PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16111556
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-08
Publication Date: 2018-12
Patent Classification: ["355", "072000"]

Abstract:
A controller of an exposure apparatus is coupled to an alignment system, an aerial image measurement device and an encoder system, to control a drive system based on correction information and measurement information of the encoder system, the correction information compensating a measurement error of the encoder system that occurs due to a plurality of scale members. In an exposure operation of a substrate, a detection operation of a mark of the substrate and a fiducial mark, and a detection operation of an aerial image, the positional information of the stage is measured with the encoder system. In the exposure operation, the substrate is placed facing a lower surface of a nozzle member by a stage, and alignment between a pattern image and the substrate is performed based on detection information of the alignment system and the aerial image measurement device.

Claim (Index 1):
An exposure apparatus that exposes a substrate with an illumination light via a projection optical system and a liquid, the apparatus comprising:\n a nozzle 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, the nozzle member having a lower surface to which the substrate is placed facing, and locally forming a liquid immersion area with the liquid under the lens; a first detection system that is disposed spaced apart from the projection optical system, on one side in a first direction within a predetermined plane, and detects a mark of the substrate, the predetermined plane being orthogonal to an optical axis of the projection optical system; a first stage system having a first stage and a first drive system, the first stage being disposed above the projection optical system and holding a mask illuminated with the illumination light, and the first drive system including a first motor to drive the first stage; a base member disposed below the projection optical system; a second stage system having a second stage and a third stage that are disposed on the base member, and a second drive system that includes a second motor to drive the second and the third stages, the second stage having a holder to hold the substrate, and the third stage having at least one measurement member to detect the illumination light via the projection optical system and the liquid of the liquid immersion area; a measurement device having a first measurement system that measures positional information of the first stage and a second measurement system that measures positional information of the second and the third stages, the second measurement system having an encoder system, the encoder system having a plurality of heads that respectively irradiate a plurality of scale members disposed substantially parallel to the predetermined plane, with a measurement beam, and measuring positional information of the second stage with at least three heads, of the plurality of heads, that face at least three of the plurality of scale members, and each of the plurality of scale members having a reflective grating periodic in a direction parallel to the predetermined plane; and a controller coupled to the first detection system, the first and the second stage systems and the measurement device, the controller controlling the first and the second drive systems based on detection information of the first detection system and measurement information of the first and the second measurement systems so that, in an exposure operation of the substrate, alignment between the mask and the substrate and scanning exposure in which the mask and the substrate are each moved relative to the illumination light in the first direction are performed, wherein the controller controls the second drive system so that:\n the second stage is moved under the first detection system, in order to detect the mark of the substrate with the first detection system; \n the second stage is moved from the one side to the other side in the first direction, in order to cause the second stage to come close to the third stage that is placed facing the projection optical system; and \n the second and the third stages that have come close together are moved from the one side to the other side in the first direction with respect to the projection optical system, in order to place the second stage to face the projection optical system instead of the third stage while substantially maintaining the liquid immersion area under the lens, the substrate being placed to face the lower surface of the nozzle member by the second stage that is placed to face the projection optical system instead of the third stage, and \n wherein the controller controls the second drive system so that the second stage is moved from the one side to the other side in the first direction with respect to the projection optical system, in order to perform the scanning exposure 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 that is placed to face the lower surface of the nozzle member.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 74.0
- Percentile: 96.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.76364
- Patent Class: 355.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['15675037', '15686718', '15687003', '15946030', '15600174']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7628412403430206
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5403469196423671
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7405918082729552
- Mean Citation Score: 414.925556
- Max Citation Score: 429.56183
- Similarity Product: 375.61921655867457

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 0
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test