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. 30, 2002
Filed:
Sep. 29, 2000
Tsuneyuki Hagiwara, Tokyo, JP;
Hideyuki Tashiro, Fukaya, JP;
Nikon Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
In the case the first selection criteria is set, a plurality of detection points are selected to control the pitching and rolling of the wafer, whereas in the case the second selection criteria is set, priority is put to control the rolling on the wafer. The exposure apparatus has a selection unit to choose between these criteria, and on scanning exposure the controller adjusts the wafer position in the optical axis direction, pitching, rolling or the wafer position in the optical axis direction and rolling according to the selection criteria. Accordingly, by precisely adjusting the wafer surface position in the optical axis direction and rolling that greatly affects defocus, the critical dimension variation by a macroscopic observation, which is caused by defocus, can be prevented. Moreover, by performing an alternate scanning on the entire shot area including shot areas to be exposed on the circumferential portion, throughput can be maintained extremely high.