Laser apparatus, exposure apparatus and method
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorYoshiyuki Nagai
Life of this patent
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Abstract
There is to provide a laser apparatus that emits a laser beam by exciting gas enclosed in a chamber, including a gas characteristic detecting mechanism for detecting a characteristic of the gas in the chamber, and a calculation mechanism for calculating an oscillation wavelength and/or a wavelength spectral bandwidth of the laser beam based on a detected result by the gas characteristic detecting mechanism.
Claims22
A laser apparatus that emits a laser beam by exciting gas enclosed in a chamber, said laser apparatus comprising:
- a gas characteristic detecting mechanism for detecting a characteristic of the gas in the chamber;
- and
- a calculation mechanism for calculating an oscillation wavelength and/or a wavelength spectral bandwidth of the laser beam based on a detected result by the gas characteristic detecting mechanism.
An exposure apparatus that uses a laser beam to exposure a pattern on a mask, onto an object, said exposure apparatus comprising:
- a laser apparatus for exciting gas to emit the laser beam, said laser apparatus including a gas characteristic detecting mechanism for detecting a characteristic of the gas enclosed in a chamber;
- and
- a correction mechanism for correcting the exposure based on a detected result by the gas characteristic detecting mechanism.
An exposure method that uses a laser beam generated by exciting gas enclosed in a chamber to expose a pattern on a mask, onto an object, said exposure method comprising the steps of:
- detecting a characteristic of the gas in the chamber;
- and
- determining whether the exposure is to continue or stop based on a detected result by said detecting step.
An exposure method that uses a laser beam generated by exciting gas enclosed in a chamber to expose a pattern on a mask, onto an object, said method comprising the steps of:
- detecting a characteristic of the gas in the chamber;
- calculating an oscillation wavelength and/or a wavelength spectral bandwidth of the laser beam from the characteristic detected by said detecting step;
- and
- correcting the exposure based on the calculated oscillation wavelength.
A database for calculating, from a characteristic of a gas enclosed in a chamber, an oscillation wavelength of a laser beam generated by exciting the gas.
A database for calculating, from a characteristic of a gas enclosed in a chamber, a wavelength spectral bandwidth of a laser beam generated by exciting the gas.
A device fabrication method comprising the steps of:
- exposing a pattern on a mask, onto an object by using an exposure apparatus that uses a laser beam and includes a laser apparatus that excites gas to emit the laser beam and includes a gas characteristic detecting mechanism for detecting a characteristic of a gas enclosed in a chamber, and a correction mechanism for correcting the exposure based on a detected result by the gas characteristic detecting mechanism;
- and
- performing a predetermined process for the exposed object.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.