Projection exposure method and apparatus
AssigneeNikon Corporation
InventorTetsuo Taniguchi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An exposure apparatus comprises an illumination optical system for irradiating an illuminating light onto a mask having a plurality of patterns for which pattern forming conditions differ from one another, and a projection optical system for projecting images of said plurality of patterns onto a photosensitive substrate, a device for compensating imaging errors of pattern images to be projected onto said substrate, and a control system for controlling the operation of said compensating device in accordance with imaging errors of said plurality of pattern images so that said plurality of pattern images may be projected in specified imaging characteristics.
Claims19
An exposure method using a projection optical system, comprising:
- arranging a mask having a plurality of patterns for which distributions of imaging light beams at a pupil of said projection optical system differ from one another at an object side of said projection optical system;
- determining an amount of correction for an imaging error, said amount being common to said plurality of patterns projected, by said projection optical system, under imaging conditions which differ from one another in accordance with the distributions of said imaging light beams;
- and
- driving an adjustment mechanism which adjusts imaging conditions of said plurality of pattern images to simultaneously change the imaging conditions of said plurality of pattern images in accordance with said amount of correction.
A method for manufacturing a microdevice by using a mask having a plurality of circuit patterns for which distributions of imaging light beams at a pupil of a projection optical system differ from one another, comprising:
- arranging said mask on an object side of said projection optical system;
- determining an amount of correction for an imaging error, said amount being common to images of said plurality of circuit patterns projected, by said projection optical system, under imaging conditions which differ from one another;
- driving an adjustment mechanism which adjusts imaging conditions of said plurality of circuit pattern images to simultaneously change the imaging conditions of said plurality of circuit pattern images in accordance with said amount of correction;
- and
- transferring said plurality of circuit pattern images onto a photosensitive substrate.
An exposure method comprising:
- disposing a mask at an object side with respect to a projection optical system, said mask having a plurality of patterns which are projected onto a predetermined plane with imaging conditions which are different from each other;
- calculating a correction value which is common to each of said imaging conditions, in order to correct each of the imaging conditions of the plurality of pattern images;
- and
- driving an adjustment mechanism which adjusts imaging conditions of said plurality of pattern images based on the calculated correction value.
An exposure method comprising:
- disposing a mask formed with a first pattern and a second pattern, which is different in kind from said first pattern, at an object side with respect to a projection optical system, said first and second patterns to be projected by said projection optical system;
- calculating an imaging error of said first pattern projected by said projection optical system and an imaging error of said second pattern projected by said projection optical system;
- obtaining a correction value which is common to the calculated imaging error of said first pattern and the calculated imaging error of said second pattern;
- and
- driving an adjustment mechanism which adjusts imaging conditions of said pattern images based on the obtained correction value.
An exposure method comprising:
- causing distribution conditions of imaging light fluxes, from a plurality of patterns which are different in kind, to be different from each other on a pupil plane of a projection optical system;
- calculating a correction value based on said distribution conditions of imaging light fluxes in order to correct imaging conditions of images of each of said plurality of patterns, said correction value being common to the plurality of pattern images;
- and
- driving an adjustment mechanism which adjusts imaging conditions of said plurality of pattern images based on the calculated correction value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.