Patents by Inventor Haruhiko Kusunose

Haruhiko Kusunose 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).

  • Publication number: 20220178847
    Abstract: Resolution is improved in a required direction while maintaining contrast in inspection of an anamorphic mask. A method for inspecting a mask with a reduction rate at the time of exposure in a longitudinal direction different from a reduction rate at the time of exposure in a lateral direction according to the present disclosure includes capturing an image of the mask using a photodetector including a rectangular pixel, a ratio of a dimension of the rectangular pixel in the longitudinal direction to a dimension of the rectangular pixel in the lateral direction being equal to an inverse ratio of the reduction rate in the longitudinal direction to the reduction rate in the lateral direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 7, 2021
    Publication date: June 9, 2022
    Inventors: Keita SAITO, Haruhiko KUSUNOSE, Tsunehito KOHYAMA
  • Patent number: 11353802
    Abstract: Provided are an optical device capable of effectively preventing contamination and a method for preventing contamination of the same. An optical device according to an embodiment includes a light source that generates light containing EUV (Extreme UltraViolet) light or VUV (Vacuum UltraViolet) light, a chamber in which an object to be irradiated with the light is placed, an optical element placed inside the chamber to guide the light, an introduction unit that introduces hydrogen or helium into the chamber, a power supply that applies a negative voltage to the optical element in the chamber, an ammeter that measures an ion current flowing through the optical element, and a control unit that adjusts the amount of the hydrogen or the helium introduced according to a measurement result of the ammeter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2022
    Assignee: Lasertec Corporation
    Inventors: Haruhiko Kusunose, Tsunehito Kohyama
  • Publication number: 20210373447
    Abstract: Provided are an optical device capable of effectively preventing contamination and a method for preventing contamination of the same. An optical device according to an embodiment includes a light source that generates light containing EUV (Extreme UltraViolet) light or VUV (Vacuum UltraViolet) light, a chamber in which an object to be irradiated with the light is placed, an optical element placed inside the chamber to guide the light, an introduction unit that introduces hydrogen or helium into the chamber, a power supply that applies a negative voltage to the optical element in the chamber, an ammeter that measures an ion current flowing through the optical element, and a control unit that adjusts the amount of the hydrogen or the helium introduced according to a measurement result of the ammeter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 24, 2021
    Publication date: December 2, 2021
    Inventors: Haruhiko KUSUNOSE, Tsunehito KOHYAMA
  • Publication number: 20210247323
    Abstract: An inspection device according to the present disclosure includes a spheroidal mirror configured to reflect illumination light as convergent light, a plane mirror configured to reflect the illumination light incident as the convergent light and cause the reflected illumination light to be incident on an object of inspection as incident light, a projection optical system configured to focus reflected light of the incident light reflected by the object of inspection, and a detector configured to detect reflected light focused by the projection optical system, wherein an angle of incidence of an incident optical axis being an optical axis of the incident light on the object of inspection is greater than 6 [deg], an angle of reflection of a reflected optical axis being an optical axis of the reflected light on the object of inspection is greater than 6 [deg].
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 4, 2021
    Publication date: August 12, 2021
    Applicant: Lasertec Corporation
    Inventors: Kiwamu TAKEHISA, Tsunehito KOHYAMA, Hiroki MIYAI, Haruhiko KUSUNOSE
  • Patent number: 10712287
    Abstract: An inspection device according to the present disclosure includes a detector for inspection that includes a plurality of pixels arranged on a light receiving surface and acquires image data by transferring charge produced by light received by the plurality of pixels in a transfer direction at a specified transfer timing, a light source that emits illumination light including pulsed light, a pulse enable circuit that controls emission timing for the light source to emit the illumination light based on the transfer timing, an illumination optical system that illuminates an object to be inspected with the illumination light, a condensing optical system that condenses, on the detector for inspection, light from the object to be inspected illuminated with the illumination light, and a processing unit that inspects the object to be inspected by using the image data of the object to be inspected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2020
    Assignee: LASERTEC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masayasu Nishizawa, Haruhiko Kusunose, Tomohiro Suzuki
  • Patent number: 10706527
    Abstract: A correction method according to an embodiment includes illuminating an object to be inspected by using critical illumination by illumination light L11 generated by a light source 11, concentrating light from the object to be inspected illuminated by the illumination light L11 and acquiring image data of the object to be inspected by detecting the concentrated light by a first detector 23, concentrating part of the illumination light L11, and acquiring image data of a brightness distribution of the illumination light L11 by detecting the concentrated illumination light L11 by a second detector 33, and correcting the image data of the object to be inspected based on the image data of the brightness distribution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: LASERTEC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Tsunehito Kohyama, Haruhiko Kusunose, Kiwamu Takehisa, Hiroki Miyai, Itaru Matsugu
  • Patent number: 10645289
    Abstract: An optical apparatus and its vibration removing method capable of stabilizing a place where light is applied are provided. An optical apparatus according to an aspect of the present disclosure includes a light source chamber, an EUV light source, an optical system chamber, an optical system configured to guide light entering the optical system chamber to an object through a bellows, an optical sensor configured to detect EUV light L2 emitted from the EUV light source, a position sensor disposed to detect a relative position of the optical system chamber with respect to the light source chamber, and a second vibration removal unit configured to remove vibrations from the light source chamber based on detection results of the optical sensor and the position sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2020
    Assignee: Lasertec Corporation
    Inventor: Haruhiko Kusunose
  • Publication number: 20190277772
    Abstract: An inspection device according to the present disclosure includes a detector for inspection that includes a plurality of pixels arranged on a light receiving surface and acquires image data by transferring charge produced by light received by the plurality of pixels in a transfer direction at a specified transfer timing, a light source that emits illumination light including pulsed light, a pulse enable circuit that controls emission timing for the light source to emit the illumination light based on the transfer timing, an illumination optical system that illuminates an object to be inspected with the illumination light, a condensing optical system that condenses, on the detector for inspection, light from the object to be inspected illuminated with the illumination light, and a processing unit that inspects the object to be inspected by using the image data of the object to be inspected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 7, 2019
    Publication date: September 12, 2019
    Inventors: Masayasu NISHIZAWA, Haruhiko KUSUNOSE, Tomohiro SUZUKI
  • Publication number: 20180276812
    Abstract: A correction method according to an embodiment includes illuminating an object to be inspected by using critical illumination by illumination light L11 generated by a light source 11, concentrating light from the object to be inspected illuminated by the illumination light L11 and acquiring image data of the object to be inspected by detecting the concentrated light by a first detector 23, concentrating part of the illumination light L11, and acquiring image data of a brightness distribution of the illumination light L11 by detecting the concentrated illumination light L11 by a second detector 33, and correcting the image data of the object to be inspected based on the image data of the brightness distribution.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 23, 2018
    Publication date: September 27, 2018
    Inventors: Tsunehito KOHYAMA, Haruhiko KUSUNOSE, Kiwamu TAKEHISA, Hiroki MIYAI, Itaru MATSUGU
  • Publication number: 20180191958
    Abstract: An optical apparatus and its vibration removing method capable of stabilizing a place where light is applied are provided. An optical apparatus according to an aspect of the present disclosure includes a light source chamber, an EUV light source, an optical system chamber, an optical system configured to guide light entering the optical system chamber to an object through a bellows, an optical sensor configured to detect EUV light L2 emitted from the EUV light source, a position sensor disposed to detect a relative position of the optical system chamber with respect to the light source chamber, and a second vibration removal unit configured to remove vibrations from the light source chamber based on detection results of the optical sensor and the position sensor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 15, 2017
    Publication date: July 5, 2018
    Inventor: Haruhiko KUSUNOSE
  • Patent number: 9719859
    Abstract: The present invention is directed to the provision of an interferometer and a phase shift amount measuring apparatus that can precisely operate in the EUV region. The interferometer according to the invention comprises an illumination source for generating an illumination beam, an illumination system for projecting the illumination beam emitted from the illumination source onto a sample, and an imaging system for directing the reflected beam by the sample onto a detector. The illumination system includes a first diffraction grating for producing a first and second diffraction beams which respectively illuminate two areas on the sample where are shifted from each other by a given distance, and the imaging system includes a second grating for diffracting the first and second diffraction beams reflected by the sample to produce a third and fourth diffraction beams which are shifted from each other by a given distance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2017
    Assignee: LASERTEC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Haruhiko Kusunose, Kiwamu Takehisa
  • Patent number: 9638739
    Abstract: A defect coordinates measurement method includes a step of detecting detected coordinates of a fiducial mark and a defect of a mask blank placed on support pins, a step of detecting detected coordinates of the alignment mark of a reference mask placed on the support pins, a step of extracting a reference mark near the detected coordinates of the defect among the plurality of reference marks based on the detected coordinates of the defect of the mask blank and the alignment mark of the reference mask, a step of detecting detected coordinates of the extracted reference mark, and a step of calculating coordinates of the defect based on the detected coordinates of the reference mark and the detected coordinates of the defect.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2017
    Assignee: Lasertec Corporation
    Inventors: Haruhiko Kusunose, Hiroki Miyai
  • Patent number: 9588421
    Abstract: Provided with a pellicle inspection apparatus that inspects a pellicle film of a mask provided with a pellicle and used in EUV lithography. The pellicle inspection apparatus includes: an illumination optical system that projects a converging illuminating beam toward the pellicle film; a light collection optical system including an object lens having an optical axis substantially orthogonal to the pellicle film and that collects scattering light outgoing from a foreign substance present on the pellicle film; and a detection system that detects the scattering light collected by the light collection optical system, wherein an incident angle ?2 of the illuminating beam with respect to the pellicle film satisfies Expression ?2??0>?1+23°, where ?0 is a collecting angle (half angle) of the illuminating beam, and ?1 is a maximum light-receiving angle (half angle) of the object lens.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2017
    Assignee: Lasertec Corporation
    Inventors: Kiwamu Takehisa, Atsushi Tajima, Haruhiko Kusunose
  • Publication number: 20150293460
    Abstract: Provided with a pellicle inspection apparatus that inspects a pellicle film of a mask provided with a pellicle and used in EUV lithography. The pellicle inspection apparatus includes: an illumination optical system that projects a converging illuminating beam toward the pellicle film; a light collection optical system including an object lens having an optical axis substantially orthogonal to the pellicle film and that collects scattering light outgoing from a foreign substance present on the pellicle film; and a detection system that detects the scattering light collected by the light collection optical system, wherein an incident angle ?2 of the illuminating beam with respect to the pellicle film satisfies Expression ?2??0>?1+23°, where ?0 is a collecting angle (half angle) of the illuminating beam, and ?1 is a maximum light-receiving angle (half angle) of the object lens.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 10, 2015
    Publication date: October 15, 2015
    Inventors: Kiwamu TAKEHISA, Atsushi TAJIMA, Haruhiko KUSUNOSE
  • Patent number: 9117869
    Abstract: A chucking device is provided, the chucking device having low dusting characteristics and high detergent properties, and being capable of vacuum-sucking even a substrate having a large warpage, and a chucking method using the chucking device is also provided. The chucking device vacuum-sucks and holds a wafer. The chucking device includes a perforated plate having a plurality of through-holes and being mounted with a wafer, the through-holes penetrating through both sides of the perforated plate; a porous plate that supports a surface other than a mounting surface of the perforated plate, on which the wafer is mounted, transmits a vacuum state to the wafer through the plurality of through-holes, and has a pore to limit a flow rate; and a vacuum pump that exhausts an air through the pore of the porous plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2015
    Assignee: LASERTEC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Haruhiko Kusunose
  • Publication number: 20150204729
    Abstract: The present invention is directed to the provision of an interferometer and a phase shift amount measuring apparatus that can precisely operate in the EUV region. The interferometer according to the invention comprises an illumination source for generating an illumination beam, an illumination system for projecting the illumination beam emitted from the illumination source onto a sample, and an imaging system for directing the reflected beam by the sample onto a detector. The illumination system includes a first diffraction grating for producing a first and second diffraction beams which respectively illuminate two areas on the sample where are shifted from each other by a given distance, and the imaging system includes a second grating for diffracting the first and second diffraction beams reflected by the sample to produce a third and fourth diffraction beams which are shifted from each other by a given distance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 10, 2014
    Publication date: July 23, 2015
    Inventors: Haruhiko KUSUNOSE, Kiwamu TAKEHISA
  • Patent number: 9013787
    Abstract: A system including a microscope and an inspection apparatus in which an objective lens having a large numerical aperture is used for detecting a defect existing inside a sample. A light source apparatus produces linearly polarized light. The polarization maintaining fibers optically coupled to the light source apparatus project the linearly polarized light onto the sample surface as an illumination beam of P-polarized light at an incidence angle substantially equal to the Brewster's angle of the sample. The scattered light generated by the defect existing in the sample is emitted from the sample and is collected by the objective lens whose optical axis is perpendicular to the sample surface. Since the illumination beam of P-polarized light is projected at the incidence angle equal to the Brewster's angle of the sample, no surface reflection occurs and it is possible to use the objective lens having a large numerical aperture.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2015
    Assignee: Lasertec Corporation
    Inventors: Haruhiko Kusunose, Takamasa Tsubouchi
  • Publication number: 20140189998
    Abstract: Provided are a chucking device having low dusting characteristics and high detergent properties and capable of vacuum-sucking even a substrate having a large warpage, and a chucking method using the same. A chucking device according to an aspect of the present invention vacuum-sucks and holds a wafer. The chucking device includes: a perforated plate having a plurality of through-holes and being mounted with a wafer, the through-holes penetrating through both sides of the perforated plate; a porous plate that supports a surface other than a mounting surface of the perforated plate, on which the wafer is mounted, transmits a vacuum state to the wafer through the plurality of through-holes, and has a pore to limit a flow rate; and a vacuum pump that exhausts an air through the pore of the porous plate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 6, 2014
    Publication date: July 10, 2014
    Applicant: Lasertec Corporation
    Inventor: Haruhiko KUSUNOSE
  • Patent number: 8760642
    Abstract: Substrate inspection apparatus, in which the acquisition of the inspection data for a defect and the acquisition of the focus data of the objective lens are performed in parallel, includes an autofocus apparatus for controlling position of the objective lens along its optical axis. The autofocus apparatus includes a focus error detection unit and a focus control signal generation unit for generating a focus control signal for controlling the position of the objective lens for each scan line using a focus data signal composed of an objective position signal or the objective position signal to which a focus error signal is added. When “i” is assumed as a positive integer and “m” is as a natural number, the focus data signal which was acquired during the scanning period of i-th scan line is used to produce the focus control signal used to scan the (i+2m)-th scan line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2014
    Assignee: Lasertec Corporation
    Inventors: Zenta Hori, Haruhiko Kusunose, Koichi Moriizumi
  • Publication number: 20130245971
    Abstract: A defect coordinates measurement method includes a step of detecting detected coordinates of a fiducial mark and a defect of a mask blank placed on support pins, a step of detecting detected coordinates of the alignment mark of a reference mask placed on the support pins, a step of extracting a reference mark near the detected coordinates of the defect among the plurality of reference marks based on the detected coordinates of the defect of the mask blank and the alignment mark of the reference mask, a step of detecting detected coordinates of the extracted reference mark, and a step of calculating coordinates of the defect based on the detected coordinates of the reference mark and the detected coordinates of the defect.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 8, 2013
    Publication date: September 19, 2013
    Applicant: Lasertec Corporation
    Inventors: Haruhiko KUSUNOSE, Hiroki MIYAI