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:
Jul. 18, 2006
Filed:
Jan. 23, 2006
Mitsuya Sato, Kanagawa, JP;
Mitsuya Sato, Kanagawa, JP;
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An exposure apparatus which exposes substrates to a pattern on a master. The apparatus includes first, second and third chucks which hold the substrates, a first fine adjustment stage which holds the first chuck to perform fine driving, a second fine adjustment stage which holds the second chuck to perform fine driving, a coarse adjustment stage on which the first and second fine adjustment stages are mounted and which can move in an X-Y plane substantially perpendicular to an optical axis, an exposure unit which performs exposure operation for the substrate held by the first chuck, a measurement unit which performs measurement operation for the substrate held by the second chuck, and a controller which drives the coarse adjustment stage and causes the measurement and exposure units to perform the measurement and exposure operations, respectively. The controller performs in parallel the measurement and exposure operations for the substrates by serially performing (i) an operation of unloading the substrate having undergone the exposure operation together with the first chuck from the first fine adjustment stage, (ii) an operation of moving the substrate having undergone the measurement operation from the second fine adjustment stage to the first fine adjustment stage while the substrate is held by the second chuck, and (iii) an operation of loading a substrate to be subjected to the measurement operation next while the substrate is held by the third chuck.