Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080259307 | EXPOSURE APPARATUS AND DEVICE MANUFACTURING METHOD - A scanning exposure apparatus which exposes a substrate is disclosed. The apparatus comprises an illumination system configured to illuminate an illumination region of an original, a projection optical system configured to project a pattern of the original onto the substrate, and a stop configured to shield a flare generating component of flare light which travels from the projection optical system to the substrate, and to pass the remaining component of the flare light. An aperture of the stop has a shape different from a shape of the illumination region, and the aperture of the stop includes a portion whose dimension in a first direction parallel to a scanning direction of the substrate changes in accordance with a distance from the center of the aperture in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. | 10-23-2008 |
20090180093 | EVALUATION METHOD, CONTROL METHOD, EXPOSURE APPARATUS, AND MEMORY MEDIUM - A method of evaluating an imaging performance of a projection optical system, comprising a step of specifying a polarization change of the projection optical system, which represents a relationship between a polarization state of light impinging on the projection optical system and the polarization state of the light exiting from the projection optical system, a first calculation step of calculating a value of a parameter having a correlation with the polarization change of the projection optical system specified in the specifying step, and a second calculation step of calculating an index value representing the imaging performance in a state that the projection optical system has the polarization change specified in the specifying step, based on an amount of change in the index value representing the imaging performance upon changing the value of the parameter by a unit amount, and the value of the parameter calculated in the first calculation step. | 07-16-2009 |
20090201480 | EVALUATION METHOD, ADJUSTMENT METHOD, EXPOSURE APPARATUS, AND MEMORY MEDIUM - A method evaluating an imaging performance of a projection optical system according to a polarization state of light in a pupil of an illumination optical system for an exposure apparatus, comprises a representation step of numerically representing the polarization state in the pupil of the illumination optical system, an assumption step of virtually dividing the pupil of the illumination optical system into a plurality of partial regions, each of which includes a light incident region and a light non-incident region, and assuming individual polarization states for the plurality of partial regions so that one polarization state is assumed for the whole of each partial region based on the polarization state numerically represented in the representation step; and a calculation step of calculating the imaging performance of the projection optical system under a condition in which the plurality of partial regions have the polarization states individually assumed in the assumption step. | 08-13-2009 |
20120096413 | PROGRAM STORAGE MEDIUM AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING EXPOSURE CONDITION AND MASK PATTERN - A method of determining an exposure condition and a mask pattern includes: setting the exposure condition and the mask pattern; temporarily determining the mask pattern using a first evaluation function describing indices of quality of an image of the mask pattern, using the set exposure condition; calculating a value of a second evaluation function describing indices of quality of the image of the mask pattern, using the temporarily determined mask pattern and the set exposure condition; changing the exposure condition and the mask pattern based on the value of the calculated second evaluation function; and judging whether to execute a process of repeating the temporarily determining step and the calculating step. In the judging step, the mask pattern temporarily determined in the latest second step, and the exposure condition changed in the latest fourth step are determined as the mask pattern and the exposure condition, respectively. | 04-19-2012 |
20130246982 | GENERATION METHOD, STORAGE MEDIUM, AND INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS - The present invention provides a generation method of generating data for a mask pattern to be used for an exposure apparatus including a projection optical system for projecting a mask pattern including a main pattern and auxiliary pattern onto a substrate, including a step of setting a generation condition under which the auxiliary pattern is generated, and a step of determining whether a value of an evaluation function describing an index which indicates a quality of an image of the mask pattern calculated, wherein if it is determined that the value of the evaluation function falls outside a tolerance range, the generation condition is changed to set a new generation condition. | 09-19-2013 |
20130268902 | DECISION METHOD, STORAGE MEDIUM AND INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS - The present invention provides a decision method which decides a mask pattern used in an exposure apparatus comprising a projection optical system that projects a mask pattern including a main pattern and an auxiliary pattern onto a substrate, and an exposure condition in the exposure apparatus, the method including a step of calculating an image of a mask pattern formed on the substrate by the projection optical system while changing settings of the mask pattern and the exposure condition, and deciding the mask pattern and the exposure condition based on the image of the mask pattern, wherein the step includes determining whether or not to generate a new auxiliary pattern after the settings are changed. | 10-10-2013 |
20130321789 | MASK DATA GENERATION METHOD - A mask data generation method includes obtaining data of a pattern including a plurality of pattern elements, dividing a region of the pattern into a plurality of sections so that each pattern element is arranged in each section by using the obtained data of the pattern and generating map data including information indicative of presence or absence of the pattern element in each section, setting one piece of mask individual information out of a plurality pieces of mask individual information for each section including the pattern element by using a constraint condition, which inhibits setting of same mask individual information in a constraint region including one section and surrounding sections thereof, and the map data, and generating the data of the plurality of masks corresponding to the plurality pieces of mask individual information by using the set mask individual information. | 12-05-2013 |
20130329202 | PATTERN GENERATION METHOD - A pattern generation method for generating a pattern of a cell used to generate a pattern of a mask using a computer, includes obtaining data of pattern of the cell, calculating image of the pattern of the cell to obtain an evaluation value of the image by repeatedly changing a parameter value of an exposure condition when the mask which has the pattern of the cell is illuminated to project image of the pattern of the cell onto a substrate to expose the substrate, and a parameter value of the pattern of the cell, and determining parameter value of the pattern of the cell when the evaluation value satisfies a predetermined evaluation standard. | 12-12-2013 |
20140080041 | METHOD FOR CREATING MASK DATA, PROGRAM, INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, AND METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING MASK - Data regarding a first corrected patterns on a single cell corrected such that an evaluation value of a pattern formed on a substrate after an image of a pattern of the single cell is projected onto a resist on the substrate and the resist is developed is obtained for each of a plurality of cells, a first evaluation value obtained by evaluating a projected image of the first corrected pattern on the single cell generated by the projection system is obtained for each of the cells, a second evaluation value obtained by, when the cells are arranged adjacent to one another, evaluating the projected images of the first corrected patterns on the cells is calculated, and creating a second corrected pattern by correcting the first corrected patterns on the cells arranged adjacent to one another such that the second evaluation value becomes close to the first evaluation value. | 03-20-2014 |
20140245241 | GENERATION METHOD, STORAGE MEDIUM AND INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS - The present invention provides a generation method of generating data of patterns of a plurality of masks used in an exposure apparatus for exposing a substrate, including a step of specifying, from a plurality of points on a grid having pattern elements to be formed on the substrate as intersections, an allowable point that allows a pattern to be transferred other than points of target pattern elements constituting a target pattern to be formed on the substrate, and a step of, for a pattern element group including a target pattern element whose distance to an adjacent target pattern element is shorter than a resolution limit of the exposure apparatus, grouping the adjacent target pattern elements on the grid a space between which is filled with the allowable point. | 08-28-2014 |