EXPOSURE APPARATUS AND DEVICE MANUFACTURING METHOD

• US 20110102762A1
• Filed: 10/25/2010
• Published: 05/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Inventors: ICHINOSE, Go
• Application Number:
  US12/911,089
• Publication Number:
  US 20110102762A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 355/72
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70991 Connection with other apparatus, e.g. multiple exposure stations, particular arrangement of exposure apparatus and pre-exposure and/or post-exposure apparatus; Shared apparatus, e.g. having shared radiation source, shared mask or workpiece stage, shared base-plate; Utilities, e.g. cable, pipe or wireless arrangements for data, power, fluids or vacuum

Abstract

An exposure apparatus is equipped with a wafer stage which holds a wafer and to which one ends of flat tubes having flexibility that transmit the power usage for exposure between the wafer stage and a predetermined external device are connected and which is movable along an XY plane, and a tube carrier which is placed on one side of the wafer stage in an X-axis direction, to which the other ends of the flat tubes are connected, and which moves along the XY plane according to movement of the wafer stage and also moves to the other side in the X-axis direction when the wafer stage moves to the one side in the X-axis direction. Accordingly, the wafer stage hardly receives the drag (tensile force) from the flat tubes and outward protrusion of the flat tubes in the X-axis direction can be restrained.

Claims

1. An exposure apparatus that exposes an object by irradiating the object with an energy beam, the apparatus comprising:

a movable body, which holds the object, to which one end of a power usage transmitting member is connected, and which is movable along a first plane parallel to a predetermined two-dimensional plane that includes a first axis and a second axis orthogonal to each other, the power usage transmitting member having flexibility that forms a transmission path used when a power usage for the exposure is transmitted between the movable body and a predetermined external device; and

an auxiliary movable body, which is placed on one side in a direction parallel to the first axis with respect to the movable body, to which the other end of the power usage transmitting member is connected, and which moves along a second plane parallel to the two-dimensional plane according to movement of the movable body and moves to the other side in the direction parallel to the first axis when the movable body moves to the one side in the direction parallel to the first axis.

2. The exposure apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the first plane and the second plane are different in position in a direction parallel to a third axis that is orthogonal to the two-dimensional plane.

3. The exposure apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the auxiliary movable body moves in a same direction as with the movable body when the movable body moves in the direction parallel to the second axis.

4. The exposure apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the power usage transmitting member is folded back in the direction parallel to the first axis so as to be connected to the movable body and the auxiliary movable body.

5. The exposure apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a drive system, which includes a first support member that supports the auxiliary movable body movable in a direction parallel to the second axis, a second support member that supports the first support member movable in the direction parallel to the first axis, a first motor that drives the auxiliary movable body along the first support member and a second motor that drives the first support member along the second support member, and which drives the auxiliary movable body in the direction parallel to the first axis and the direction parallel to the second axis.

6. The exposure apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising:

an auxiliary measurement system, which includes a first measurement system that measures positional information of the auxiliary movable body in the direction parallel to the second axis with respect to the first support member and a second measurement system that measures positional information of the first support member in the direction parallel to the first axis with respect to the second support member, and which measures positional information of the auxiliary movable body.

7. The exposure apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising:

a measurement system that measures positional information of the movable body within the two-dimensional plane; and

a control system that drives and controls the auxiliary movable body based on measurement information of the measurement system and the auxiliary measurement system.

8. A device manufacturing method, comprising:

exposing an object using the exposure apparatus according to claim 1; and

developing the object that has been exposed.