Apparatus and process for vacuum-holding an object
AssigneeCanon Kabuhiki Kaisha
InventorsMitsuaki Amemiya, Shunichi Uzawa
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed are an object holding process and and an apparatus therefor in which a process strain of the object can be accurately compensated for. When the exposure operation is started, the bottom surface of the object is held by a holding unit. If the object has a strain, the process strain is calculated. Here, if the process strain is larger than a tolerance, the temperature of the object is set to an object setting temperature in a position other than an exposure position in order to contract or expand the object by a predetermined amount for a magnification correction. The bottom surface of the object is then held by the holding unit again, and the exposure of the object is performed in the exposure position.
Claims26
A process for holding an object on an object holding unit the temperature of which is controlled, said process comprising:
- a first holding step of holding the object on the object holding unit in a first position, said object holding unit being set to a first predetermined temperature;
- a process strain measuring step of measuring a process strain of the object held on the object holding unit in the first position;
- a detecting step of detecting whether or not the measured process strain falls within a tolerance;
- a hold releasing step of releasing the hold of the object held on the object holding unit when the measured process strain falls out of the tolerance;
- a temperature setting step of setting the temperature of the released object to a second predetermined temperature in a second position based on the measured process strain, the second position being different from the first position;
- and
- a second holding step of holding the object on the object holding unit, the temperature of the object being set to the second predetermined temperature.
A process for holding an object on an object holding unit the temperature of which is controlled, said process comprising:
- a first holding step of holding the object on the object holding unit in a first position, said object holding unit being set to a first predetermined temperature;
- a process strain measuring step of measuring a process strain of the object held on the object holding unit in the first position;
- a detecting step of detecting whether or not the measured process strain falls within a tolerance;
- a temperature setting step of setting the temperature of the object to a second predetermined temperature in a second position based on the measured process strain by the object holding unit when the measured process strain falls out of the tolerance, the second position being different from the first position and the object being held on the object holding unit;
- a hold releasing step of releasing the hold of the object held on the object holding unit;
- and
- a second holding step of holding the object on the object holding unit, the temperature of the object being set to the second predetermined temperature while the object holding unit is set to the first predetermined temperature.
A process for holding an object on an object holding unit the temperature of which is controlled, said process comprising:
- a process strain estimating step of estimating a common process strain of a group of objects;
- a detecting step of detecting whether or not the estimated process strain falls within a tolerance;
- a temperature setting step of setting the temperature of the objects to a first predetermined temperature contained in an object cassette based on the estimated process strain;
- and
- a holding step of taking out the object from the object cassette and holding the object on the object holding unit, the temperature of the object being set to the first predetermined temperature and the object holding unit being set to a second predetermined temperature.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.