PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16114498
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-08
Publication Date: 2019-01
Patent Classification: ["355", "072000"]

Abstract:
In an exposure operation, as a second stage is moved in a direction parallel to a predetermined plane, another head different from a plurality of heads faces a grating section instead of one head of the plurality of heads, and positional information of the second stage is measured by multiple heads including remaining heads and the another head, the remaining heads excluding the one head of the plurality of heads, and correction information is acquired for the positional information obtained from the another head, based on the positional information obtained from the plurality of heads including the one head.

Claim (Index 23):
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 placed 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, positional information of the second stage and the third stage being measured by a second encoder system different from the first 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 second encoder system measuring the positional information of the second stage with 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 a predetermined plane, and the frame member supporting the projection optical system; detecting a mark of the substrate with a first detection system that is provided at the frame member, spaced apart from the projection optical system in a first direction within a predetermined plane orthogonal to an optical axis of the projection optical system; placing the second stage to face the projection optical system so that an exposure operation of the substrate is performed via the projection optical system and the liquid of the liquid immersion area, the substrate being placed to face the lower surface of the liquid immersion member by the second stage; moving the first and the second stages based on detection information of the first detection system and measurement information of the first and the second encoder systems so that, in the exposure operation, 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, the second stage being moved from the other side to one side in the first direction with respect to the projection optical system while maintaining the liquid immersion area between the second stage and the lens so that the scanning exposure is performed from an area located on the one side in the first direction, of a plurality of areas on the substrate; moving the third stage from the other side to the one side in the first direction so that the third stage comes close to the second stage that is placed facing the projection optical system; and moving the second and the third stages that have come close together from the other side to the one side in the first direction with respect to the liquid immersion member so that the third stage is placed to face the projection optical system instead of the second stage while substantially maintaining the liquid immersion area under the lens, wherein in the exposure operation, instead of one head of the plurality of heads, another head different from the plurality of heads faces the grating section due to relative movement between the grating section and the heads by movement of the second stage, and the positional information of the second stage is measured by multiple heads that include remaining heads and the another head, the remaining heads excluding the one head of the plurality of heads, and correction information for the positional information obtained from the another head is acquired based on the positional information obtained from the plurality of heads including the one head.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 81.0
- Percentile: 96.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.30435
- Patent Class: 355.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['15961061', '14067110', '14067503', '15216840', '15946030']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8040855454726992
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5778285923508069
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7814598501605099
- Mean Citation Score: 462.490042
- Max Citation Score: 480.58633
- Similarity Product: 451.7667606759214

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