Alignment stage apparatus

• US 20050093378A1
• Filed: 01/10/2005
• Published: 05/05/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Ayutthaya Limited (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Ohishi, Shinji
• Granted Patent: US 7,084,534 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 310/12.04
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70716 Stages
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70725 control
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 7/70758 Drive means, e.g. actuators, motors for long- or short-stroke modules or fine or coarse driving
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G03F 9/7096 Arrangement, mounting, housing, environment, cleaning or maintenance of apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/682 Mask-wafer alignment in general G03F7/70, G03F9/70

Abstract

Power is supplied at an arbitrary position of a movable stage main body or arbitrary timing by downsizing or removing a battery mounted on a movable stage main body, in a non-contact manner without using any electrical cable. In an alignment stage having a power reception coil to which an AC magnetic field is supplied to obtain power in a non-contact manner, a plurality of power transmission coils which supply power are buried in a base structure. An unit for sequentially switching the power transmission coils in accordance with a position of the stage is provided. The power reception coils on the stage include a plurality of power transmission coils arranged to be phase-shifted from the power transmission coils. The frequency of the AC magnetic field is set at a resonance frequency determined by a load and the mutual inductance of the power transmission coils and power reception coils.

Claims

1. An alignment stage apparatus including a base structure and a movable stage which can move along a surface of said base structure so as not to be in contact with said base structure, comprising:

a plurality of power transmission coils buried under the surface of said base structure;

a power reception coil attached to said movable stage to oppose the surface;

switching means for sequentially switching, of said plurality of power transmission coils, those that are to be energized to feed power in accordance with a position of said movable stage; and

power feeding means for supplying AC power to said power transmission coils to be energized through said switching means.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least some of said plurality of power transmission coils are also used as driving coils which move said movable stage.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said power reception coil comprises a plurality of power reception coils arrayed in a driving direction of said movable stage.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the driving direction of said movable stage comprises a two-dimensional direction along the surface of said base structure.

5. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said power reception coils are arranged to be phase-shifted from said power transmission coils.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said power reception coils and power transmission coils are phase-shifted from each other by 180°

/n where n is the number of power reception coils arrayed in the driving direction of said movable stage.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a frequency of the AC power is set at a resonance frequency determined by a load and a mutual inductance of said power transmission coils and power reception coil.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein power is transmitted and received by superposing a control signal on the AC power, so that an electric circuit on said movable stage and a control device provided to said base structure communicate with each other.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a rechargeable secondary battery is mounted on said movable stage.

10. An exposure apparatus which comprises an alignment stage apparatus according to claim 1 and aligns one or both of a substrate and master by said stage apparatus.

11. A device manufacturing method comprising:

a step of forming a latent image pattern on a substrate by an exposure apparatus according to claim 10;

and

a step of developing the latent image pattern.