| Class / Patent application number | Description | Number of patent applications / Date published |
|---|
| 355074000 | Including adjustable or selective masking frame | 25 |
| 20090219503 | PRECISE POSITIONING SYSTEM FOR DUAL STAGE SWITCHING EXPOSURE - The present invention discloses a precise positioning system for dual stage switching exposure, which comprises at least a base, a first wafer stage positioning unit disposed on the base for a pre-processing workstation, and a second wafer stage positioning unit for an exposure workstation. Each of the wafer stage positioning units comprises at least a wafer stage, a motion positioning detector, an X-direction guide bar, and a Y-direction guide bar. The pre-processing workstation and the exposure workstation of the system both have two X-direction guide bars positioned on and movable along the Y-direction guide bars. The X-direction guide bars of adjacent workstations can be connected to each other. The advantage of the present invention is that the switching paths of the wafer stages are short; the guide bars are equally forced; the size of the wafer stages are hardly restricted, thereby greatly improving the switching speed, operation accuracy and flexibility of the system. Besides, the present invention does not need to adopt additional collision-preventing apparatus, thus simplifying the system, reducing the cost, and effectively increasing the reliability. | 09-03-2009 |
| 20090310115 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR EXPOSING ADJACENT SITES ON A SUBSTRATE - An exposure apparatus ( | 12-17-2009 |
| 20100033706 | Substrate position detection apparatus, and method of adjusting a position of an imaging component of the same - A method is disclosed for adjusting an arrangement of coordinates in an imaging area of an imaging component in a substrate imaging plane in a substrate position detection apparatus that detects a position of a substrate in accordance with an image taken of a circumferential portion of the substrate by the imaging component, the apparatus being arranged near a rotatable susceptor on which the substrate is placed and a substrate transferring apparatus prepared separately from the susceptor and configured to horizontally drive a supporting pin for transferring the substrate to and/or from the susceptor. This method includes supporting at a predetermined height above the susceptor by the supporting pin a mark-equipped wafer with a mark arranged corresponding to the circumferential portion of the substrate, bringing the mark into the imaging area, detecting the mark at plural points while horizontally moving the mark in one direction within the imaging area by a predetermined distance by horizontally driving the supporting pin, and calibrating an axis direction of the coordinates in accordance with a direction in which the plural points are arranged; and maintaining the mark-equipped wafer with a height adjustment jig at the predetermined height above the susceptor, bringing the mark into the imaging area, detecting the mark at plural points while moving the mark within the imaging area by a predetermined angle by rotating the susceptor, and calibrating an origin position of the coordinates in accordance with a rotation center obtained in accordance with the plural points. | 02-11-2010 |
| 20100060878 | EXPOSURE APPARTUS, EXPOSURE METHOD AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING DISPLAY PANEL SUBSTRATE - A chuck 10 which supports a substrate | 03-11-2010 |
| 20100079743 | Exposure apparatus, exposure method, and method for producing device - An exposure apparatus includes a mask-moving section movable in a first direction while holding a mask formed with a pattern; an illumination system which forms first and second illumination areas separated each other by a spacing distance in the first direction; a substrate-moving section movable in a second direction while holding a photosensitive substrate; a projection optical system which forms first and second projected images of the patterns of the first and second illumination areas; and a restricting section which restricts the first and second projected images to be within first and second projection areas respectively. A spacing distance between a first conjugate area with the first projection area and a second conjugate area with the second projection area is set to be such a spacing distance that scanning exposures are successively performed for first and second transfer areas provided adjacently in the second direction. | 04-01-2010 |
| 20100103402 | WORK STAGE OF EXPOSING APPARATUS, EXPOSING METHOD AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING A STRUCTURE - At a time of aligning a thin plate-shaped work of which both front and rear surfaces are subjected to work, a deflection caused at a central portion of the thin plate-shaped work is corrected and the thin plate-shaped work is controlled to be parallel state with respect to a photomask. | 04-29-2010 |
| 20100118290 | EXPOSURE DEVICE - An exposure device is provided. The exposure device includes an alignment stage unit, an exposure processing unit and a workpiece moving mechanism. The alignment stage unit includes: an alignment stage that holds a workpiece having workpiece marks thereon; at least one first alignment microscope that detects the workpiece marks of the workpiece; and a first moving mechanism that relatively moves the alignment stage and the first alignment microscope in an 1-axis direction by a width of the workpiece. The exposure processing unit includes: a mask stage that holds a mask having mask marks thereon; a second alignment microscope that detects the mask marks of the mask; and an exposure stage that holds the workpiece. The workpiece moving mechanism moves the workpiece from the alignment stage unit to the exposure processing unit, | 05-13-2010 |
| 20100149516 | Lithographic Apparatus and A Method to Compensate for the Effect of Disturbances on the Projection System of a Lithographic Apparatus - Embodiments of the invention provide a lithographic apparatus including an illumination system configured to condition a radiation beam, a patterning device support constructed to support a patterning device, the patterning device being capable of imparting the radiation beam with a pattern in its cross-section to form a patterned radiation beam, a substrate table constructed to hold a substrate, a projection system configured to project the patterned radiation beam onto a target portion of the substrate, an active air mount to support the projection system, the active air mount including at least one actuator, and a feed-forward device, the feed-forward device being configured to provide on the basis of a set-point signal of a movable object, a feed-forward signal to the at least one actuator, wherein the feed-forward signal is designed to decrease a disturbance effect on the projection system due to movement of the movable object. | 06-17-2010 |
| 20100195085 | POSITIONING APPARATUS, EXPOSURE APPARATUS, AND DEVICE MANUFACTURING METHOD - A positioning apparatus of the present invention performs a positioning of an object with a predetermined number of degrees of freedom. The positioning apparatus comprises a plurality of drivers whose number is more than that of the degrees of freedom, which are configured to drive the object, a calculator configured to calculate target positions of the plurality of drivers from a target position of the object using a measurement result of a shape of the object previously measured, and a controller configured to control the plurality of drivers so as to come close to the target positions of the plurality of drivers. | 08-05-2010 |
| 20100214550 | Alignment System and Alignment Marks for Use Therewith - A lithographic apparatus according to one embodiment of the invention includes an alignment system for aligning a substrate or a reticle. The alignment system includes a radiation source configured to illuminate an alignment mark on the substrate or on the reticle, the alignment mark comprising a maximum length sequence or a multi periodic coarse alignment mark. An alignment signal produced from the alignment mark is detected by a detection system. A processor determines an alignment position of the substrate or the reticle based on the alignment signal. | 08-26-2010 |
| 20100214551 | PROJECTION OBJECTIVE AND METHOD FOR OPTIMIZING A SYSTEM APERTURE STOP OF A PROJECTION OBJECTIVE - In certain aspects, the disclosure relates to a projection objective, in particular for a microlithography exposure apparatus, serving to project an image of an object field in an object plane onto an image field in an image plane. The projection objective includes a system aperture stop and refractive and/or reflective optical elements that are arranged relative to an optical system axis. The centroid of the image field is arranged at a lateral distance from the optical system axis). The system aperture stop has an inner aperture stop border which encloses an aperture stop opening and whose shape is defined by a border contour curve. The border contour curve runs at least in part outside of a plane that spreads orthogonally to the optical system axis. | 08-26-2010 |
| 20110001955 | System and Method for Using a Two Part Cover and a Box for Protecting a Reticle - Systems and methods to protect a mask from being contaminated by airborne particles are described. The systems and methods include providing a reticle secured in a two-part cover. The two part cover includes a removable protection device used to protect the reticle from contaminants. The cover can be held inside a pod or box that can be used to transport the cover through a lithography system from an atmospheric section to a vacuum section. While in the vacuum section, the removable cover can be moved during an exposure process during which a pattern on the reticle can be formed on a wafer. | 01-06-2011 |
| 20110013171 | PROJECTION EXPOSURE SYSTEM FOR MICROLITHOGRAPHY WITH A MEASUREMENT DEVICE - A projection exposure system ( | 01-20-2011 |
| 20110019175 | LASER INTERFERENCE LITHOGRAPHY APPARATUS CAPABLE OF STITCHING SMALL EXPOSED AREAS INTO LARGE EXPOSED AREA - A laser interference lithography apparatus capable of stitching small exposed areas into a large exposed area includes a body, a laser beam supplying unit, a reflecting mechanism, an L-shaped fixing mechanism and a substrate stage. The laser beam supplying unit fixed onto the body provides a laser beam. The reflecting mechanism is movably and rotatably mounted on the body. The L-shaped fixing mechanism mounted on the body includes a first mounting seat and a second mounting seat. An upright first reflecting mirror is fixed to the first mounting seat. The second mounting seat connected to the first mounting seat fixes a horizontal mask, and is substantially perpendicular to the first mounting seat. The substrate stage, movably mounted on the body and disposed below the second mounting seat, supports a substrate. Thus, a large-area pattern formed by stitching small-area patterns may be obtained. | 01-27-2011 |
| 20110026006 | MOVABLE BODY DRIVE METHOD, MOVABLE BODY DRIVE SYSTEM, PATTERN FORMATION METHOD, PATTERN FORMING APPARATUS, EXPOSURE METHOD, EXPOSURE APPARATUS, AND DEVICE MANUFACTURING METHOD - Positional information of a movable body in a Y-axis direction is measured using an interferometer and an encoder whose short-term stability of measurement values excels when compared with the interferometer, and based on the measurement results, a predetermined calibration operation for obtaining correction information for correcting measurement values of the encoder is performed. Accordingly, by using measurement values of the interferometer, correction information for correcting the measurement values of the encoder whose short-term stability of the measurement values excels the interferometer is obtained. Then, based on the measurement values of the encoder and the correction information, the movable body is driven in the Y-axis direction with good precision. | 02-03-2011 |
| 20110194095 | EXPOSURE APPARATUS AND PHOTOMASK - The present invention provides an exposure apparatus for intermittently irradiating light from a light source to a TFT substrate through a photomask while conveying the TFT substrate in one direction, and forming an exposure pattern on the TFT substrate corresponding to a plurality of mask patterns formed on the photomask. On one surface of the photomask, electrode wiring patterns and signal wiring patterns requiring different resolutions are formed and an electrode wiring pattern group including a plurality of electrode wiring patterns and a signal wiring pattern group including a plurality of signal wiring patterns are formed in front and back in the conveying direction of the TFT substrate, and on the other surface of the photomask, micro-lenses which reduce and project the electrode wiring patterns requiring a high resolution onto the TFT substrate are formed. The photomask is disposed so that the micro-lenses face the TFT substrate. | 08-11-2011 |
| 20120008126 | LITHOGRAPHIC APPARATUS WITH MULTIPLE ALIGNMENT ARRANGEMENTS AND ALIGNMENT MEASURING METHOD - A lithographic apparatus has a plurality of different alignment arrangements that are used to perform an alignment measurement on the same mark(s) by: detecting a first alignment mark located on an object and producing a first alignment signal by a first detector; detecting the first mark and producing a second alignment signal by a second detector using a different alignment measurement than the first detector; receiving the first alignment signal from the first detector; calculating a first position of the at least first mark based on the first alignment signal; receiving the second alignment signal from the second detector; calculating a further first position of the at least first mark based on the second alignment signal. | 01-12-2012 |
| 20120307228 | POSITIONING APPARATUS, EXPOSURE APPARATUS AND DEVICE MANUFACTURING METHOD - A positioning apparatus includes a stage, a base, a supporting mechanism which is arranged between the stage and the base and supports the stage with a supporting portion having a spring characteristic, an actuator which is arranged between the stage and the base so as to drive the stage, and a controller which controls the actuator so as to reduce a position error of the stage relative to a target position and cancel at least part of a force acting on the stage due to the spring characteristic of the supporting portion, based on the position error of the stage and a variation of a relative position between the stage and the base. | 12-06-2012 |
| 20130182236 | IMPRINT LITHOGRAPHY - An imprint lithography apparatus having a first frame to be mounted on a floor, a second frame mounted on the first frame via a kinematic coupling, an alignment sensor mounted on the second frame, to align an imprint lithography template arrangement with a target portion of a substrate, and a position sensor to measure a position of the imprint lithography template arrangement and/or a substrate stage relative to the second frame. | 07-18-2013 |
| 20130314686 | MASK SUPPORT FRAME AND MASK ASSEMBLY HAVING THE SAME - A mask support frame for supporting a mask is provided. The frame is configured to secure both ends of a mask and apply tension to the mask in a first direction. The frame includes a frame main body defining an opening for exposing a patterned opening area of the mask and an end tensioner coupled to the frame main body, and configured to apply tension to one of both ends of the mask in a second direction crossing the first direction. | 11-28-2013 |
| 20140168626 | LITHOGRAPHY SYSTEM AND LITHOGRAPHY METHOD - A lithography system may include a wafer stage. The wafer stage may include a wafer mounting part configured to carry a wafer and configured to oscillate along a plane that is parallel to a top surface of the wafer in a wafer exposure process. The wafer stage may further include a driving device configured to affect an oscillatory movement of the wafer mounting part in the wafer exposure process. | 06-19-2014 |
| 20140240687 | EXPOSURE APPARATUS, EXPOSURE METHOD, AND DEVICE FABRICATION METHOD - The present invention provides an exposure apparatus which transfers a pattern of a mask to a substrate, including a measurement unit configured to measure, at a first measurement point and a second measurement point, a height of a measurement target portion in a shot region of the substrate held by a stage, and a control unit configured to move the stage in a direction of height of the substrate based on a correction result of correcting, by a set correction value, a measured height of the measurement target portion at the first measurement point in a acceleration period of the stage, and when a measured height of the measurement target portion at the second measurement point in the constant speed period of the stage deviates from an allowable range, obtain a new correction value instead of the set correction value. | 08-28-2014 |
| 20150109601 | CHARGED PARTICLE LITHOGRAPHY SYSTEM WITH ALIGNMENT SENSOR AND BEAM MEASUREMENT SENSOR - A multi-beamlet charged particle beamlet lithography system for transferring a pattern to a surface of a substrate. The system comprises a projection system ( | 04-23-2015 |
| 20160170315 | Shadow Mask Tensioning Method and Apparatus | 06-16-2016 |
| 20160377995 | DEVICE AND METHOD FOR POSITIONING A PHOTOLITHOGRAPHY MASK BY A CONTACTLESS OPTICAL METHOD - A device for positioning a mask relative to the surface of a wafer with a view to the exposure of the wafer, which includes (i) first positioning structure suitable for holding and moving the mask and the wafer in relation to each other; (ii) imaging structure suitable for producing at least one image of the mask and of the surface of the wafer according to at least one field of view, so as to image positioning marks of the mask and of the wafer simultaneously in the field of view; and (iii) at least one optical distance sensor suitable for producing a distance measurement between the surface of the water and the mask in the field(s) of view, with a measurement beam, which passes at least partially through the imaging structure. | 12-29-2016 |
