Patents by Inventor Yuji Shinano

Yuji Shinano has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 8450031
    Abstract: The present invention provides a determination method of determining a light intensity distribution to be formed on a pupil plane of an illumination optical system in an exposure apparatus, the method including a step of setting a cut line used to evaluate an image of a pattern of a mask, which is formed on an image plane of a projection optical system, and a target value of a dimension of the image, and a step of obtaining the dimension of the image of the pattern on the cut line, and determining a weight to be applied to each of a plurality of element light sources such that the obtained dimension comes close to the target value of the dimension, thereby determining, as the light intensity distribution, light sources obtained by combining the plurality of element light sources applied with the weights.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2013
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yuichi Gyoda, Hiroyuki Ishii, Youzou Fukagawa, Yuji Shinano
  • Publication number: 20120052448
    Abstract: The present invention provides a determination method of determining a light intensity distribution to be formed on a pupil plane of an illumination optical system in an exposure apparatus, the method including a step of setting a cut line used to evaluate an image of a pattern of a mask, which is formed on an image plane of a projection optical system, and a target value of a dimension of the image, and a step of obtaining the dimension of the image of the pattern on the cut line, and determining a weight to be applied to each of a plurality of element light sources such that the obtained dimension comes close to the target value of the dimension, thereby determining, as the light intensity distribution, light sources obtained by combining the plurality of element light sources applied with the weights.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2011
    Publication date: March 1, 2012
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yuichi GYODA, Hiroyuki ISHII, Youzou FUKAGAWA, Yuji SHINANO
  • Patent number: 8102503
    Abstract: The present invention provides an exposure apparatus comprising a projection optical system including an optical element of which at least one of a position, orientation, and shape can be regulated, a regulator configured to regulate the at least one of the position, orientation, and shape of the optical element, and a controller configured to calculate, using quadratic programming, a regulation amount of the optical element that minimizes a value of an objective function expressed by a first dummy variable serving as an upper limit of a linear optical characteristic value of the projection optical system, and a second dummy variable serving as an upper limit of a quadratic optical characteristic value of the projection optical system, and to control the regulator based on the calculated regulation amount.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Yoshihara, Yuji Shinano
  • Publication number: 20090103065
    Abstract: The present invention provides an exposure apparatus comprising a projection optical system including an optical element of which at least one of a position, orientation, and shape can be regulated, a regulator configured to regulate the at least one of the position, orientation, and shape of the optical element, and a controller configured to calculate, using quadratic programming, a regulation amount of the optical element that minimizes a value of an objective function expressed by a first dummy variable serving as an upper limit of a linear optical characteristic value of the projection optical system, and a second dummy variable serving as an upper limit of a quadratic optical characteristic value of the projection optical system, and to control the regulator based on the calculated regulation amount.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 15, 2008
    Publication date: April 23, 2009
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Yoshihara, Yuji Shinano
  • Patent number: 7301615
    Abstract: An optical apparatus which includes an image forming optical system having a movable optical element, and a driving mechanism configured to move the optical element. The apparatus includes a first block which measures a wavefront aberration of the optical system. A second block obtains a linear evaluation value of an aberration expressed by a linear function of a position of the movable optical element out of aberrations of the optical system, and a quadratic evaluation value of a square of a root mean square of the wavefront aberration measured by the first block expressed by a quadratic function of the position. A third block uses a dummy variable as an upper limit value of the linear evaluation value and obtains a minimum value of the dummy variable by a linear programming. A fourth block determines a position of the optical element to be moved by the driving mechanism.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2007
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Youzou Fukagawa, Toshiyuki Yoshihara, Mario Nakamori, Yuji Shinano
  • Patent number: 7230692
    Abstract: An optical apparatus including an image forming optical system having a movable optical element, and a driving mechanism. A first block obtains a linear evaluation value by normalizing, by a first tolerance, an aberration expressed by a linear function of a position of the movable optical element and normalizing, by a second tolerance, an aberration expressed by a quadratic function of the position out of the aberrations of the optical system. A second block obtains a minimum value of a dummy variable by linear programming. A third block determines a position of the optical element to be moved by the driving mechanism using a value prepared by adding a relaxation amount to the minimum value obtained by the second block and minimizes the weighted sum of the quadratic evaluation values by adjusting the weights assigned to the quadratic evaluation values and a relaxation amount.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2007
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Youzou Fukagawa, Toshiyuki Yoshihara, Mario Nakamori, Yuji Shinano
  • Publication number: 20070115458
    Abstract: An optical apparatus including an image forming optical system having a movable optical element, and a driving mechanism which moves the optical element is disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 25, 2007
    Publication date: May 24, 2007
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Youzou Fukagawa, Toshiyuki Yoshihara, Mario Nakamori, Yuji Shinano
  • Publication number: 20050206880
    Abstract: An optical apparatus including an image forming optical system having a movable optical element, and a driving mechanism which moves the optical element is disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 16, 2005
    Publication date: September 22, 2005
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Youzou Fukugawa, Toshiyuki Yoshihara, Mario Nakamori, Yuji Shinano