Exposure apparatus
AssigneeKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
InventorsJun Nishida, Norio Uchida, Nobutaka Kikuiri
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A exposure apparatus for a semiconductor wafer, a liquid crystal display panel and so on. The exposure apparatus comprises a light source, a holding means and a moving means. The light source exposes a target such as a semiconductor wafer, a liquid crystal display panel and so on. The holding means alternately holds and releases the target. The moving means for moving the holding means includes a table and a shifting means. The table moves in the direction of the light source. The shifting means shifts the holding means toward or against the table.
Claims9
An exposing method for exposing a surface of a target using an exposure apparatus having
- a mask with a pattern,
- an energy source generating an exposure beam to expose the pattern on the mask on the surface of the target when the target is located in a path of the exposure beam,
- holding means for alternately holding and releasing the target,
- carrying means for carrying the target to the holding means, shifting means for coarsely shifting the holding means in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the target between a first location where the target is alternately held and released, and a second location where the target is exposed, and
- moving means for finely moving said holding means when said holding means is in the second location, the first location being closer to the moving means than the second location,
- the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) shifting the holding means to the first location using the shifting means;
- (b) carrying the target to the holding means using the carrying means;
- (c) holding the target with the holding means;
- (d) shifting the holding means from the first location to the second location using the shifting means;
- (e) fixing the holding means to the moving means;
- (f) adjusting the exposing position of the target at the second location using the moving means;
- and
- (g) exposing the target to the pattern on the mask with the exposure beam.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.