Abstract: A method for manufacturing a semiconductor integrated circuit in each of a plurality of regions on a substrate, the method includes forming an electronic circuit as a part of the semiconductor integrated circuit in each of the plurality of regions by using a mask pattern fixed to a mask substrate, and forming a specific circuit, which expresses specific information specific to each of the semiconductor integrated circuits, on a part of each of the plurality of regions by using a variable shaping exposure apparatus having a variable shaping mask, the specific circuits formed on the plurality of regions being different from each other.

Abstract: An exposure apparatus includes (i) a projection optical system, (ii) a substrate stage having a substrate holder on which a substrate is held, which is movable while holding the substrate with the substrate holder, and (iii) a reference member having a first reference and a second reference for performing an alignment process, the reference member being provided on the substrate stage. At least part of an upper surface of the reference member includes a liquid repellent material. The substrate is aligned based on information obtained from the alignment process. The substrate is exposed through liquid in a liquid immersion area formed locally on an upper surface of the substrate.

Abstract: A liquid immersion exposure apparatus includes a projection system, a movable stage, an alignment system and a measurement member. The projection system has a last optical element, and projects a beam onto a substrate through an immersion liquid. The movable stage has a holder by which the substrate is held. The alignment system detects an alignment mark on the substrate not through the immersion liquid. The measurement member is provided on the movable stage, and has a reference mark to be detected by the alignment system not through the immersion liquid. The measurement member has a material to form the reference mark, the material being covered with a light-transmissive material. The movable stage is movable to a position so that the measurement member is under the projection system and a gap between the projection system and the measurement member is filled with the immersion liquid.

Abstract: A liquid immersion exposure apparatus includes a projection system, a movable stage, an alignment system and a measurement member. The projection system has a last optical element, and projects a beam onto a substrate through an immersion liquid. The movable stage has a holder by which the substrate is held. The alignment system detects an alignment mark on the substrate not through the immersion liquid. The measurement member is provided on the movable stage, and has a reference mark to be detected by the alignment system not through the immersion liquid. The measurement member has a material to form the reference mark, the material being covered with a light-transmissive material. The movable stage is movable to a position so that the measurement member is under the projection system and a gap between the projection system and the measurement member is filled with the immersion liquid.

Abstract: An exposure apparatus exposes a substrate with an exposure beam via a projection system supported by a frame. A substrate stage having a table that mounts the substrate is placed on a base under the projection system. A measurement device has a plurality of heads provided at the table and each irradiate a measurement beam on a grating section supported by the frame, and measures positional information of the table by a head of the plural heads, that faces the grating section. A drive device drives the substrate stage to move the substrate. A controller controls a drive of the substrate stage based on displacement information of a head used in measurement of the positional information or correction information to compensate a measurement error of the measurement device that occurs due to a displacement of the head, and based on the positional information measured by the measurement device.

Abstract: A liquid immersion exposure apparatus includes a projection system, a movable stage, an alignment system and a measurement member. The projection system has a last optical element, and projects a beam onto a substrate through an immersion liquid. The movable stage has a holder by which the substrate is held. The alignment system detects an alignment mark on the substrate not through the immersion liquid. The measurement member is provided on the movable stage, and has a reference mark to be detected by the alignment system not through the immersion liquid. The measurement member has a material to form the reference mark, the material being covered with a light-transmissive material. The movable stage is movable to a position so that the measurement member is under the projection system and a gap between the projection system and the measurement member is filled with the immersion liquid.

Abstract: A wafer stage is moved while monitoring a position using an X interferometer and a Y interferometer, and a Z position of a Y scale arranged on the wafer stage upper surface is measured using a surface position sensor. In this case, for example, from a difference of measurement results of two surface position sensors, tilt of the Y scale in the Y-axis direction is obtained. By measuring the tilt of the entire surface of a pair of Y scales, two-dimensional unevenness data of the scales are made. By correcting the measurement results of the position surface sensor using the unevenness data, and then using the corrected measurement results, it becomes possible to drive wafer stage WST two-dimensionally with high precision.

Abstract: On the +X and ?X sides of a projection unit, a plurality of Z heads are arranged in parallel to the X-axis, by a predetermined distance half or less than half the effective width of the Y scale so that two Z heads each constantly form a pair and face a pair of Y scales. Of the pair of heads consisting of two Z heads which simultaneously face the scale, measurement values of a priority head is used, and when abnormality occurs in the measurement values of the priority head due to malfunction of the head, measurement values of the other head is used, and the positional information of the stage in at least the Z-axis direction can be measured in a stable manner and with high precision.

Abstract: A liquid immersion exposure apparatus includes a projection system, a movable stage, an alignment system and a measurement member. The projection system has a last optical element, and projects a beam onto a substrate through an immersion liquid. The movable stage has a holder by which the substrate is held. The alignment system detects an alignment mark on the substrate not through the immersion liquid. The measurement member is provided on the movable stage, and has a reference mark to be detected by the alignment system not through the immersion liquid. The measurement member has a material to form the reference mark, the material being covered with a light-transmissive material. The movable stage is movable to a position so that the measurement member is under the projection system and a gap between the projection system and the measurement member is filled with the immersion liquid.

Abstract: A liquid immersion exposure apparatus includes a projection system having a last optical element, the projection system projecting a beam onto a substrate through an immersion liquid; a movable stage having a holder by which the substrate is held; a measurement member provided on the movable stage, the measurement member having a measurement portion covered with a light-transmissive material; a first alignment system by which an alignment mark is detected not through the immersion liquid; and a second alignment system which optically obtains, using the measurement member, first positional information of the beam projected by the projection system through the immersion liquid. In order to obtain the first positional information, the movable stage is moved so that the measurement member is under the projection system and a gap between the projection system and the measurement member is filled with the immersion liquid.

Abstract: On the +X and ?X sides of a projection unit, a plurality of Y heads are arranged in parallel to the X-axis by a predetermined distance half or less than half the effective width of the scale, so that two heads each constantly form a pair and face a pair of Y scales. Similarly, on the +Y and ?Y sides of the projection unit, a plurality of X heads are arranged in parallel to the Y-axis by the predetermined distance described above, so that two heads each constantly form a pair and face a pair of X scales. Of the pair of heads consisting of two heads which simultaneously face the scale, measurement values of a priority head is used, and when abnormality occurs in the measurement values of the priority head due to malfunction of the head, measurement values of the other head is used. Then, by using the measurement values of the two pairs of Y heads and the pair of X heads, a position of a stage within a two-dimensional plane is measured in a stable manner and with high precision.

Abstract: An exposure apparatus exposes a substrate with an exposure beam via a projection system supported by a frame. A substrate stage having a table that mounts the substrate is placed on a base under the projection system. A measurement device has a plurality of heads provided at the table and each irradiate a measurement beam on a grating section supported by the frame, and measures positional information of the table by a head of the plural heads, that faces the grating section. A drive device drives the substrate stage to move the substrate. A controller controls a drive of the substrate stage based on displacement information of a head used in measurement of the positional information or correction information to compensate a measurement error of the measurement device that occurs due to a displacement of the head, and based on the positional information measured by the measurement device.

Abstract: A controller uses two Z heads, which are positioned above a reflection surface installed on the ±X ends of the upper surface of a wafer table, to measure the height and tilt of the wafer table. The Z head to be used is switched according to XY positions of the wafer table. On the switching of the heads, the controller applies a coordinate linkage method to set an initial value of the Z head which is to be newly used. Accordingly, although the Z head to be used is sequentially switched according the XY position of the wafer table, measurement results of the height and the tilt of the wafer table are stored before and after the switching, and it becomes possible to drive the wafer table with high precision.

Abstract: A plurality of heads configuring an encoder system is arranged on a wafer table, and positional information of a wafer table in the XY plane is measured, based on an output of a head opposed to a scale plate (diffraction grating). And, a relative position (including relative attitude and rotation) of each head with the wafer table is measured herein by a measurement system arranged inside the head. Accordingly, by correcting the positional information based on the information of the relative position which has been measured, a highly precise measurement of the positional information of the wafer table becomes possible even in the case when the position (attitude, rotation) of the head changes with the movement of the wafer table.

Abstract: A first positional information of a wafer stage is measured using an interferometer system such as, for example, a Z interferometer. At the same time, a second positional information of the wafer stage is measured using a surface position measurement system such as, for example, two Z heads. Moving average is applied to a difference between the first positional information and the second positional information for a predetermined measurement time to set a coordinate offset, which is used to inspect the reliability of output signals of the surface position measurement system. When the output signals are confirmed to be normal, servo control of the wafer stage is performed using a sum of the first positional information and the coordinate offset. According to this hybrid method, drive control of the wafer stage which has the stability of the interferometer and the precision of the Z heads becomes possible.

Abstract: In an exposure apparatus of a liquid immersion exposure method, a liquid immersion area is formed on the upper surface of a wafer by liquid supplied in a space formed with a projection optical system, and on a moving table holding the wafer, a plurality of encoder heads is placed. Of the plurality of encoder heads, a controller measures positional information of the moving table within an XY plane using an encoder head which is outside a liquid immersion area. This allows a highly precise and stable measurement of positional information of the moving table.

Abstract: Drive-control of a movable body along a two-dimensional plane includes a process in which on switching from servo control of position in directions of three degrees of freedom of the movable body within a plane parallel to the two-dimensional plane using a first detection device to servo control using an encoder system, a detection device that detects positional information of the movable body in a direction perpendicular to the two-dimensional plane and tilt direction around at least one axis with respect to the two-dimensional plane switches from a second detection device when the movable body is in a suspended state, to a third detection device that has a plurality of detection positions placed in at least a part of an operating area of the movable body, and detects positional information in the perpendicular direction when the movable body is positioned at any of the detection positions.

Abstract: On the +X and ?X sides of a projection unit, a plurality of Y heads are arranged in parallel to the X-axis by a distance half or less than half the effective width of the scale, so that two heads each constantly form a pair and face a pair of Y scales. Similarly, on the +Y and ?Y sides of the projection unit, a plurality of X heads are arranged in parallel to the Y-axis by the distance, so that two heads each constantly form a pair and face a pair of X scales. Of the pair of heads consisting of two heads which simultaneously face the scaler measurement values of a priority head is used, and when abnormality occurs in the measurement values of the priority head due to dust and the like adhering on the scale surface, measurement values of the other head is used. By using the two pairs of Y heads and the pair of X heads, a position of a stage within a two-dimensional plane is measured in a stable manner and with high precision.

Abstract: An alignment mark provided on a wafer is imaged using an alignment system, while driving a wafer stage based on measurement results of a position measurement system, and a position of the alignment mark is obtained from an imaging position of the alignment mark obtained from the imaging results and a position of the wafer stage at the time of imaging obtained from the measurement results of the position measurement system. During the imaging of the alignment mark, the wafer stage is uniformly driven by a moving distance which is an integral multiple of the measurement period of the position measurement system, and a position of the wafer stage at the time of imaging is obtained from an average of the measurement results of the position measurement system. This allows alignment measurement to be performed with good precision, without being affected by periodic errors of the position measurement system.

Abstract: Positional information of a movement plane of a wafer stage is measured using an encoder system such as, for example, an X head and a Y head, and the wafer stage is controlled based on the measurement results. At the same time, positional information of the wafer stage is measured using an interferometer system such as, for example, an X interferometer and a Y interferometer. When abnormality of the encoder system is detected or when the wafer stage moves off from a measurement area of the encoder system, drive control is switched to a drive control based on the measurement results of the interferometer system. Accordingly, drive control of the wafer stage can be performed continuously in the entire stroke area, even at the time when abnormality occurs in the encoder system.