Patent ID: 7310129

Claim:
A method for carrying out a double or multiple exposure of a resist for transferring at least two different structure patterns into one layer level arranged on a semiconductor wafer, comprising: providing a mask structure including a first structure pattern and a second structure pattern; loading one mask substrate holder of a wafer scanner, as the exposure apparatus with the mask structure, the substrate holder including an exposure slot; aligning the one mask substrate holder such that, in a first position, the first structure pattern of the mask structure enters the beam path of projection optics in the exposure apparatus in order to determine a first set of alignment parameters; aligning the one mask substrate holder, such that, in a second position, the second structure pattern of the mask structure enters the beam path of the projection optics in order to determine a second set of alignment parameters; exposing a plurality of exposure fields on the semiconductor wafer, including, for each exposure field: (a) moving the one mask substrate holder using the first set of alignment parameters into the first position; (b) projecting the first structure pattern in a first scanning direction into the resist in order to expose a first exposure field on the semiconductor wafer; (c) moving the one mask substrate holder using the second set of alignment parameters into the second position; and (d) projecting the second structure pattern in a second scanning direction into the resist immediately after the projection of the first structure pattern into the resist in order to expose the first exposure field on the semiconductor wafer without the mask structure being unloaded from the mask substrate holder between the projection steps, wherein the first and second scanning directions are oriented substantially opposite to one another; and unloading the mask structure.