Exposure control apparatus and method

• US 6,456,363 B2
• Filed: 02/09/2001
• Issued: 09/24/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/1993
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Inventors: Suzuki, Kazuaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Adams, Russell
• Assistant Examiner(s): Brown, Khaled
• Application Number:
  US09/779,669
• Publication Number:
  US 20010010580A1
• Time in Patent Office: 592 Days
• Field of Search: 355/53, 355/68, 355/67, 355/69, 355/71, 356/399, 356/400
• US Class Current: 355/69
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70058 Mask illumination systems
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70091 Illumination settings, i.e. intensity distribution in the pupil plane or angular distribution in the field plane; On-axis or off-axis settings, e.g. annular, dipole or quadrupole settings; Partial coherence control, i.e. sigma or numerical aperture [NA]
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70358 Scanning exposure, i.e. relative movement of patterned beam and workpiece during imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70558 Dose control, i.e. achievement of a desired dose
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70566 Polarisation control
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70583 Speckle reduction, e.g. coherence control or amplitude/wavefront splitting

Abstract

An apparatus has a pulse light source for emitting light pulses with varying light quantities, an illumination optical system for radiating the light pulses from the source onto a predetermined illumination region on a mask on which a transfer pattern is formed, and a projection optical system for projecting an image of the pattern onto a predetermined exposure region on a substrate, and which synchronously scans the mask and the substrate during the projection. The apparatus includes a measuring device for detecting intensities of the light pulses radiated onto the substrate during the scanning and measuring an integrated light quantity on each of a plurality of partial regions in the exposure region on the substrate on the basis of a detection signal of the intensities, wherein the partial regions are defined by a scanning speed of the photosensitive substrate and an oscillation interval of the light pulses. The apparatus further includes an adjusting device for adjusting an intensity of the next light pulse to be radiated onto the mask on the basis of a difference between a target integrated light quantity and the measured integrated light quantity on each of the partial regions when some light pulses are radiated onto the mask.

Claims

1. A scanning exposure apparatus in which a substrate is exposed to an exposure beam while moving the substrate during scanning exposure, the apparatus comprising:

a beam source which emits pulses of the exposure beam during the scanning exposure, the beam source emitting pulses of the exposure beam at a predetermined maximum oscillation frequency;

a directing system having optical elements disposed between the beam source and the substrate, which directs the exposure beam emitted from the beam source to an irradiation area, wherein during the scanning exposure, a plurality of regions are within the irradiation area on the substrate, each of the plurality of regions is irradiated with at least one beam pulse, and integrated numbers of pulses provided on the plurality of regions vary among the plurality of regions;

a detecting system having a beam split member disposed in a path of the exposure beam and a receiver which receives a part of the exposure beam split by the split member, that detects intensity information of the exposure beam during the scanning exposure; and

an adjusting system having a voltage controller which is functionally connected with the detecting system, that controls voltage to be supplied to the beam source in accordance with the intensity information of at least one of previous pulses of the exposure beam in order to adjust intensity of a subsequent pulse of the exposure beam during the scanning exposure.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said subsequent pulse includes a next pulse.

3. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the adjusting system makes a calculation using the intensity information of a predetermined number of previous pulses in order to decide the voltage for the next pulse.

4. An apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said calculation is performed repeatedly.

5. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the adjusting system performs for every pulse during the scanning exposure.

6. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a moving speed of the substrate is decided so as to provide an appropriate scanning exposure for the substrate with the pulses emitted at the predetermined maximum oscillation frequency.

7. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said scanning exposure is performed so as to satisfy the following condition:

8. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a variable attenuator which is disposed between the beam source and the split member of the detecting system; and

an optical integrator disposed between the variable attenuator and the split member.

9. A scanning exposure apparatus in which a pattern of a mask is transferred onto a substrate while moving the mask and the substrate synchronously, the apparatus comprising:

a beam source which emits pulses of an exposure beam during synchronous movement of the mask and the substrate, the beam source emitting pulses of the exposure beam at a predetermined maximum oscillation frequency;

a projection system which projects an image of the pattern of the mask onto the substrate;

a directing system having optical elements disposed between the beam source and the substrate, which directs the exposure beam to an irradiation area, wherein during the synchronous movement, a plurality of regions are within the irradiation area on the substrate, each of the plurality of regions is irradiated with at least one of pulses of the exposure beam, and integrated numbers of pulses provided on the plurality of regions vary among the plurality of regions; and

a detecting system having a beam split member disposed in a path of the exposure beam and a receiver which receives a part of the exposure beam split by the split member, that detects intensity information of the exposure beam during the synchronous movement in order to adjust a subsequent scanning exposure operation in accordance with the intensity information of at least one of previous pulses detected by the detecting system.

10. A scanning exposure apparatus in which a substrate is exposed to an exposure beam by moving the substrate relative to the exposure beam in a predetermined direction, the apparatus comprising:

a beam source which emits beam pulses at a predetermined maximum oscillation frequency during scanning exposure;

a projection system, disposed in a path of the exposure beam, which projects a pattern image to one side thereof;

a driving system having a stage which moves in the predetermined direction while holding the substrate on the one side of the projection system, which controls a moving speed of the substrate in order to provide an appropriate scanning exposure for the substrate with the pulses emitted at the predetermined maximum oscillation frequency.

11. An apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the scanning exposure is performed so as to satisfy the following condition:

12. An apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising:

an adjusting system which adjusts intensity of the exposure beam to be incident on the substrate so as to prevent the moving speed from exceeding a predetermined maximum speed.

13. An apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising:

a first adjusting system having a voltage controller which controls voltage to be supplied to the beam source, that adjusts intensity of the exposure beam to be emitted from the beam source during the scanning exposure.

14. An apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising:

a second adjusting system having a variable attenuator disposed between the beam source and the substrate, that adjusts intensity of the exposure beam emitted from the beam source, wherein during the scanning exposure, the intensity of the exposure beam is adjusted by using the first adjusting system without changing an attenuation rate of the second adjusting system.

15. A scanning exposure apparatus in which a substrate is exposed to an exposure beam while moving the substrate in a predetermined direction relative to the exposure beam during scanning exposure;

the apparatus comprising;

a beam source which emits pulses of the exposure beam during the scanning exposure;

a first adjusting system, functionally connected to the beam source, which adjusts intensity of the exposure beam to be emitted form the beam source; and

a second adjusting system having a variable attenuator disposed between the beam source and the substrate, which adjusts intensity of the exposure beam emitted from the beam source;

wherein prior to the scanning exposure, an attenuation rate of the second adjusting system is decided so as to prevent the scanning speed of the substrate from exceeding a predetermined maximum speed and so as to satisfy the following condition;

16. An apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the first adjusting system adjusts intensity of a subsequent pulse of the exposure beam in accordance with intensity information of at least one of previous pulses of the exposure beam.

17. An apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the first adjusting system performs for every pulse.

18. An apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the beam source emits pulses of the exposure beam at a maximum oscillation frequency.

19. An apparatus according to claim 15, further comprising:

a detecting system having a beam split member disposed in a path of the exposure beam and a receiver which receives a part of the exposure beam split by the split member, that detects intensity information of pulses of the exposure beam during the scanning exposure; and

wherein the first adjoining system adjusts the intensity of the exposure beam to be emitted from the beam source in accordance with the intensity information detected by the detecting system.

20. An apparatus according to claim 19, further comprising:

an optical integrator disposed between the beam source and the beam split member of the detecting system.

21. A scanning exposure apparatus in which a substrate is exposed while moving a mask and the substrate synchronously, the apparatus comprising:

a beam source which emits pulses of an exposure beam during scanning exposure of the substrate, the beam source emitting pulses of the exposure beam at a predetermined maximum oscillation frequency; and

a scanning system having a mask stage for moving the mask and a substrate stage for moving the substrate, which performs a scanning exposure operation so as to provide an appropriate scanning exposure for the substrate with pulses of the exposure beam emitted at the predetermined maximum oscillation frequency.

22. An apparatus according to claim 21, further comprising:

a first adjusting system, functionally connected to the beam source, which adjusts intensity of the exposure beam to be emitted from the beam source; and

a second adjusting system having a variable attenuator disposed between the beam source and the substrate, which adjusts intensity of the exposure beam emitted from the beam source;

wherein prior to the scanning exposure, an attenuation rate of the second adjusting system is decided so as to prevent the scanning speed of the substrate from exceeding a predetermined maximum speed,

wherein during the scanning exposure, the intensity of the exposure beam to be directed to the substrate is adjusted by using the first adjusting system without changing the attenuation rate of the second adjusting system, and

wherein during the scanning exposure, the first adjusting system adjusts intensity of a next pulse of the exposure beam in accordance with intensity information of previous pulses of the exposure beam.

23. An apparatus according to claim 22, wherein the first adjusting system makes a calculation using the intensity information of the previous pulses in order to decide the intensity of the next pulse of the exposure beam.

24. An apparatus according to claim 23, wherein the calculation is performed repeatedly during the scanning exposure.