A liquid crystal exposure apparatus that exposes a substrate with an illumination light via a projection optical system is equipped with: a substrate holder that holds the substrate; a substrate encoder system that includes head units and scales, and acquires the position information of the substrate holder on the basis of the output of the head units; and a drive section that relatively moves one of the head units and the scales on the substrate holder with respect to the other.

The present application relates to a film mask comprising: a transparent substrate; a darkened light-shielding pattern layer provided on the transparent substrate; and an embossed pattern part provided on a surface of the transparent substrate, which is provided with the darkened light-shielding pattern layer, a method for manufacturing the same, a method for forming a pattern by using the same, and a pattern formed by using the same.

The present application relates to a film mask including: a transparent substrate; a darkened light-shielding pattern layer provided on the transparent substrate; and a release force enhancement layer provided on the darkened light-shielding pattern layer and having surface energy of 30 dynes/cm or less, a method for manufacturing the same, and a method for forming a pattern using the film mask.

A method for manufacturing an integrated circuit includes scanning a wafer with respect to a catadioptric projection objective and imaging a pattern on a mask onto a wafer while scanning the wafer. The imaging includes illuminating the mask with radiation; imaging, using the radiation, the pattern into a first intermediate image, the first intermediate image to a second intermediate image, and the second intermediate image into an image field arranged in an image surface where the wafer is arranged; and, manipulating one or more of optical elements while scanning the wafer to reduce errors in the image at the image field. A concave mirror arranged in a region of a pupil surface reflects the radiation. The projection objective also includes mirrors to deflect the radiation from the object field towards the concave mirror and to deflect the radiation from the concave mirror towards the image field. The deflection mirrors are mechanically coupled to a displacement device arranged to displace the first and second deflection mirrors.

Systems and methods are disclosed for stabilizing an optical column. One system can include an optical column; a frame configured to support the optical column, the frame having a first coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE); and a subframe configured to be coupled to the optical column in at least two places by a first anchor and a second anchor to stabilize the optical column against a displacement or a rotation caused by thermal expansion in the frame or the optical column, the subframe having a second CTE lower than the first CTE.

A lithography challenge for large heterogeneous integration of integrated circuit devices is the limited size of the exposure field (typically 60 mm?60 mm or smaller) for most currently available lithography systems, Smaller-field systems can be used to pattern large substrates (e.g., panels) by stitching together multiple exposure fields. However, the stitching of exposure fields affects both productivity and yield because of the need for multiple exposures, which includes multiple reticles, and a risk of alignment errors at the stitching boundaries, A large-exposure field eliminates these problems associated with smaller exposure fields. However, there are also challenges associated with a large-exposure field, such as exposing onto a possibly warped or distorted panel. Various examples disclosed herein include a post-overlay compensation method that use an overlay-model prior to exposing the panel to reduce or eliminate errors due to the warped, or distorted panel. Other methods and systems are also disclosed.

A substrate processing apparatus includes: a rotary cylindrical member (DR) that includes a cylindrical supporting surface curved with a constant radius from a predetermined center line (AX2) and that feeds a substrate (P) in a length direction of the substrate; a processing mechanism that performs a predetermined process on the substrate at a specific position (PA, EL2) of a part of the substrate; a scale member (SD) that rotates about the center line along with the rotary cylindrical member so as to measure a displacement in a circumferential direction of the supporting surface of the rotary cylindrical member or a displacement in a direction of the center line of the rotary cylindrical member and that includes a scale portion (GP) carved in a ring shape; and a reading mechanism (EN1, EN2) that faces the scale portion, that is disposed in substantially a same direction as the specific position when viewed from the center line, and that reads the scale portion.

The present disclosure generally relates to a method and apparatus for processing a web-based substrate. As the substrate travels between rollers, the substrate may be stretched and thus distorted. Once the substrate reaches the roller, the substrate distortion is fixed. By adjusting the processing parameters, the distorted substrate is processed without correcting the distortion.

The present disclosure provides a bearing device. The bearing device includes a bearing platform, a lifting passage extending through the bearing platform, a lifting structure in the lifting passage and a light reflection compensating block between the lifting structure and an inner wall of the lifting passage. A difference between a reflectivity ratio of a top surface of the light reflection compensating block and a reflectivity ratio of a bearing surface of the bearing platform is less than or equal to a threshold value. A difference between the reflectivity ratio of the top surface of the light reflection compensating block and a reflectivity ratio of a top surface of the lifting structure is less than or equal to the threshold value. The present disclosure further provides an exposure apparatus including the bearing device.

An exposure apparatus has a substrate holding member, a first supporting member, a second supporting member, and a driving system. The first supporting member supports the substrate holding member from below. The second supporting member supports the first supporting member from below such that the first supporting member and the second supporting member are capable of moving relative to each other. The driving system moves the substrate holding member, the first supporting member and the second supporting member. The driving system includes a first driving device and a second driving device, the first driving device moving the substrate holding member and the first supporting member in a direction along a predetermined axis, and the second driving device moving the second supporting member in the direction along the predetermined axis.