Exposure apparatus and positioning method

An exposure apparatus which exposes a predetermined pattern onto a substrate having a pattern for alignment and of which a surface is coated with photosensitive material comprising:

• a stage adapted to hold the substrate and two-dimensionally movable in a predetermined plane;
• a sensor having a probe which moves along a direction perpendicular to said predetermined plane according to the position of a surface of said substrate in said direction and outputs a signal which varies in response to said movement of said probe;
• a position detecting device arranged nearby said stage, and which detects the position of said stage in said plane;
• a measuring system which is electrically connected to said sensor and said position detecting device, and which obtains the position of the pattern for alignment in said plane on the basis of signals which are output from said sensor and said position detecting device, respectively, when said pattern for alignment is moved relative to said probe;
• and
• a control system which is electrically connected to said measuring system, and which controls movement of said stage on the basis of said obtained position.

An exposure apparatus which exposes a substrate with a predetermined pattern comprising;

• a stage which moves said substrate in a predetermined plane;
• a sensor having a probe which moves in a direction perpendicular to said plane according to configuration of a surface of said substrate;
• a detector arranged nearby said stage and which detects the position of said stage in said plane;
• and
• a measuring system which is electrically connected to said sensor and said detector, and which obtains the position of a mark on said substrate in said plane on the basis of signals which are output from said sensor and said detector, respectively, in response to relative movement between said probe and said mark due to movement of said stage.

An exposure apparatus comprising:

• a stage which moves a substrate in a predetermined plane;
• a first sensor arranged nearby the stage, and which irradiates a light beam onto a mark on said substrate;
• a second sensor having a probe which moves in a direction perpendicular to said plane according to irregularity of said mark on said substrate during movement of said stage;
• an alignment system which is electrically connected to the first and the second sensor, and which moves an image of a predetermined pattern and said substrate relative to each other on the basis of an output from at least one of said first and second sensors which are selected on the basis of said mark on said substrate so that said substrate is exposed with the predetermined pattern.

An exposure apparatus, which exposes a predetermined pattern onto a substrate comprising:

• a projection system, which is arranged nearby the substrate, and which projects an image of the pattern onto the substrate;
• a stage which moves said substrate in a plane perpendicular to an optical axis of said projection system;
• an off-axis alignment sensor, which is arranged nearby the stage, and which detects a mark on said substrate without presence of said projection system;
• a detecting device, which is arranged nearby the alignment sensor, and which detects movement of part of said alignment sensor in said plane;
• and
• a controller, which is electrically connected to the alignment sensor and the detecting device and the stage, and which controls movement of said stage on the basis of outputs from said alignment sensor and said detecting device.

A position measuring method comprising the steps of:

• exposing photosensitive material on a substrate having a first mark with a second mark so that a latent image of said second mark is formed on said photosensitive material;
• moving said substrate along a predetermined so that each of said first mark and said latent image of said second mark, and a probe which moves in a direction perpendicular to said plane in response to the position of a surface of said photosensitive material in said direction are relatively moved along said plane;
• and
• obtaining, during movement of said substrate, positional information of said first mark and said latent image of said second mark in said plane on the basis of signals which are output from a sensor which detects the position of said substrate in said plane and a sensor having said probe, respectively.

An exposure method for exposing a predetermined pattern onto a substrate through a projection system, the method comprising the steps of:

• moving the substrate in a perpendicular plane perpendicular to an axis of said projection system;
• detecting a mark formed on the substrate using an off-axis alignment system without presence of the projection system;
• detecting movement of part of said alignment system in said plane;
• and
• moving an image of the predetermined pattern and the substrate relative to each other on the basis of detected results of the detecting steps.

An exposure method for exposing a predetermined pattern onto a substrate, the method comprising the steps of:

• moving the substrate in a predetermined plane;
• detecting a mark formed on the substrate by receiving an irradiated light from the mark;
• detecting movement of a probe which moves along a direction perpendicular to said predetermined plane according to a position of a surface of said substrate in the direction;
• and
• moving an image of the predetermined pattern and the substrate relative to each other on the basis of a detected result of at least one of the detecting steps.

An exposure method for exposing a predetermined pattern onto a substrate having a pattern for alignment, the method comprising the steps of:

• moving the substrate in a predetermined plane;
• detecting movement of a probe which moves along a direction perpendicular to said predetermined plane according to a configuration of a surface of said substrate;
• detecting a position of said substrate in said plane;
• and
• obtaining a position information of said pattern for alignment in said plane on the basis of both results of the detecting steps.

An exposure method comprising the steps of:

• irradiating a light beam from a first sensor onto a mark on a substrate moving in a predetermined plane so that the position of said mark in said plane is determined;
• moving said substrate according to said determined position so that a latent image of a mark is formed on photosensitive material on said substrate;
• moving a probe of a second sensor and said latent image relative to each other along said plane so that the position of said latent image is determined, said probe moving in a direction perpendicular to said plane according to the difference in level of the surface of said photosensitive material;
• and
• moving an image of a predetermined pattern and said substrate relative to each other on the basis of an output from said first sensor which detects an alignment mark on said substrate through said photosensitive material and said detected position of the latent image so that said photosensitive material is exposed with the predetermined pattern.

A positioning method comprising:

• a first step preparing a photosensitive substrate having a photosensitive layer on the surface thereof and a plurality of processing regions each of which has a first alignment mark formed therein, a mask with a pattern including a second alignment mark and a reference point, and a moving stage on which the photosensitive substrate is placed;
• a second step of detecting the positional coordinates of the respective first alignment marks in some processing regions by sequentially repeating an operation for moving said stage to move said photosensitive substrate to a first position in which an alignment means can detect the first alignment mark in one of the plurality of processing regions, thereby causing the alignment means to detect the positional coordinates of the mark;
• a third step of performing a statistical arithmetic process based on the positional coordinates detected in the second step to determine the positional coordinates of the respective first alignment marks in all of the processing regions;
• a fourth step of moving said photosensitive substrate to an exposure position by moving said stage based on a least (1) a base-line value representing the distance between the first position and a second position where said reference point is projected on said photosensitive layer and (2) the positional coordinates of the first alignment marks in predetermined processing regions which have been determined in the third step;
• a fifth step of exposing the second alignment mark to form a latent image of the mark on the photosensitive layer;
• a sixth step of relatively scanning a probe of the alignment means with respect to the surface of said photosensitive layer in such a way that the interatomic force between the probe and the surface of the photosensitive layer is maintained to be constant, thereby detecting the difference in level between the first alignment mark and the latent image to detect positional offset value between the first alignment mark and the latent image;
• and
• a seventh step of moving said stage to the exposure position based on at least the (1) positional coordinates determined in the third step, (2) base-line value, and (3) positional offset value detected in the sixth step.