Projection exposure apparatus

Claim 2

A projection exposure apparatus comprising: a projection optical system for projection-exposing a pattern of a mask onto a photosensitive substrate; a stage for holding said photosensitive substrate, and for horizontally moving in a plane perpendicular to an optical axis of said projection optical system and vertically moving in a direction of the optical axis; surface position detecting means for detecting, at a predetermined measurement point in a field of said projection optical system, a positional shift amount in the optical axis direction of the surface of said photosensitive substrate with respect to a reference plane set to substantially agree with a best image plane of said projection optical system; focusing operation control means for vertically moving said stage during a focusing operation so that the positional shift amount becomes a predetermined value or less; surface deviation measuring means for sequentially measuring n positional deviations in the optical axis direction between n first positions at substantially the centers of n specific local areas of a plurality of local areas on said photosensitive substrate to be exposed to a projected image of said pattern, and n second positions apart from the first positions by a predetermined amount in a predetermined direction and present in the n specific local areas, on the basis of the positional shift amount from said surface position detecting means; calculating means for selecting m positional deviations falling within a predetermined tolerance from the n positional deviations and calculating an average value of the m selected positional deviations; and correcting means for correcting said surface position detecting means such that said reference plane is displaced in the optical axis direction by the calculated average value, wherein said focusing operation control means is operated in the corrected state, thereby performing a focusing operation for each local area of said photosensitive substrate when exposure is performed.

Claim 3

An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second positions are set at a plurality of locations in each of the local areas so as to be apart from the first positions by different distances in different directions, and said measuring means measures the positional deviation between each of a plurality of second positions and the first position in one local area and outputs an average value of a plurality of positional deviations measured in one local area as a representative positional deviation to said calculating means.

Claim 4

A projection exposure apparatus comprising: a projection optical system for projection-exposing a pattern of a mask onto a photosensitive substrate; surface position detecting means for detecting, at a predetermined measurement point in a field of said projection optical system, a positional shift amount in the optical axis direction of the surface of said photosensitive substrate with respect to a reference plane set to substantially agree with a best image plane of said projection optical system; surface deviation measuring means for sequentially measuring n positional deviations in the optical axis direction between n first positions at substantially the centers of n specific local areas of a plurality of local areas on said photosensitive substrate to be exposed to a projected image of said pattern, and n second positions apart from the first positions by a predetermined amount in a predetermined direction and present in the n specific local areas, on the basis of the positional shift amount from said surface position detecting means; and correcting means for correcting said surface position detecting means such that said reference plane is displaced in the optical axis direction by a value corresponding to at least one of the n positional deviations.

Claim 5

A projection exposure apparatus comprising: a projection optical system for projection-exposing a pattern of a mask onto a photosensitive substrate; surface position detecting means for detecting, at a predetermined measurement point in a field of said projection optical system, a positional shift amount in the optical axis direction of the surface of said photosensitive substrate with respect to a reference plane set to substantially agree with a best image plane of said projection optical system; surface deviation measuring means for sequentially measuring n positional deviations in the optical axis direction between n first positions at substantially the centers of n specific local areas of a plurality of local areas on said photosensitive substrate to be exposed to a projected image of said pattern, and n second positions apart from the first positions by a predetermined amount in a predetermined direction and present in the n specific local areas, on the basis of the positional shift amount from said surface position detecting means; and correcting means for correcting said surface position detecting means such that said reference plane is displaced in the optical axis direction by a value corresponding to at least one of the n positional deviations.

Claim 6

A projection exposure apparatus comprising: a projection optical system for projection-exposing a pattern of a mask onto one of a plurality of shot areas on a photosensitive substrate; a stage for holding said photosensitive substrate, and for horizontally moving in a plane perpendicular to an optical axis of said projection optical system and vertically moving in a direction of the optical axis; mark detecting means for photoelectrically detecting alignment marks formed in the shot areas on said photosensitive substrate via said projection optical system; surface position detecting means for detecting a positional shift amount in the optical axis direction of the surface of said photosensitive substrate included in a detection area set at a predetermined position in a field of said projection optical system; focusing operation control means for vertically moving said stage on the basis of the detected positional shift amount in order to perform a focusing operation; positional deviation measuring means for, when said stage is horizontally moved to align said photosensitive substrate so that the marks formed in n particular shot areas on said photosensitive substrate are sequentially detected by said mark detecting means, setting in the detection area n first positions at substantially the centers of the n particular shot areas and n second positions apart from the first positions by a predetermined amount in a predetermined direction and present in the shot areas, and measuring a positional deviation in the optical axis direction between the first and second positions in each of the n shot areas; calculating means for selecting n positional deviations falling within a predetermined tolerance from the n positional deviations and calculating an average value of the m selected positional deviations; and correcting means for correcting said surface position detecting means such that a position as a reference of the positional shift detection performed by said surface position detecting means is displaced in the optical axis direction by the calculated average value.

Claim 7

A projection exposure apparatus comprising: a projection optical system for projection-exposing a pattern of a mask onto one of a plurality of shot areas on a photosensitive substrate; a stage for holding said photosensitive substrate, and for horizontally moving in a plane perpendicular to an optical axis of said projection optical system and vertically moving in a direction of the optical axis; mark detecting means for photoelectrically detecting alignment marks formed in the shot areas on said photosensitive substrate via said projection optical system; surface position detecting means for detecting a positional shift amount in the optical axis direction of the surface of said photosensitive substrate included in a detection area set at a predetermined position in a field of said projection optical system; focusing operation control means for vertically moving said stage on the basis of the detected positional shift amount in order to perform a focusing operation; positional deviation measuring means for, when said stage is horizontally moved to align said photosensitive substrate so that the marks formed in n particular shot areas on said photosensitive substrate are sequentially detected by said mark detecting means, setting in the detection area n first positions at substantially the centers of the n particular shot areas and n second positions apart from the first positions by a predetermined amount in a predetermined direction and present in the shot areas, and measuring a positional deviation in the optical axis direction between the first and second positions in each of the n shot areas; calculating means for selecting n positional deviations falling within a predetermined tolerance from the n positional deviations and calculating an average value of the m selected positional deviations; and correcting means for correcting said surface position detecting means such that a position as a reference of the positional shift detection performed by said surface position detecting means is displaced in the optical axis direction by the calculated average value.

Claim 8

A projection exposure apparatus comprising: a projection optical system for projection-exposing a pattern of a mask onto one of a plurality of shot areas on a photosensitive substrate; mark detecting means for photoelectrically detecting alignment marks formed in the shot areas on said photosensitive substrate via said projection optical system; surface position detecting means for detecting a positional shift amount in the optical axis direction of the surface of said photosensitive substrate included in a detection area set at a predetermined position in a field of said projection optical system; positional deviation measuring means for, when said photosensitive substrate is horizontally moved to align said photosensitive substrate so that the marks formed in n particular shot areas on said photosensitive substrate are sequentially detected by said mark detecting means, setting in the detection area n first positions at substantially the centers the n particular shot areas and n second positions apart from the first positions by a predetermined amount in a predetermined direction and present in the shot areas, and measuring a positional deviation in the optical axis direction between the first and second positions in each of the n shot areas; and correcting means for correcting said surface position detecting means such that a position as a reference of the positional shift detection performed by said surface position detecting means is displaced in the optical axis direction by a value corresponding to at least one of the n positional deviations.

Claim 9

A projection exposure apparatus comprising: a projection optical system for projection-exposing a pattern of a mask onto one of a plurality of shot areas on a photosensitive substrate; mark detecting means for photoelectrically detecting alignment marks formed in the shot areas on said photosensitive substrate via said projection optical system; surface position detecting means for detecting a positional shift amount in the optical axis direction of the surface of said photosensitive substrate included in a detection area set at a predetermined position in a field of said projection optical system; positional deviation measuring means for, when said photosensitive substrate is horizontally moved to align said photosensitive substrate so that the marks formed in n particular shot areas on said photosensitive substrate are sequentially detected by said mark detecting means, setting in the detection area n first positions at substantially the centers the n particular shot areas and n second positions apart from the first positions by a predetermined amount in a predetermined direction and present in the shot areas, and measuring a positional deviation in the optical axis direction between the first and second positions in each of the n shot areas; and correcting means for correcting said surface position detecting means such that a position as a reference of the positional shift detection performed by said surface position detecting means is displaced in the optical axis direction by a value corresponding to at least one of the n positional deviations.