Apparatus and method for supporting a substrate
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorTakeshi Takizawa
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A substrate supporting apparatus designed so that a substrate received and delivered by the apparatus can be positioned easily with improved accuracy. For this positioning, pressurized air is supplied between a float chuck and a base chuck of the substrate supporting apparatus to float the float chuck, and peripheral end surfaces of the float chuck are supported by cylinder pins and fixing pins. In this state, a substrate is received from a transport hand and is attracted to a surface of the float chuck. Thereafter, the cylinder pins are caused to recede, and the float chuck is moved together with the substrate by pressing forces of pressing springs to abut reference pins. As a result, a changeover valve is operated by output signals from photosensors to attract the float chuck to the base chuck.
Claims22
An apparatus for supporting a substrate, comprising:
- an attraction plate comprising an attracting mechanism producing a force attracting a substrate;
- a base plate on which said attraction plate is detachably mounted;
- force producing means for producing a vacuum attraction force attracting said attraction plate and said base plate to each other;
- moving means for moving said attraction plate relative to said base plate to move the substrate to a predetermined position when said substrate is attracted to said attraction plate;
- and
- substrate position detection means for detecting the completion of the movement of said substrate attracted to said attraction plate to a predetermined position with respect to said base plate, whereupon a vacuum attraction force is started to be produced by said force producing means on the basis of an output from said substrate position detection means.
A method of supporting a substrate, comprising the steps of:
- attracting and supporting a substrate with an attraction plate movably supported on a base plate;
- moving the attraction plate relative to the base plate to position the substrate in a predetermined position;
- and
- attracting the attraction plate to the base plate with a vacuum attraction force after detecting with a sensor the completion of moving the substrate to the predetermined position.
An exposure method comprising the steps of:
- attracting and supporting a substrate with an attraction plate movably supported on a base plate;
- moving the attraction plate relative to a base plate to position the substrate in a predetermined position;
- attracting the attraction plate to the base plate with a vacuum attraction force after detecting with a sensor the completion of moving the substrate to the predetermined position;
- and
- transferring a pattern on the substrate to a semiconductor substrate by illuminating the substrate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.