Exposure apparatus and device manufacturing method
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsNoriyasu Hasegawa, Eiji Sakamoto, Shigeru Terashima
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Abstract
An exposure apparatus which projects and transfers a pattern formed on a mask to a substrate using exposure light includes a stage, an optical system, a gas stream forming mechanism which forms a stream of an inert gas in an optical path space including a space which is located between the stage and the optical system and through which the exposure light passes, a member which forms a predetermined space between the optical path space and a peripheral space outside the optical path space in the exposure apparatus, and a gas supply mechanism which supplies the inert gas into the predetermined space.
Claims41
An exposure apparatus which projects and transfers a pattern formed on a mask to a substrate using exposure light, comprising:
- a stage;
- an optical system;
- a gas stream forming mechanism which forms a stream of an inert gas in an optical path space including a space which is located between said stage and said optical system and through which the exposure light passes;
- and
- a member which is arranged between said stage and a portion around said gas stream forming mechanism to form a predetermined space that maintains an average inert gas concentration P satisfying
- P2<P<P1
- where P1 is an average concentration of the inert gas present in the optical path space, and P2 is an average concentration of the inert gas present outside the optical path space.
An exposure apparatus which projects and transfers a pattern formed on a mask to a substrate using exposure light, comprising:
- a stage;
- an optical system;
- a gas stream forming mechanism which forms a stream of an inert gas in an optical path space including a space which is located between said stage and said optical system and through which the exposure light passes;
- and
- a member which forms a predetermined space between the optical path space and a peripheral space outside the optical path space in the exposure apparatus,
- wherein a width of said member in a direction of the stream of the inert gas is not less than twice a distance between said member and said stage.
An exposure apparatus which projects and transfers a pattern formed on a mask to a substrate using exposure light, comprising:
- a stage;
- an optical system;
- a gas stream forming mechanism which forms a stream of an inert gas in an optical path space including a space which is located between said stage and said optical system and through which the exposure light passes;
- and
- a member which forms a predetermined space between the optical path space and a peripheral space outside the optical path space in the exposure apparatus,
- wherein a distance between said member and said stage is shorter than that between said stage and an optical element of said optical system, which is closest to said stage.
An exposure apparatus which projects and transfers a pattern formed on a mask to a substrate using exposure light, comprising:
- a stage;
- an optical system;
- a gas stream forming mechanism which forms a stream of an inert gas in an optical path space including a space which is located between said stage and said optical system and through which the exposure light passes;
- a member which forms a predetermined space between the optical path space and a peripheral space outside the optical path space in the exposure apparatus;
- and
- a gas supply mechanism which supplies the inert gas into the predetermined space.
An exposure apparatus which projects and transfers a pattern formed on a mask to a substrate using exposure light, comprising:
- a stage;
- an optical system;
- a gas stream forming mechanism which supplies an inert gas into an optical path space including a space which is located between said stage and said optical system and through which the exposure light passes;
- and
- a member which forms a predetermined space between the optical path space and a peripheral space outside the optical path space in the exposure apparatus,
- wherein said member forms, in the predetermined space, at least one groove having a width in a direction of a stream of the inert gas.
An exposure apparatus which projects and transfers a pattern formed on a mask to a substrate using exposure light, comprising:
- a stage;
- an optical system;
- and
- a gas stream forming mechanism which supplies an inert gas into an optical path space including a space which is located between said stage and said optical system and through which the exposure light passes,
- wherein said gas stream forming mechanism comprises a restricting member for restricting a stream of said inert gas in a direction from said optical system to an optical axis of said optical system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.