US 6,285,439 B1Granted

Position detection technique applied to proximity exposure

AssigneeSumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd.

InventorTsutomu Miyatake

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Abstract

The exposure surface of a wafer to be exposed is formed with a wafer mark having edges for scattering incident light. The edge of the wafer mark has a curved portion whose image vertically projected upon a plane in parallel to the exposure surface has a curved shape. The surface of an exposure mask is formed with a mask mark having edges for scattering incident light. The edge of the exposure mask has a curved portion whose image vertically projected upon a plane in parallel to the surface of the exposure mask has a curved shape. The wafer and exposure mask are juxtaposed with and spaced apart by a gap from the exposure surface of the wafer. Illumination light is applied to the curved portions of the edges of the wafer and mask marks. Light scattered from the wafer and mask marks is observed along a direction oblique to the exposure surface to thereby detect a relative position of the wafer and exposure mask.

Claims7

Dependent claims

A position detecting method comprising the steps of:

disposing a member with an exposure surface to be exposed and an exposure mask in proximity with each other, with a gap being set between the exposure surface and the exposure mask, the member having an alignment mark formed on the exposure surface, the alignment mark having edges or apexes for scattering incident light, the exposure mask having a mask mark formed on a surface thereof, the mask mark having edges or apexes for scattering incident light;
and
detecting a relative position of the member and the exposure mask by applying illumination light to the edges or apexes of the alignment and mask marks, by focussing light scattered from the alignment and mask marks on a light reception plane, and by observing images on the light reception plane, whereby a light flux scattered from one of the alignment and mask marks is attenuated or light fluxes scattered from both of the alignment and mask marks are attenuated differently, so that a light intensity of an image formed by the light flux scattered from the alignment mark and focussed on the light reception plane becomes near to a light intensity of an image formed by the light flux scattered from the mask mark and focussed on the light reception plane.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.