Exposure apparatus and method for producing device

• US 8,384,877 B2
• Filed: 06/07/2007
• Issued: 02/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Inventors: Kobayashi, Naoyuki, Tanimoto, Akikazu, Mizuno, Yasushi, Shiraishi, Kenichi, Nakano, Katsushi, Owa, Soichi
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, HUNG
• Application Number:
  US11/808,230
• Publication Number:
  US 20080030695A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,091 Days
• Field of Search: 355/30, 355/53, 355/67, 355 72- 75, 250/548
• US Class Current: 355/53
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 27/52 Details
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/00 Photomechanical, e.g. photolithographic, production of textured or patterned surfaces, e.g. printing surfaces; Materials therefor, e.g. comprising photoresists; Apparatus specially adapted therefor using photoresist structures for special production processes, see the relevant places, e.g. B44C, H01L, e.g. H01L21/00, H05K
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/2041 in the presence of a fluid, e.g. immersion; using fluid cooling means
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70316 Details of optical elements, e.g. of Bragg reflectors, extreme ultraviolet [EUV] multilayer or bilayer mirrors or diffractive optical elements
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70341 Details of immersion lithography aspects, e.g. exposure media or control of immersion liquid supply chemical composition of immersion liquids G03F7/2041
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70775 Position control, e.g. interferometers or encoders for determining the stage position
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/7085 Detection arrangement, e.g. detectors of apparatus alignment possibly mounted on wafers, exposure dose, photo-cleaning flux, stray light, thermal load
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70916 Pollution mitigation, i.e. mitigating effect of contamination or debris, e.g. foil traps
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70925 Cleaning, i.e. actively freeing apparatus from pollutants, e.g. using plasma cleaning
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70958 Optical materials or coatings, e.g. with particular transmittance, reflectance or anti-reflection properties
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 9/7015 Reference, i.e. alignment of original or workpiece with respect to a reference not on the original or workpiece
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 9/7088 Alignment mark detection, e.g. TTR, TTL, off-axis detection, array detector, video detection
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 9/7096 Arrangement, mounting, housing, environment, cleaning or maintenance of apparatus

Abstract

There is provided an exposure apparatus capable of forming a desirable device pattern by removing unnecessary liquid when performing exposure by projecting a pattern onto the substrate via a projection optical system and the liquid. The exposure device projects an image of the pattern onto the substrate P via the projection optical system and the liquid so as to expose the substrate P. The exposure device includes a liquid removing mechanism 40 which removes the liquid remaining on a part 7 arranged in the vicinity of the image plane of the projection optical system.

Claims

1. An exposure apparatus which exposes a substrate with an image of a pattern projected to a projection area through a liquid, the exposure apparatus comprising:

a liquid supply member having a supply inlet from which the liquid is supplied to form a liquid immersion area, the supply inlet being disposed above the projection area and the liquid immersion area being formed such that the liquid immersion area covers the projection area;

a stage having a holder on which the substrate is held, the stage being movable below the supply inlet and the stage having a flow passage through which a portion of the liquid supplied from the supply inlet is discharged;

a component that is used in a vicinity of the projection area and that comes into contact with the liquid of the liquid immersion area; and

a detection system having an optical member, that detects a liquid remaining on a surface of the component.

2. The exposure apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the detection system further detects a foreign matter on the surface of the component.

3. The exposure apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a projection optical system having an optical element disposed most closely to the projection area, by which the image is projected to the projection area. wherein the surface of the component includes a surface of the optical element of the projection optical system.

4. The exposure apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a washing device which washes the surface of the optical element, and a control device which controls the washing device, wherein the control device operates the washing device in response to a result of the detection performed by the detection system.

5. A method for producing a device, comprising:

exposing a substrate using the exposure apparatus of claim 1; and

processing the exposed substrate.

6. The exposure apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a liquid-removing device having an opening, which removes the liquid remaining on the component.

7. The exposure apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the liquid-removing device includes a liquid-sucking device which sucks the liquid on the component via the opening.

8. The exposure apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the liquid-removing device includes a device which blows a gas against the component via the opening.

9. The exposure apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the component includes a part disposed at an end portion of the projection optical system.

10. The exposure apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the liquid-removing device removes the liquid from the liquid supply member.

11. The exposure apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising a liquid recovery member having a recovery outlet, which recovers the liquid through the recovery outlet, wherein the liquid-removing device removes the liquid from the recovery member.

12. The exposure apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the component makes contact with the liquid during the exposure for the substrate.

13. The exposure apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the liquid-removing device removes the liquid from a part of the stage or a measuring member provided on the stage.

14. The exposure apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the measuring member includes a reference member provided on the stage.

15. The exposure apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising a measuring system including an upper plate which has a light-transmitting portion which transmits an exposure light beam from the projection optical system therethrough, and a light-receiving system which receives the light beam having passed through the light-transmitting portion of the upper plate, wherein the liquid-removing device removes the liquid from the upper plate of the measuring system.

16. The exposure apparatus according to claim 13, wherein at least a part of the liquid-removing device is provided on the stage.

17. The exposure apparatus according to claim 15, wherein a surface of the upper plate is liquid-repellent.

18. The exposure apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the liquid-removing device moves the liquid remaining in a predetermined area on a surface of the component to outside of the predetermined area.

19. The exposure apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the liquid-removing device removes the liquid by using a clean gas or a dry gas.

20. The exposure apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the clean gas is nitrogen gas.

21. The exposure apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising a cleaning device having a cleaning fluid supply opening, by which the component is cleaned by a cleaning fluid supplied from the cleaning fluid supply opening.

22. The exposure apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the liquid-removing device removes the liquid remaining on the component before the exposure or after the exposure.

23. The exposure apparatus according to claim 22, further comprising a liquid recovery member having a recovery outlet disposed above the projection area, which recovers the liquid via the recovery outlet from a surface of the substrate during the exposure.

29. The apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the stage has a recovery outlet which recovers the liquid from a space under the projection optical system after completion of the exposure for the substrate.

30. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the stage is movable below the component.

24. A method used in a liquid immersion exposure apparatus in which a substrate held on a holder of a stage is exposed with a pattern image projected to a projection area through a liquid, comprising:

supplying the liquid from above the projection area such that a liquid immersion area covers the projection area;

recovering the supplied liquid from above the projection area;

discharging the supplied liquid through a flow passage provided in the stage; and

performing a detection to detect a liquid remaining on a component of the exposure apparatus, which has come in contact with the liquid of the liquid immersion area.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein the detection is performed after removing the liquid from the component.

26. The method according to claim 24, further comprising removing the liquid remaining on the component after the detection.

27. The method according to claim 26, wherein the removal of the remaining liquid includes sucking the remaining liquid from the component.

28. The method according to claim 26, wherein the removal of the remaining liquid includes blowing a gas against the component.