Exposure control apparatus and method

A scanning exposure apparatus comprising:

• an illumination system for illuminating a mask with light pulses;
• a projection optical system receiving light pulses from said mask and having an image field which is smaller than an exposure region on a photosensitive substrate, in which region an image of a pattern on said mask is to be formed by light pulses radiated from said projection optical system;
• a scanning system which synchronously scans said mask and said substrate relative to said projection optical system for scanning exposure;
• and
• a measurement system which measures, during the scanning exposure, individual integrated light quantities radiated on each of a plurality of partial regions, respectively, in said exposure region, within the image field to be irradiated with a next light pulse, based on intensities of light pulses radiated on said substrate;
• wherein an intensity of said next light pulse is determined based on the measured integrated light quantities.

A scanning exposure apparatus comprising:

• an illumination system for illuminating a mask with light pulses;
• a scanning system which synchronously scans said mask and a substrate for scanning exposure;
• and
• a measurement system, including a photoelectric detector which receives a portion of each light pulse and which measures, each time a predetermined number of pulses are radiated on the mask during the scanning exposure, individual integrated light quantities radiated on each of a plurality of partial regions in an exposure region, respectively, on the substrate on which an image of a pattern on the mask is formed by light pulses from the mask, based on a signal from said photoelectric detector.

A scanning exposure apparatus comprising:

• an illumination system for irradiating a mask with light pulses;
• a scanning system which synchronously scans the mask and a photosensitive substrate for scanning exposure, so that an image of a pattern on the mask is formed by light pulses from the mask on a plurality of small regions in an exposure region on the photosensitive substrate during the scanning exposure, wherein, during said scanning exposure individual integrated light quantities radiated on each of said plurality of small regions vary among said plurality of small regions;
• and
• a measurement system which measures, each time a predetermined number of pulses are radiated on the mask during the scanning exposure, each of the individual integrated light quantities radiated on said plurality of small regions, respectively.

A scanning exposure apparatus

• comprising:
• an illumination system for illuminating a mask with light pulses;
• a projection optical system receiving light pulses from said mask and having an image field which is smaller than a size of an exposure region on a photosensitive substrate, in which region an image of a pattern on said mask is to be formed by light pulses radiated from said projection optical system;
• a scanning system which synchronously scans said mask and said substrate relative to said projection optical system for scanning exposure, wherein, during said scanning exposure, individual integrated light quantities radiated on each of a plurality if small regions in said exposure region within said image field vary among said plurality of small regions;
• and
• an adjusting system which adjusts intensity of said light pulses in accordance with the individual integrated light quantities radiated on each of the plurality of small regions, respectively.

A method for scanningly exposing an exposure region on a photosensitive substrate with an image of a pattern on a mask, utilizing light pulses irradiating the mask and projected from the mask to the substrate by a projection optical system, the exposure region being larger than an image field of the projection optical system, comprising the steps of:

• synchronously scanning said mask and said substrate relative to said projection optical system for scanning exposure, wherein, during said scanning exposure, individual integrated light quantities radiated on each of a plurality of small regions is said exposure region within said image field vary among said plurality of small regions;
• measuring, each time a predetermined number of pulses are radiated on the mask during the scanning exposure, each of the individual integrated light quantities radiated on said plurality of small regions, respectively;
• and
• adjusting an energy amount of a next light pulse to be radiated on the substrate based on measured integrated light quantities.