An exposure apparatus includes: a light-emission unit that emits exposure light; a mask stage that holds an exposure mask; a workpiece stage that holds a workpiece; a projection optical system that irradiates the workpiece held by the workpiece stage with the exposure light emitted from the light-emission unit through the exposure mask; a reflective member disposed in an irradiation region for the exposure light applied from the projection optical system in a step of detecting a mask mark of the exposure mask; an alignment microscope that is disposed in an optical path of the exposure light applied to the mask mark and captures an image of the mask mark on the basis of reflected light reflected by the reflective member in the detection step; and a moving mechanism that moves the reflective member from a position deviated from the irradiation region to the irradiation region in the detection step.

A liquid immersion exposure apparatus includes a stage having a holder that holds a substrate, and is movable below a projection system, supply ports via which immersion liquid is supplied, the supply ports facing an upper surface of the substrate held on the holder, recovery ports via which the immersion liquid is collected and arranged such that (i) the upper surface of the substrate held on the holder faces the recovery ports and (ii) the recovery ports encircle a path of exposure light. The recovery ports collect the immersion liquid from the upper surface of the substrate such that only a portion of the upper surface of the substrate is covered with the immersion liquid. The stage is movable below a gas supply opening that supplies a gas. The stage is movable to a position where the supplied gas is supplied to a surface of the stage.

The present invention provides a number of innovations in the area of computational process control (CPC). CPC offers unique diagnostic capability during chip manufacturing cycle by analyzing temporal drift of a lithography apparatus/ process, and provides a solution towards achieving performance stability of the lithography apparatus/process. Embodiments of the present invention enable optimized process windows and higher yields by keeping performance of a lithography apparatus and/or parameters of a lithography process substantially close to a pre-defined baseline condition. This is done by comparing the measured temporal drift to a baseline performance using a lithography process simulation model. Once in manufacturing, CPC optimizes a scanner for specific patterns or reticles by leveraging wafer metrology techniques and feedback loop, and monitors and controls, among other things, overlay and/or CD uniformity (CDU) performance over time to continuously maintain the system close to the baseline condition.

Disclosed is an apparatus and method for performing a measurement operation on a substrate in accordance with one or more substrate alignment models. The one or more substrate alignment models are selected from a plurality of candidate substrate alignment models. The apparatus, which may be a lithographic apparatus, includes an external interface which enables selection of the substrate alignment model(s) and/or alteration of the substrate alignment model(s) prior to the measurement operation.

A liquid immersion exposure method exposes a substrate with exposure light through liquid, and uses a projection system, a stage system having a holder that holds the substrate, a supply port via which the liquid is supplied arranged such that an upper surface of the substrate faces the supply port and that is spaced a first distance from an optical axis of the projection system, and a recovery port via which the liquid is collected arranged such that the upper surface of the substrate faces the recovery port, which is spaced a second distance greater than the first distance from the optical axis of the projection system, and that encircles the supply port. In the method, the substrate held on the holder is positioned based on a detection result of an alignment system that detects an alignment mark of the substrate not through the liquid.

To reduce the occurrence of rework in the imprint process, an imprint apparatus that executes an imprint process of forming a pattern to an imprint material on a substrate using a mold includes an observation unit configured to observe a plurality of marks formed on the mold, and a control unit configured to select the marks to be used in the imprint process based on positions of the marks on the mold, cause the observation unit to observe the selected marks before the imprint process is executed, and determine whether or not the imprint process is executable, based on an observation result.

A compact sensor apparatus having an illumination beam, a beam shaping system, a polarization modulation system, a beam projection system, and a signal detection system. The beam shaping system is configured to shape an illumination beam generated from the illumination system and generate a flat top beam spot of the illumination beam over a wavelength range from 400 nm to 2000 nm. The polarization modulation system is configured to provide tenability of linear polarization state of the illumination beam. The beam projection system is configured to project the flat top beam spot toward a target, such as an alignment mark on a substrate. The signal detection system is configured to collect a signal beam comprising diffraction order sub-beams generated from the target, and measure a characteristic (e.g., overlay) of the target based on the signal beam.

While a wafer stage moves linearly in a Y-axis direction, surface position information of a wafer surface at a plurality of detection points set at a predetermined interval in an X-axis direction is detected by a multipoint AF system, and by a plurality of alignment systems arranged in a line along the X-axis direction, marks at different positions on the wafer are each detected, and a part of a chipped shot of the wafer is exposed by a periphery edge exposure system. This allows throughput to be improved when compared with the case when detection operation of the marks, detection operation of the surface position information (focus information), and periphery edge exposure operation are performed independently.

While a wafer stage moves linearly in a Y-axis direction, surface position information of a wafer surface at a plurality of detection points set at a predetermined interval in an X-axis direction is detected by a multipoint AF system, and by a plurality of alignment systems arranged in a line along the X-axis direction, marks at different positions on the wafer are each detected, and a part of a chipped shot of the wafer is exposed by a periphery edge exposure system. This allows throughput to be improved when compared with the case when detection operation of the marks, detection operation of the surface position information (focus information), and periphery edge exposure operation are performed independently.

While a wafer stage moves linearly in a Y-axis direction, surface position information of a wafer surface at a plurality of detection points set at a predetermined interval in an X-axis direction is detected by a multipoint AF system, and by a plurality of alignment systems arranged in a line along the X-axis direction, marks at different positions on the wafer are each detected, and a part of a chipped shot of the wafer is exposed by a periphery edge exposure system. This allows throughput to be improved when compared with the case when detection operation of the marks, detection operation of the surface position information (focus information), and periphery edge exposure operation are performed independently.