Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method
AssigneeASML Netherlands B.V.
InventorsNicolaas Rudolf KEMPER, Sjoerd Nicolaas Lambertus DONDERS, Christiaan Alexander HOOGENDAM, Nicolaas TEN KATE, Sergei SHULEPOV
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A gas knife configured to dry a surface in an immersion lithographic apparatus is optimized to remove liquid by ensuring that a pressure gradient is built up in the liquid film on the surface being dried.
Claims19
A lithographic projection apparatus arranged to project a pattern from a patterning device onto a substrate through a liquid, the apparatus comprising a gas knife configured to provide gas to a surface to be dried at an angle to the surface of between 70° and 85°.
A lithographic projection apparatus arranged to project a pattern from a patterning device onto a substrate through a liquid, the apparatus comprising a gas knife configured to provide gas to a surface, wherein the gas knife comprises an outlet to exit gas, the outlet having a width of between 10 and 50 μm and a length of between 100 and 500 μm.
A lithographic projection apparatus arranged to project a pattern from a patterning device onto a substrate through a liquid, the apparatus comprising a gas knife configured to provide gas onto a surface, an extractor adjacent the gas knife to remove gas, liquid, or both, and a flow regulator configured to control a gas flow rate out of the gas knife to be within 20% of a gas flow rate into the extractor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.