Patents by Inventor Yousuke Shirata

Yousuke Shirata 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).

  • Exposure apparatus, operation decision method, substrate processing system, maintenance management method, and device manufacturing method
    Patent number: 7692764
    Abstract: An exposure apparatus is equipped with a main controller that decides an operation of the exposure apparatus based on information on maintenance from a C/D. Therefore, the main controller can decide to perform a specific operation, which is necessary for maintaining performance of the exposure apparatus and requires stop of the primary operation of the exposure apparatus, during maintenance of the C/D, that is, when the primary operation of the exposure apparatus has to be stopped by necessity, in parallel with the maintenance of the C/D. As a consequence, downtime of the exposure apparatus necessary for performing the specific operation can be decreased as a whole, which makes it possible to improve the operating rate without lowering apparatus performance of the exposure apparatus that is inline connected to a substrate processing apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2010
    Assignee: Nikon Corporation
    Inventor: Yousuke Shirata
  • Exposure Apparatus, Operation Decision Method, Substrate Processing System, Maintenance Management Method, and Device Manufacuring Method
    Publication number: 20070252966
    Abstract: An exposure apparatus is equipped with a main controller that decides an operation of the exposure apparatus based on information on maintenance from a C/D. Therefore, the main controller can decide to perform a specific operation, which is necessary for maintaining performance of the exposure apparatus and requires stop of the primary operation of the exposure apparatus, during maintenance of the C/D, that is, when the primary operation of the exposure apparatus has to be stopped by necessity, in parallel with the maintenance of the C/D. As a consequence, downtime of the exposure apparatus necessary for performing the specific operation can be decreased as a whole, which makes it possible to improve the operating rate without lowering apparatus performance of the exposure apparatus that is inline connected to a substrate processing apparatus.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 29, 2005
    Publication date: November 1, 2007
    Inventor: Yousuke Shirata