Semiconductor device manufacturing system

A reduction projection exposure apparatus, comprising:

• a reduction projection lens;
• a reticle stage for holding a reticle having an alignment mark and a deviation measuring mark;
• a wafer stage for holding a wafer having different shot areas in each of which an alignment mark and a deviation measuring mark is formed;
• image pickup means for taking superposed images of said alignment mark of the reticle and said alignment mark of each shot area of the wafer, through said reduction projection lens;
• exposure means for printing said deviation measuring mark of the reticle on the wafer through said reduction projection lens;
• moving means for changing a positional relationship between the reticle held by said reticle stage and the wafer held by said wafer stage, said moving means being operable to control said positional relationship on the basis of the imagewise data obtained by said image pickup means in relation to each shot area, when said deviation measuring mark of the reticle is printed on each shot area by said exposure means while successively aligning each shot area to the reticle;
• and
• control means operable to cause said image pickup means to pick-up an image of said deviation measuring mark of each shot area of the wafer and said deviation measuring mark of the reticle as printed on the wafer, said control means further being operable to calculate, on the basis of the imagewise data obtained by the image pickup, a precision of alignment between the reticle and the wafer based on at least one of said alignment mark of the reticle and said alignment mark of the wafer and an offset of the reticle to wafer alignment.

A method manufacturing semiconductor devices by using an exposure apparatus, said method comprising the steps of:

• placing, in the exposure apparatus, a reticle having a first deviation measurement mark;
• placing, in the exposure apparatus, a wafer having a second deviation measurement mark and an alignment mark;
• photoelectrically detecting the alignment mark of the wafer to determine an alignment error of the wafer with respect to the reticle;
• adjusting the positional relationship between the reticle and the wafer on the basis of said determination, to thereby align the reticle and the wafer with each other;
• exposing the wafer with light passing through the reticle to thereby print the first deviation measurement mark of the reticle on a photoresist of the wafer;
• developing the photoresist of the wafer;
• placing the photoresist-developed wafer in the exposure apparatus;
• detecting deviation between the second deviation measurement mark of the wafer and the first deviation measurement mark of the reticle, as printed on the photoresist of the wafer;
• and
• controlling the operation of the exposure apparatus on the basis of the detected deviation, for manufacturing semiconductor devices.