Optical lithography system for patterning semiconductor devices and method of using the same
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsHung-Jui Kuo, Ting-Yang Yu, Ming-Tan Lee
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Abstract
An optical lithography system for patterning semiconductor devices and a method of using the same are disclosed. In an embodiment, an apparatus includes an optical path; a prism disposed on the optical path; a lens disposed on the optical path; and a tunable mirror disposed on the optical path, the tunable mirror including a mirror having a concave surface at a front-side thereof; a rear support attached to a backside of the mirror; and a plurality of fine-adjustment screws extending from the rear support to the backside of the mirror.
Claims20
An apparatus comprising:
- an optical path extending from an energy source in a first direction;
- a prism disposed on the optical path;
- a lens disposed on the optical path;
- a second prism disposed on the optical path, wherein the optical path extends from the prism towards the lens, wherein the optical path extends from the lens towards the second prism;
- a tunable mirror disposed on the optical path, the optical path extending to and away from a major surface of the tunable mirror in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, the tunable mirror comprising:
- a mirror having a concave surface at a front-side thereof;
- a rear support attached to a backside of the mirror;
- and
- a plurality of fine-adjustment screws extending from the rear support to the backside of the mirror;
- and
- a support plate configured to support a wafer, the optical path extending to a major surface of the support plate in the second direction, wherein the optical path extends from the second prism towards the support plate.
A method comprising:
- generating energy using an energy source;
- directing the energy along an optical path to expose a surface of a target layer to the energy, wherein directing the energy along the optical path comprises reflecting the energy using a tunable concave mirror;
- placing a shutter over the surface of the target layer;
- using a detector to detect a focus of the energy incident on the surface of the target layer;
- indicating the focus of the energy incident on the surface of the target layer detected by the detector on a focus indicator;
- and
- manually adjusting fine-tuning screws on the tunable concave mirror based on the indicated focus of the energy incident on the surface of the target layer to correct the focus of the energy incident on the surface of the target layer.
An optical system comprising:
- a tunable mirror comprising:
- a mirror;
- a rear support disposed on a backside of the mirror;
- and
- a plurality of fine-adjustment screws extending through the rear support, at least one of the fine-adjustment screws contacting the backside of the mirror;
- a plurality of lenses, wherein the plurality of lenses comprises one or more aspherical lenses and one or more spherical lenses, wherein a ratio of a number of spherical lenses in the plurality of lenses to a number of aspherical lenses in the plurality of lenses is from 0 to 3, and wherein the optical system comprises less than 10 lenses;
- a focus detector;
- a focus indicator configured to indicate a focus of energy incident on a surface of a target layer;
- and
- a shutter configured to be placed over the surface of the target layer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.