PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15946030
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-04
Publication Date: 2018-08
Patent Classification: ["355", "072000"]

Abstract:
A first stage system having a first stage and a first drive system that moves the first stage is configured to hold a mask illuminated with illumination light. A second stage system having a second stage and a second drive system that moves the second stage is configured to hold a substrate. A measurement system having a first encoder system and a second encoder system measures positional information of the first and second stages, respectively. The second encoder system measures the positional information of the second stage with a plurality of heads that face a grating section. The first and second drive systems are controlled based on correction information for compensating for a measurement error of the second encoder system that occurs due to the heads and measurement information of the first and the second encoder systems.

Claim (Index 26):
An exposure method of exposing a substrate with an illumination light via a projection optical system and a liquid, the method comprising:\n by a liquid immersion member provided to surround a lens that is disposed closest to an image plane side, of a plurality of optical elements of the projection optical system, locally forming a liquid immersion area with the liquid under the lens, the liquid immersion member having a lower surface to which the substrate is disposed facing; holding a mask illuminated with the illumination light, with a first stage disposed above the projection optical system, positional information of the first stage being measured by a first encoder system; holding the substrate with a second stage, of the second stage and a third stage that are disposed on a base member below the liquid immersion member, the third stage being placed facing the projection optical system, positional information of the second and the third stages being measured by a second encoder system, in the second encoder system one of a grating section and heads being provided at the second stage and the other of the grating section and the heads being provided at a frame member so that the other of the grating section and the heads is disposed on an outer side of the liquid immersion member with respect to the projection optical system, the positional information of the second stage being measured by a plurality of the heads that face the grating section, the grating section having a reflective grating that is periodic in a direction parallel to the predetermined plane, and the frame member supporting the projection optical system; placing the second stage to face a first detection system so that a mark of the substrate is detected by the first detection system, the first detection system being provided at the frame member, spaced apart from the projection optical system on one side in a first direction within a predetermined plane that is orthogonal to an optical axis of the projection optical system; relatively moving the second and the third stages so that the second stage comes close, from the one side in the first direction, to the third stage that is placed facing the projection optical system; relatively moving the second and the third stages that have come close together from the one side to the other side in the first direction with respect to the liquid immersion member so that the second stage is placed to face the projection optical system instead of the third stage while substantially maintaining the liquid immersion area under the lens; and moving the first and the second stages based on correction information for compensating for a measurement error of the second encoder system that occurs due to the heads and measurement information of the first and the second encoder systems so that, in an exposure operation of the substrate, alignment between the mask and the substrate is performed based on detection information of the first detection system and scanning exposure in which the mask and the substrate are each moved relative to the illumination light is performed with the first direction serving as a scanning direction, and also the measurement error is compensated for, wherein in the exposure operation, the second stage is moved from the one side to the other side in the first direction with respect to the liquid immersion member while facing the liquid immersion member, so that the substrate is placed to face the lower surface of the liquid immersion member by the second stage, and the scanning exposure is performed via the projection optical system and the liquid of the liquid immersion area, from an area located on the one side in the first direction, of a plurality of areas on the substrate.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 134.0
- Percentile: 91.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.91837
- Patent Class: 355.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['15812592', '14067503', '15216840', '14459883', '14722799']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7775091935142258
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5633656959119582
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.756094843753999
- Mean Citation Score: 491.66784400000006
- Max Citation Score: 500.8531
- Similarity Product: 423.09394814596175

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test