Patent ID: 7450218

Claim:
A scanner of lithographic equipment, comprising: a light source that emits exposure light; a substrate stage dedicated to support a substrate having a photosensitive layer to be exposed by the exposure light, the substrate stage supported in the equipment so as to be movable horizontally in a scan direction, whereby a substrate supported on the stage can be moved horizontally; optics that guide the light emitted by the light source to the substrate stage; a reticle stage dedicated to support a reticle, the reticle stage disposed in an optical path of the equipment extending between the light source and the substrate stage such that light emitted by the light source will pass through a reticle supported by the reticle stage, whereby the light will pick up an image of a pattern of the reticle, and the reticle stage being supported in the equipment so as to be movable horizontally in a scan direction parallel to the scan direction of movement of the substrate stage, whereby a reticle supported by the reticle stage can be moved parallel to the movement of the substrate stage; and reticle masking means for forming a slit-shaped aperture electronically without the use of motive power in an optical path of the equipment extending between the light source and the reticle stage such that light having a sectional area corresponding to that of the aperture is incident on a reticle supported by the reticle stage, and for adjusting a dimension of the aperture electronically without the use of motive power, whereby the reticle scanning means can form the aperture and adjust said dimension of the aperture without inducing vibrations in the scanner.