Projection exposure apparatus with optimized adjustment possibility

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10054860-B2
Application number	US-201615149475-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 9, 2016
Priority date	Sep 25, 2008
Publication date	Aug 21, 2018
Grant date	Aug 21, 2018

Abstract

A projection apparatus for microlithography for imaging an object field includes an objective, one or a plurality of manipulators for manipulating one or a plurality of optical elements of the objective, a control unit for regulating or controlling the one or the plurality of manipulators, a determining device for determining at least one or a plurality of image aberrations of the objective, a memory comprising upper bounds for one or a plurality of specifications of the objective, including upper bounds for image aberrations and/or movements for the manipulators, wherein when determining an overshooting of one of the upper bounds by one of the image aberrations and/or an overshooting of one of the upper bounds by one of the manipulator movements by regulation or control of at least one manipulator within at most 30000 ms, or 10000 ms, or 5000 ms, or 1000 ms, or 200 ms, or 20 ms, or 5 ms, or 1 ms, an undershooting of the upper bounds can be effected.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
an objective, comprising:
an optical element; and
a manipulator configured to manipulate the optical element; and

a control unit configured to control the manipulator, the control unit comprising:
a first device configured to control the manipulation of the optical element by the manipulator;
a memory comprising a bound for a range of the manipulation of the optical element by the manipulator; and
a second device configured to calculate a value of a merit function based on at least one error and configured to minimize the merit function subordinate to the bound for the range of the manipulation of the optical element by the manipulator,

wherein the merit function comprises a regularization parameter and the objective is a microlithography projection objective.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the objective comprises a plurality of optical elements and a plurality of manipulators, and each optical element has a corresponding manipulator.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the first device is configured to control movement of each manipulator.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one error is selected from the group consisting of scale error, telecentricity error, overlay error, depth of focus error, best focus errors and errors due to image aberrations produced by integration of a plurality of field points.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one error comprises at least one image aberration.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the merit function comprises a parameter describing a sensitivity matrix.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the objective comprises first, second and third optical elements, the first optical element is near a pupil plane of the objective, the second optical element is near a field plane of the objective, and the third optical element is not near a pupil plane of the objective or a field plane of the objective.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control unit is configured to control the manipulator in real time within 15000 ms.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control unit is configured to control the manipulator in real time within 200 ms.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the control unit is configured to control the manipulator in real time within 20 ms.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the merit function comprises a linear function of a degree of freedom of the manipulation of the optical element by the manipulator.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the merit function comprises a quadratic function of a degree of freedom of the manipulation of the optical element by the manipulator.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second device is configured to minimize the merit function using a linear programming.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second device is configured to minimize the merit function using a quadratic programming.

15. The system of claim 1 , wherein calculating the value of the merit function comprises generating the merit function.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein generating the merit function comprises determining a parameter of the merit function based on a statistical distribution.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein generating the merit function comprises determining a parameter of the merit function based on a look-up table.

18. The system of claim 1 , wherein calculating the value of the merit function comprises adjusting weighting coefficients of the merit function.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the weighting coefficients represent the weighting of different degrees of freedom of the manipulation.

20. The system of claim 18 , wherein the weighting coefficients represent the weighting of different errors.

21. The system of claim 1 , wherein the manipulation of the optical element by the manipulator comprises at least one element selected from the group consisting of shifting the optical element, rotating the optical element and deforming the optical element.

22. The system of claim 1 , wherein the manipulation of the optical element by the manipulator comprises exchanging the optical element.

23. The system of claim 1 , wherein the manipulation of the optical element by the manipulator comprises at least one element selected from the group consisting of heating the optical element and cooling the optical element.

24. The system of claim 1 , wherein the optical element is a reflective optical element.

25. The system of claim 1 , wherein the optical element is a reflective optical element in the vicinity of a pupil plane.

26. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the objective has a folded design comprising first, second and third objective parts;
the optical element comprises a reflective optical element in the second objective part;
the first objective part comprises refractive optical elements; and
the third objective part comprises refractive optical elements.

27. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the objective has a folded design comprising first, second and third objective parts;
the optical element comprises a reflective optical element in the vicinity of a pupil plane in the second objective part;
the first objective part comprises refractive optical elements; and
the third objective part comprises refractive optical elements.

28. The system of claim 1 , wherein the optical element comprises a refractive optical element.

Assignees

• Zeiss Carl Smt Gmbh

Inventors

• Bittner Boris
• Walter Holger
• Roesch Matthias

Classifications

• G03F7/70891

  Temperature · CPC title

• G03F7/70191

  Optical correction elements, filters or phase plates for controlling intensity, wavelength, polarisation, phase or the like · CPC title

• G03F7/70266 Primary

  Adaptive optics, e.g. deformable optical elements for wavefront control, e.g. for aberration adjustment or correction · CPC title

• G03F7/70533

  Controlling abnormal operating mode, e.g. taking account of waiting time, decision to rework or rework flow · CPC title

• G03F7/705

  Modelling or simulating from physical phenomena up to complete wafer processes or whole workflow in wafer productions · CPC title