image of the scribing region is adjacent to the first image of the scribing region. The second image of the shapes of the second pattern is compared with the first image of the shapes of the first pattern. Therefore, the amount of exposure and/or the placement error between the first and second images of the circuit pattern regions can be determined as a result of the comparison.