Patent ID: 9551926
Date: 2017-01-24
CPC Classifications: G03F

Claim:
1. A determination method of determining exposure conditions used for an exposure method using an exposure apparatus including an illumination optical system which illuminates a mask, and a projection optical system which projects a pattern of the mask onto a substrate, to be set in the exposure apparatus for illuminating the mask and projecting the pattern of the mask onto the substrate, the method comprising: a first step of setting an unoptimized illumination parameter for a light intensity distribution formed on a pupil plane of the illumination optical system, and an unoptimized aberration parameter for an aberration of the projection optical system; a second step of calculating an image performance of an optical image of the pattern of the mask, which is formed in an image plane of the projection optical system in correspondence with the pattern of the mask to be placed on an object plane of the projection optical system, using the unoptimized illumination parameter and the unoptimized aberration parameter; a third step of repeating the calculating the image performance of the second step while changing both of a value of the unoptimized illumination parameter and a value of the unoptimized aberration parameter; and a fourth step of determining a value of the illumination parameter and a value of the aberration parameter, based on the results of the image performance calculated while changing both of the value of the unoptimized illumination parameter and the value of the unoptimized aberration parameter, thereby determining, as the exposure conditions, the light intensity distribution formed on the pupil plane of the illumination optical system and the aberration of the projection optical system, which are defined by the determined value of the illumination parameter and the determined value of the aberration parameter, respectively, wherein the exposure method comprises a step of illuminating the mask and exposing the substrate under the determined exposure conditions.