摘要:
A lithographic apparatus is disclosed that includes an article support constructed to support a first article, capable of imparting a radiation beam with a pattern in its cross-section to form a patterned radiation beam, in a beam path of the radiation beam or a second article to be placed in a beam path of the patterned radiation beam, the article support having a plurality of supporting protrusions on which the first article or the second article is disposed in use, wherein the plurality of supporting protrusions are constructed to define a support zone to provide a plane of support for the first article or the second article, so that when the first article or the second article is subjected to a thermal load the support zone allows at least a portion of the first article or the second article to expand or contract to reduce the build up of a mechanical stress in the first article or second article, respectively, while maintaining the first article or second article substantially fixed to the article support, and a position sensor configured to determine a position offset, in a direction lying in the plane of the support zone, of the first article or the second article over a period of time, and a projection system configured to project a patterned radiation beam onto a target portion of a second article.
摘要:
A lithographic apparatus is disclosed that is arranged to project a pattern from a patterning device onto a substrate, the lithographic apparatus has a substrate table configured to hold a substrate. The substrate table includes a conditioning system configured to hold a conditioning fluid and to condition the substrate table. The conditioning system includes a pressure damper that is in fluid communication with the conditioning system and is arranged to dampen a pressure variation in the conditioning system.
摘要:
An article support configured to support an article to be placed in a beam path of a radiation beam of a lithographic apparatus on the article support is disclosed, the article support having a base plate of a first material and a plurality of burls of a second material, bonded to the base plate of the first material.
摘要:
Methods and apparatus for maintaining the thermal equilibrium of a substrate and an immersion lithographic apparatus are disclosed using or having a timetable comprising information regarding the position, speed and/or acceleration of the substrate; and an evaporation controller and/or condensation controller acting to decrease localized evaporation and/or increase localized condensation in response to the information in the timetable. Evaporation of liquid from the surface of the substrate cools it down, while condensing liquid on its bottom surface heats the substrate locally.
摘要:
A lithographic apparatus includes an illumination system for providing a beam of radiation, an article support for supporting a flat article to be placed in a beam path of the beam of radiation on the article support, a backfill gas feed arranged in the article support for feeding backfill gas to a backside of the article when supported by the article support, and a clamp for clamping the article against the article support during projection. According to one aspect of the invention, the apparatus includes a controller for controlling the clamp and/or the backfill gas feed pressure so as to release the clamp prior to reducing the backfill gas feed pressure.
摘要:
The invention relates to a lithographic system that includes an illumination system for providing a projection beam of radiation, a mask table for supporting a mask, the mask serving to impart the projection beam with a pattern in its cross-section, a substrate table for holding a substrate, and a projection system for projecting the patterned beam onto a target portion of the substrate. The system also comprises a processor arranged to calculate overlay corrections using a reference height map representing a surface of the substrate table or the mask table. The invention allows feed forward correction of non-flatness induced wafer grid distortion during alignment and during exposure, thereby reducing overlay errors caused by differences in flatness characteristics. It provides an indirect qualification method for overlay accuracy related to exposure chuck flatness based on height map information.
摘要:
A lithographic apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus includes an illumination system configured to condition a radiation beam, and a support constructed to support a patterning device. The patterning device is capable of imparting the radiation beam with a pattern in its cross-section to form a patterned radiation beam. The apparatus also includes a substrate table constructed to hold a substrate, a projection system configured to project the patterned radiation beam onto a target portion of the substrate, a liquid supply system configured to at least partly fill a space between the projection system and the substrate with liquid, a seal member arranged to substantially contain the liquid within the space, and elements to control and/or compensate for evaporation of immersion liquid from the substrate.
摘要:
A lithographic apparatus includes an article support for supporting a substantially flat article to be placed in a beam path of a beam of radiation. The article support includes a plurality of supporting protrusions that define a support zone for providing a plane of support. A backfill gas feed is arranged in the support zone and provides a backfill gas that flows to a backside of the article when supported by the article support. The support zone is surrounded by a boundary zone that has a reduced height relative to the plane of support so that the backfill gas flow is permitted to exit the support zone. A tunable clamp clamps the article to the article support, and a flow measuring system measures the outflow of the backfill gas. The tunable clamp is operatively coupled to the flow measuring system to tune the clamping based on the measured outflow.
摘要:
A method and apparatus of correcting thermally-induced field deformations of a lithographically exposed substrate, is presented herein. In one embodiment, the method includes exposing a pattern onto a plurality of fields of a substrate in accordance with pre-specified exposure information and measuring attributes of the fields to assess deformation of the fields induced by thermal effects of the exposing process. The method further includes determining corrective information based on the measured attributes, and adjusting the pre-specified exposure information, based on the corrective information, to compensate for the thermally-induced field deformations. Other embodiments include the use of predictive models to predict thermally-induced effects on the fields and thermographic imaging to determine temperature variations across a substrate.