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US 7,116,403 B2Granted
Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method
AssigneeASML Netherlands B.V.
InventorsKars Zeger Troost, Karel Diederick Van Der Mast
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Lithographic apparatus providing a patterned beam of radiation in which radiation that is linearly polarized in a first direction has a first pattern and radiation that is linearly polarized in an orthogonal direction has a second pattern.
Claims14
A lithographic apparatus, comprising:
- an illumination system that supplies a beam of radiation;
- a beam splitter that splits the beam into a first beam and a second beam;
- a first array of individually controllable elements that patterns the first beam with a first pattern;
- a second array of individually controllable elements that patterns the second beam with a second pattern;
- first and second quarter wave plates located between the beam splitter and respective ones of the first and second arrays of individually controllable elements that change a polarization of respective ones of the first and second beams;
- a beam combiner that combines the first and second patterned beams to form a combined patterned beam;
- and
- a system that projects the combined patterned beam onto a target portion of a substrate,
- wherein a first portion of the combined patterned beam derived from the first patterned beam is substantially linearly polarized, and
- wherein a second portion of the combined patterned beam derived from the second patterned beam is substantially linearly polarized, substantially orthogonal to the first portion.
7 more elements
A lithographic apparatus, comprising:
- an illumination system that supplies a beam of radiation;
- a patterning device that patterns the beam;
- a system that projects the patterned beam onto a target portion of a substrate, the system comprises
- a polarizing cube that separates the patterned beam into a first patterned sub-beam having radiation that is substantially linearly polarized in a first direction and second patterned sub-beam having radiation that is substantially linearly polarized in a second direction, which is substantially orthogonal to the first direction;
- first and second optical correction units that correct the first and second patterned sub-beams, respectively;
- and
- a beam combiner that combines the first and second corrected sub-beams to form a corrected patterned beam.
4 more elements
A device manufacturing method, comprising:
- (a) splitting a beam of radiation into first and second linearly polarized beams of radiation using a beam splitter;
- (b) changing a polarization of each of the first and second beams from linearly polarized to circularly polarized;
- (c) patterning the first beam of radiation with a first pattern using a first array of individually controllable elements;
- (d) patterning the second beam of radiation with a second pattern using a second array of individually controllable elements;
- (e) changing a polarization of each of the first and second patterned beams from circularly polarized to linearly polarized;
- (f) combining the first and second patterned beams to form a combined patterned beam using a beam combiner;
- and
- (g) projecting the combined patterned beam of radiation onto a target portion of a substrate,
- wherein a first portion of the combined patterned beam derived from the first patterned beam is substantially linearly polarized,
- wherein a second portion of the combined patterned beam derived from the second patterned beam is substantially linearly polarized, substantially orthogonal to the first portion.
7 more elements
A device manufacturing method, comprising:
- (a) patterning a beam of radiation using a patterning device;
- (b) separating the patterned beam into a first patterned sub-beam having radiation that is substantially linearly polarized in a first direction using a polarized cube;
- (c) separating the patterned beam into a second patterned sub-beam having radiation that is substantially linearly polarized in a second direction, substantially orthogonal to the first direction using the polarized cube;
- (d) correcting each of the first and second patterned sub-beams using respective first and second optical correction units;
- and
- (e) combining the first and second corrected sub-beams to form a corrected patterned beam;
- and
- (f) projecting the corrected patterned beam onto a target portion of a substrate.
5 more elements
A device manufacturing method, comprising:
- splitting a beam of radiation into first and second beams;
- directing the first beam through a first patterning device to impart a first pattern on the first beam;
- directing the second beam through a second patterning device to impart a second pattern on the second beam;
- combining the first and second patterned beams to form a combined patterned beam, a first portion of the combined patterned beam derived from the first patterned beam being substantially linearly polarized and a second portion of the combined patterned beam derived from the second patterned beam being substantially linearly polarized and substantially orthogonal to the first portion;
- and
- projecting the combined patterned beam onto a target portion of a substrate.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.