The method of providing a large-area, high-throughput, high-resolution, scan-and-repeat projection imaging system, characterized by the following steps: (a) Providing a stage for holding in fixed juxtaposition a substrate and a mask, and capable of scanning longitudinally in one direction, and also capable of moving laterally in a direction perpendicular to the scan direction; (b) Providing an illumination system having the wavelength and intensity distribution characteristics suited for exposure of said substrate, having an effective source plane of a predetermined shape, and capable of uniformly illuminating on said mask a region of said predetermined shape; (c) Providing a projection assembly having an image field of said predetermined shape on said mask which may be smaller than the size of said substrate, and capable of producing a 1:1-magnification image of said illuminated region of said predetermined shape on the mask onto the substrate with the desired resolution; (d) Providing optical means for undoing the change in the image orientation produced by the projection assembly of step (c) such that the orientation of the final image on said substrate is the same as the orientation of the pattern on said mask; (e) Scanning the stage of step (a) so that the length of said mask traverses across the illumination region of said predetermined shape described in step (b); (f) Stopping said stage momentarily after completion of a scan across the length of said mask, moving the stage by a certain distance in a direction perpendicular to the scan direction, and resuming the scanning of the stage in a direction opposite to the scan direction of step (e); (g) Providing additive illumination in certain overlap regions of areas exposed by adjacent scans such that the effect of the exposure dose delivered in said overlap regions is seamless and the effect of the exposure dose delivered across the entire substrate is uniform; and (h) Repeating steps (e)-(g) until exposure of the entire substrate is completed. view more

The method of providing a projection imaging system according to claim 23, further including the step of aligning said substrate and mask with respect to each other periodically during steps (e)-(h).

The method of providing a large-area scan-and-repeat patterning system for exposing with uniform effect a substrate with a nonlinear response characteristic, such exposure being in a single scanning exposures over non-overlapping parts of the exposed area and in additive pluralities of scanning exposures over overlapping parts, so as to result in a uniform, nonlinearity-compensated response over the entire substrate area, characterized by the following steps: (a) providing a stage system capable of synchronously moving a mask and a substrate; (b) providing an illumination system having an effective source plane in the shape of a multisided figure, and capable of illuminating a region of said shape on said mask; (c) providing an imaging assembly capable of producing an image of said illuminated region of the mask on the substrate, and having an image field size smaller than the size of said substrate; (d) determining scan adjustment parameters for compensation of said nonlinear response characteristic in exposure of said substrate; (e) providing means for adjusting scan parameters for said nonlinearity compensation; and (f) scanning the mask and substrate in a plurality of non-overlapping, and overlapping scans. view more

The method for providing a scan and repeat lithography system for high-resolution, large-field, high-speed lithography, characterized by the following steps: (a) Providing a substrate stage for holding the substrate, and capable of scanning the substrate in one dimension, and capable of moving laterally in a direction perpendicular to the scan direction; (b) Providing a mask stage for holding the mask, and capable of scanning the mask in the same dimension as the substrate stage; (c) Providing an illumination subsystem having the desired characteristics of wavelength and intensity distribution, having aan effective source plane in the shape of a polygon, and capable of uniformly illuminating a polygon-shaped region on the mask; (d) Providing a projection subsystem for imaging the said polygon-shaped illuminated region on the mask on to the substrate, having an object-to-image reduction ratio M, having the desired image resolution, and having an image field in the shape of a polygon and of an area smaller than the desired effective image field size of the said lithography system; (e) Providing a mask which has a certain number of complete, patterned chip fields, and additional patterned areas that fall within the hexagonal illuminated region on the mask; (f) Scanning the substrate across the polygonal substrate illumination region at a certain velocity v.sub.x, and simultaneously scanning the mask in a parallel direction across the polygonal mask illumination region at a velocity Mv.sub.x ; (g) Stopping the scanning of the substrate and mask stages upon completion of a scan across the total length of the substrate along the direction of scan, moving the substrate by a certain distance in a direction perpendicular to the scan direction, and resuming the scanning of the substrate and the mask stages in directions opposite to their respective directions in step (f); (h) Providing complementary exposures in an overlap region between the areas exposed by adjacent scans in such a way that a seam in the exposure dose distribution received on the substrate is absent between the said scans, and such that the exposure dose delivered across the entire substrate is uniform; (i) Repeating steps (f)-(h) until exposure of the entire substrate is completed. view more

The method according to claim 17, further including the step of aligning the substrate and mask stages at the desired interval during steps (f)-(i).