Semiconductor exposure device

Claim 1

A semiconductor light exposure apparatus comprising: an ultraviolet laser light generating device; a uniform illumination device having the operation of producing an optical path difference; and a projection device for projecting a pre-set pattern on a substrate using the laser light outgoing from said uniform illumination device; said ultraviolet laser light generating device including a pulsed laser light source oscillated with a longitudinal single mode; a phase modulation device for phase modulating the fundamental laser light outgoing from the pulsed laser light source with a voltage signal composed of plural frequency components; and a wavelength conversion device for converting the wavelength of the fundamental laser light phase-modulated by the phase modulation device into the wavelength of the ultraviolet light.

Claim 11

A method for producing a circuit pattern in which fundamental laser light outgoing from a pulsed laser light source adapted for oscillation with a longitudinal single mode is caused to be incident on wavelength conversion device for generating ultraviolet laser light having a center wavelength equal to 1/n of the wavelength of the fundamental laser light, wherein n is a natural number not less than 2, and in which the ultraviolet laser light thus generated is illuminated on a mask for transcribing a pattern of the mask via a projection optical system on a photosensitive substrate, comprising the steps of: phase-modulating the fundamental laser light by electro-optical phase modulation device so that, with Δλ being a wavelength width of the ultraviolet laser light associated with the amount of chromatic aberration allowed by the projection optical system, the effective spectral width of the fundamental laser light incident on the wavelength conversion device will be approximately equal to n·Δλ; and a step of setting frequency components of a signal driving said phase modulation device so that, if a set of lenses making up an projection optical system of said light projection device is formed of a single sort of the vitreous material, the coherent length corresponding to the wavelength width Δλ of the ultraviolet laser light will be approximately equal to 80 mm or longer, and of setting the frequency components of the signal driving the phase modulation device so that, if the projection optical system is formed by an achromatic projection lens formed of plural sorts of vitreous materials, or by the combination of a transmitting optical lens and a reflective optical element, the coherent length corresponding to the wavelength width Δλ of the ultraviolet laser light will be approximately equal to 80 mm or less.

Claim 12

A method for producing a circuit pattern in which fundamental laser light outgoing from a pulsed laser light source adapted for oscillation with a longitudinal single mode is caused to be incident on wavelength conversion device for generating ultraviolet laser light having a center wavelength equal to 1/n of the wavelength of the fundamental laser light, wherein n is a natural number not less than 2, and in which the ultraviolet laser light thus generated is illuminated on a mask for transcribing a pattern of the mask via a projection optical system on a photosensitive substrate, comprising the steps of: phase-modulating the fundamental laser light by electro-optical phase modulation device so that, with Δλ being a wavelength width of the ultraviolet laser light associated with the amount of chromatic aberration allowed by the projection optical system, the effective spectral width of the fundamental laser light incident on the wavelength conversion device will be approximately equal to n·Δλ; and a step of setting frequency components of a signal driving said phase modulation device so that, if a set of lenses making up an projection optical system of said light projection device is formed of a single sort of the vitreous material, the coherent length corresponding to the wavelength width Δλ of the ultraviolet laser light will be approximately equal to 80 mm or longer, and of setting the frequency components of the signal driving the phase modulation device so that, if the projection optical system is formed by an achromatic projection lens formed of plural sorts of vitreous materials, or by the combination of a transmitting optical lens and a reflective optical element, the coherent length corresponding to the wavelength width Δλ of the ultraviolet laser light will be approximately equal to 80 mm or less.