Exposure method and apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorHiromi Kemmoku
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for exposing a plurality of lots of substrates to light. The apparatus includes a designating unit for designating, on the basis of an exposure condition being related to two consecutive lots of the plurality of lots of substrates and being reserved in the apparatus, an exposure preparation process being related to the latter one of the two consecutive lots and going to be omitted. The apparatus further includes an estimating unit for estimating a process time to be saved by the omission of the exposure preparation process designated by the designating unit, and a generating unit for generating a sequence for the plurality of lots, on the basis of the estimation made by the estimating unit, so as to minimize a required process time.
Claims13
An apparatus for exposing a plurality of lots of substrates to light, said apparatus comprising:
- a designating unit for designating, on the basis of an exposure condition being related to two consecutive lots of the plurality of lots of substrates and being reserved in said apparatus, an exposure preparation process being related to the latter one of the two consecutive lots and going to be omitted;
- an estimating unit for estimating a process time to be saved by the omission of the exposure preparation process designated by said designating unit;
- and
- a generating unit for generating a sequence for the plurality of lots, on the basis of the estimation made by said estimating unit, so as to minimize a required process time.
A method of generating a sequence for a plurality of lots of substrates to be exposed, said method comprising steps of:
- designating, on the basis of an exposure condition being related to two consecutive lots of the plurality of lots of substrates, an exposure preparation process being related to the latter one of the two consecutive lots and going to be omitted;
- estimating a process time to be saved by the omission of the exposure preparation process designated in said designating step;
- and
- generating a sequence for the plurality of lots on the basis of the estimation made in said estimating step, so as to minimize a required process time.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.