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KR-20260062838-A - EXPOSURE APPARATUS, EXPOSURE METHOD, AND ARTICLE MANUFACTURING METHOD

KR20260062838AKR 20260062838 AKR20260062838 AKR 20260062838AKR-20260062838-A

Abstract

The present disclosure provides an exposure apparatus for performing scanning exposure on a shot area on a substrate, comprising: a stage configured to hold the substrate; a measuring device configured to measure a surface height prior to exposure for each of a plurality of measuring areas arranged in the shot area along the scanning direction of the substrate; and a control unit configured to control the driving of the stage, wherein the plurality of measuring areas include a first and a second measuring area, and the control unit configured to control the driving of the stage so as to position the surface height of the first measuring area at a target height during exposure of the first measuring area based on the measured values of the surface heights for the first and second measuring areas.

Inventors

  • 사토 타카노리

Assignees

  • 캐논 가부시끼가이샤

Dates

Publication Date
20260507
Application Date
20251013
Priority Date
20241029

Claims (13)

  1. An exposure device that performs scanning exposure on a shot area on a substrate, A stage configured to hold the above substrate, and A measuring device configured to measure the surface height prior to exposure for each of a plurality of measuring regions arranged in the shot region along the scanning direction of the substrate, and A control unit configured to control the operation of the above stage is provided, and The plurality of measurement areas includes a first measurement area and a second measurement area in which the measurement device measures the surface height after measuring the surface height of the first measurement area and also before exposure of the first measurement area. The above-described control unit is configured to control the driving of the stage to position the surface height of the first measurement area at a target height during exposure of the first measurement area, based on the measured values of the surface heights of the first measurement area and the second measurement area obtained by the measuring device.
  2. In Article 1, The above-described control unit is configured to set a target driving position of the stage for positioning the surface height of the first measurement area at the target height during exposure of the first measurement area based on the measured values of the surface heights of the first measurement area and the second measurement area obtained by the measuring device, and to control the driving of the stage based on the target driving position.
  3. In Paragraph 2, The above control unit is, As the above measuring device measures the surface height of the first measuring area, the target driving position is set based on the measured value of the surface height of the first measuring area, and An exposure device configured to reset the target driving position based on the measured values of the surface heights of the first measurement area and the second measurement area, as the measuring device further measures the surface height of the second measurement area.
  4. In Paragraph 3, An exposure device in which, when the difference in the measured value of the surface height between the first measurement area and the second measurement area is greater than the threshold value, the control unit does not reset the target driving position.
  5. In Paragraph 3, The plurality of measurement areas includes a third measurement area in which the measurement device measures the surface height after measuring the surface height of the second measurement area and also before exposure of the first measurement area. The above control unit is configured to reset the target driving position based on the measured values of the surface heights for the first measurement area, the second measurement area, and the third measurement area, as the measuring device further measures the surface height of the third measurement area.
  6. In Paragraph 3, The plurality of measurement areas includes a fourth measurement area in which the measurement device measures the surface height between the measurement of the surface height for the first measurement area and the measurement of the surface height for the second measurement area prior to the exposure of the first measurement area. The above-described control unit is configured to reset the target driving position based on the measured values of the surface heights for the first measurement area, the fourth measurement area, and the second measurement area, without resetting the target driving position based on the measurement device measuring the surface height for the fourth measurement area.
  7. In Paragraph 2, The above-described control unit is configured to set the target driving position based on the average value of the surface height of the first measurement area and the surface height of the second measurement area.
  8. In Paragraph 2, The above control unit is configured to set the target driving position based on the result of weighting the measured value of the surface height of the first measurement area and the measured value of the surface height of the second measurement area.
  9. In Article 1, The above measuring device is an exposure device configured to output an average value of surface height measured across the first measuring area as a measured value of surface height for the first measuring area, and to output an average value of surface height measured across the second measuring area as a measured value of surface height for the second measuring area.
  10. In Article 1, An exposure device further comprising a projection optical system configured to project a pattern image of a disc onto a substrate, wherein the target height is the best focus position of the projection optical system.
  11. In Article 1, The first measurement area is an exposure device disposed at the end of the shot area that initiates the scanning exposure.
  12. A step of performing scanning exposure on a substrate using an exposure apparatus described in any one of claims 1 to 11, and. The step of processing the substrate on which the above scanning exposure has been performed, and A method for manufacturing an article comprising the step of manufacturing an article from the processed substrate.
  13. An exposure method for performing scanning exposure on a shot area on a substrate, For each of the plurality of measurement regions arranged in the shot region along the scanning direction of the substrate, a step of measuring the surface height prior to exposure. The method includes a step of controlling the operation of a stage configured to maintain the above substrate, and The plurality of measurement areas includes a first measurement area and a second measurement area in which the surface height is measured after the measurement of the surface height for the first measurement area and also before the exposure of the first measurement area. An exposure method in which, in the above-mentioned controlling step, the driving of the stage is controlled to position the surface height of the first measurement area at a target height during the exposure of the first measurement area based on the measured values of the surface heights of the first measurement area and the second measurement area obtained in the above-mentioned measuring step.

Description

Exposure apparatus, exposure method, and article manufacturing method The present disclosure relates to an exposure apparatus, an exposure method, and a method for manufacturing an article. In the manufacturing process of semiconductor devices, etc., an exposure device that performs scanning exposure of a substrate by scanning the substrate with light passing through a plate may be used as a lithography device for forming a pattern on a substrate. In such an exposure device, the surface height of the substrate is measured prior to exposure, and based on the measured value, the driving of a stage holding the substrate is controlled to position the surface height of the substrate at a target height (e.g., the focus position of a projection optical system). Japanese Patent Publication No. 9-246356 describes a method for measuring the height of a substrate surface at predetermined time intervals and determining a driving command value of a stage based on the measured value. More specifically, the surface height of position N on the substrate is measured, and a driving command value for exposing this position N is determined based on the measured value. Likewise, the surface height of position (N+1) on the substrate is measured, and a driving command value for exposing this position (N+1) is determined based on the measured value. In addition, the driving command value between position N and position (N+1) is determined by interpolating the driving command value determined for position N and the driving command value determined for position (N+1). Recently, as further improvements in productivity are required in photolithography equipment, it is necessary to shorten the time required for scanning exposure by increasing the scanning speed of the substrate. However, increasing the scanning speed of the substrate shortens the measurement time for measuring the surface height of each position (region) on the substrate prior to exposure, which may lead to a decrease in measurement precision. In this case, if the driving command value for exposing position N on the substrate is determined based solely on the measured value of the surface height of position N, as described in the method of Japanese Patent Publication No. 9-246356, it becomes difficult to precisely position the surface height of position N at the target height. In other words, the pattern formation precision may decrease. The accompanying drawings included in and constituting part of this specification illustrate embodiments of the present disclosure and serve to explain the principles of the present disclosure together with the detailed description. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of an exposure apparatus. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the positional relationship between a shot area, a light irradiation area, and a plurality of measurement points. FIG. 3a is a diagram illustrating the scanning exposure for each shot area. FIG. 3b is a diagram illustrating the scanning exposure for each shot area. Figure 4 is a graph showing the relationship between the scanning speed of the substrate, the measurement time, and the measurement gap. FIG. 5 is a drawing illustrating a plurality of measurement areas arranged in a shot area. FIG. 6 is a graph illustrating an example of control of the operation of the substrate stage in the first embodiment. FIG. 7 is a graph illustrating an example of control of the driving of the substrate stage in Example 1 of the second embodiment. FIG. 8 is a graph illustrating an example of control of the driving of the substrate stage in Example 2 of the second embodiment. FIG. 9 is a graph illustrating an example of control of the driving of the substrate stage in Example 3 of the second embodiment. FIG. 10 is a drawing illustrating a plurality of measurement areas arranged in a shot area. FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the photolithography process. FIG. 12 is a plan view of a substrate showing a location (sample shot area) to be measured for surface height. Hereinafter, embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. At this time, the following embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Although a plurality of features are described in the embodiments, the invention is not limited to requiring all such features, and a plurality of such features may be appropriately combined. Furthermore, in the accompanying drawings, identical or similar components are assigned the same reference number, and their redundant description is omitted. In this specification and the accompanying drawings, directions are indicated in an XYZ coordinate system in which the image plane (focus plane) of the projection optical system is defined as the XY plane. Directions parallel to the X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis of the XYZ coordinate system are designated as the X-direction, Y-direction, and Z-direction, respectively. Rotation around the X-axis,