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:
Apr. 16, 2002
Filed:
Jun. 21, 1999
Hans Butler, Best, NL;
Thomas Petrus Hendricus Warmerdam, Veldhoven, NL;
ASM Lithography B.V., Veldhoven, NL;
Abstract
A lithographic projection apparatus has a radiation system for supplying a projection beam of radiation, a mask table provided with a mask holder for holding a mask, a substrate table provided with a substrate holder for holding a substrate, a projection system for imaging an irradiated portion of the mask onto a target portion of the substrate, first driving means, for moving the mask table in a given reference direction substantially parallel to the plane of the table, second driving means, for moving the substrate table parallel to the reference direction so as to be synchronous with the motion of the mask table. The lithographic projection apparatus also has a first measuring means, for determining the momentary position of the mask table with respect to a fixed reference point, second measuring means, for determining the momentary position of the substrate table with respect to a fixed reference point, and means for comparing the measured momentary position of the substrate table with a desired momentary position of the substrate table for generating a position error signal in accordance with a difference between the said two positions, and for passing that signal to correction means which serve to adjust the momentary position of the mask table so as to compensate for such difference. In a preferred embodiment, at least a portion of the position error signal is differentiated twice with respect to time before being passed to the correction means, thus providing the correction means with an acceleration error signal which can then be used to directly effect the required correctional acceleration of the mask table.