Apparatus for method for immersion lithography
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorBurn Jeng Lin
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus for immersion lithography that includes an imaging lens which has a front surface, a wafer that has a top surface to be exposed positioned spaced-apart and juxtaposed to the front surface of the imaging lens, and a fluid that has a refractive index between about 1.0 and about 2.0 filling a gap formed in-between the front surface of the imaging lens and the top surface of the wafer. A method for immersion lithography can be carried out by flowing a fluid through a gap formed in-between the front surface of an imaging lens and a top surface of a wafer. The flow rate and temperature of the fluid can be controlled while particulate contaminants are filtered out by a filtering device.
Claims19
An apparatus for immersion lithography comprising:
- an imaging lens having a front surface;
- a wafer having a top surface to be exposed positioned spaced-apart and juxtaposed to said front surface of the imaging lens;
- fluid retaining means for holding a fluid, said fluid having a refractive index between about 1.0 and about 2.0 filling a gap formed in-between said front surface of the imaging lens and said top surface of the wafer;
- and
- cover means for said fluid-retaining means to protect said fluid around said imaging lens from particulates.
A method for conducting immersion lithography comprising the steps of:
- providing an imaging lens having a front surface;
- positioning a wafer having a top surface to be exposed spaced-apart and juxtaposed to said front surface of the imaging lens;
- maintaining a fluid having a refractive index between about 1.0 and about 2.0 in a gap formed in-between said front surface of the imaging lens and said top surface of the wafer;
- and
- moving said imaging lens in a longitudinal direction for focusing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.