Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical apparatus that deforms the reflecting surface of a mirror, a projection optical system including the optical apparatus, an exposure apparatus, and a method of manufacturing an article.
Description of the Related Art
In order to improve the resolution of an exposure apparatus for use in manufacturing semiconductor devices, there is a need to correct the optical aberration of a projection optical system included in the exposure apparatus. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-64076 proposes an optical apparatus that corrects the optical aberration of a projection optical system by applying a force to a mirror included in the projection optical system by a plurality of actuators so as to deform the reflecting surface of the mirror.
In an exposure apparatus, if vibrations of the floor on which the exposure apparatus is disposed, vibrations generated within the exposure apparatus, and the like are transmitted to the mirror as disturbance, the mirror may be deformed due to the vibrations. The optical apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-64076 corrects such an unintended deformation of the mirror caused by vibrations by controlling each actuator based on the error between the mirror shape measured by a sensor and the target shape. With such control, however, each actuator is controlled based on the result of measurement of the shape of the mirror deformed by the vibrations transmitted to the mirror, which makes it more difficult to cause the control of each actuator to follow vibrations as the frequency of the vibrations increases. In other words, an unintended deformation of the mirror caused by vibrations having a high-frequency component may not be sufficiently corrected.
The present invention provides an optical apparatus that is advantageous in, for example, correcting an unintended deformation of a mirror caused by vibrations.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an optical apparatus that deforms a reflecting surface of a mirror, the optical apparatus comprising: a base plate; a plurality of actuators that are disposed between the base plate and the mirror and are configured to apply a force to the mirror; a detection unit configured to detect vibration generated in the base plate; and a control unit configured to control each actuator based on a result of detection performed by the detection unit such that a deformation of the mirror caused as a result of the vibration generated in the base plate is within an acceptable range.
Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Note that the same reference numerals denote the same members throughout the drawings, and a repetitive description thereof will not be given.
First Embodiment
Apparatus Configuration
An optical apparatus 10 according to a first embodiment will be described with reference to
The mirror 1 includes the reflecting surface 1a that reflects light and a back surface 1b that is opposite the reflecting surface, and an area (hereinafter referred to as the “central area”) of the mirror 1 including the center of the mirror 1 is fixed to the base plate 3 via a fixing member 9. The reason that the central area of the mirror 1 is fixed to the base plate 3 as described above is that, with the mirror 1 used in a projection optical system of an exposure apparatus, it is often the case that light is not applied to the central area of the mirror 1, and thus the need for deforming the central area of the mirror 1 is small. In the first embodiment, the central area of the mirror 1 is fixed to the base plate 3 via the fixing member 9, but any area of the mirror 1 may be fixed to the base plate 3 via the fixing member 9. As the actuators 2, displacement actuators such as piezoelectric elements are used, and in the case where the mirror 1 is supported on the base plate 3 by the actuators 2, the fixing member 9 may be omitted. Also, in the first embodiment, an example will be described in which a circular plane mirror is used as the mirror 1, but the mirror 1 is not limited thereto, and it is possible to use, for example, a spherical mirror having a concave surface or a convex surface as the mirror 1.
The plurality of actuators 2 are disposed between the mirror 1 and the base plate 3, and applies a force to the mirror 1 (the back surface 1b). The actuators 2 may be non-contact actuators each including a movable element 2a and a stator 2b that do not come into contact with each other such as, for example, voice coil motors (VCM) or linear motors, but it is also possible to use, for example, displacement actuators such as piezoelectric elements. In the case where non-contact actuators such as VCMs are used as the actuators 2, either one of the movable element 2a and the stator 2b of each actuator 2 is fixed to the back surface 1b of the mirror 1, and the other one is fixed to the base plate 3. In the example shown in
The measuring unit 4 measures the position at each of a plurality of locations in the mirror 1 so as to obtain the shape of the mirror 1. The measuring unit 4 may include a plurality of displacement meters 4a, such as capacitive sensors, that measure a displacement (for example, a displacement in the Z direction) from one reference position in the mirror 1. The measuring unit 4 can determine the shape of the mirror 1 by measuring the positions at locations in the mirror 1 with the use of the displacement meters 4a. Alternatively, the measuring unit 4 may include a measuring instrument, such as a laser interferometer or a Schack-Hartmann sensor, which measures the shape of the reflecting surface 1a of the mirror 1. In this case, the measuring unit 4 can determine the positions at locations in the mirror 1 based on the shape of the reflecting surface 1a of the mirror 1 measured by the measuring instrument.
The optical apparatus 10 configured as described above feed-back controls each actuator 2 based on the error between the shape of the mirror 1 measured by the measuring unit 4 and the target shape. For example, the control unit 8 of the optical apparatus 10 determines a command value for driving each actuator 2 such that the error between the position at a location in the mirror 1 measured by the measuring unit 4 and the target position of that location approaches zero, and controls the actuator 2 based on the command value. By doing so, each actuator 2 applies a force to the mirror 1 so as to deform the mirror 1, and it is thereby possible to bring the shape of the mirror 1 closer to the target shape. A control system in the optical apparatus 10 will now be described.
In the control system of the optical apparatus 10, the shape s (current shape) of the mirror 1 measured by the measuring unit 4 is supplied to the subtracter 8d. The subtracter 8d calculates an error e between the shape s of the mirror 1 and the target shape r, and supplies a signal indicating the error e to the compensator 8a (second compensator). The compensator 8a is, for example, a PID compensator having a transfer function C. The compensator 8a determines a command value u (second command value) for controlling each actuator 2 based on the error e supplied (input) from the subtracter 8d, and outputs the command value u. The command value u is combined with a command value v determined by the compensator 8b, which will be described later, by the adder 8e, and then supplied to the driver 8c as a command value w. The driver 8c is a current driver that supplies current for driving each actuator 2 to the actuator 2, and has a current gain Ki. Each actuator 2 has a thrust constant Kt, and as a result of a current i being supplied from the driver 8c, the actuator 2 applies a driving force f to the mirror 1. Generally, the driver 8c and each actuator 2 can respond up to a high frequency band of over several kHz, and the command value w and the driving force f have a proportional relationship. The mirror 1 has a transfer function P that receives an input of the driving force f applied by each actuator 2 and outputs the shape s of the mirror 1. In this way, by feed-back controlling each actuator 2 based on the error e between the shape s of the mirror 1 measured by the measuring unit 4 and the target shape r, the shape s of the mirror 1 can be brought closer to the target shape r.
In an exposure apparatus, situations may occur in which vibrations of the floor on which the exposure apparatus is disposed, vibrations generated within the exposure apparatus by driving a stage holding a mask, and the like are transmitted to the mirror 1 via the base plate 3 as disturbance d. If vibrations are transmitted to the mirror 1 in this way, the mirror 1 is deformed by the vibrations, and the optical aberration of the projection optical system may not be sufficiently corrected. As described above, the optical apparatus 10 can correct such an unintended deformation of the mirror 1 caused by vibrations by feed-back controlling each actuator 2 based on the error between the shape s of the mirror 1 and the target shape r. However, with such feed-back control, each actuator 2 is controlled based on the result of measurement of the shape s of the mirror 1 deformed by the vibrations (disturbance d) transmitted to the mirror 1. For this reason, it may become difficult to cause the control of each actuator 2 to follow the vibrations as the frequency of the vibration increases. In other words, with the feed-back control based on the shape s of the mirror 1, an unintended deformation of the mirror 1 caused by vibrations having a high-frequency component may not be sufficiently corrected. In addition, if the feed-back gain is increased so as to further reduce the error e, the mirror may become vibratory due to the influence of many elastic deformation modes, and in turn, the error e may become large. To address this, in the optical apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment, a detection unit 6 that detects vibration of the base plate 3 is included in the base plate 3. Then, the optical apparatus 10 feed-forward controls each actuator 2 based on the result of detection performed by the detection unit 6 such that the deformation (the amount of deformation) of the mirror 1 caused as a result of vibration generated in the base plate 3 is within an acceptable range. Hereinafter, a description will be given of the detection unit 6 provided in the optical apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment and the feed-forward control of each actuator 2 based on the result of detection performed by the detection unit 6.
As shown in
As shown in
Method of Determining Transfer Function H of Compensator 8b
A method of determining the transfer function H of the compensator 8b will be described. As shown in Equation (1), the transfer function H of the compensator 8b can be determined by multiplying an inverse of a transfer function U (first transfer function) by a transfer function G (second transfer function). The transfer function U is a transfer function that receives an input of the command value v (or the driving force f that is proportional to the command value v) and outputs deformation of the mirror 1. The command value v includes a plurality of command values for controlling the plurality of actuators, and the deformation of the mirror 1 may include displacements of a plurality of locations in the mirror 1. Accordingly, the transfer function U can be represented by a matrix of the command value v for controlling each actuator 2 and the displacement at locations in the mirror 1. In this case, “U−1” in Equation (1) is an inverse matrix of the transfer function U. The transfer function G is a transfer function that receives an input of vibration of the base plate 3 and outputs deformation of the mirror 1. The vibration of the base plate 3 may include, for example, a plurality of (three) direction components such as the Z direction, the X direction and the Y direction. Accordingly, the transfer function G can be represented by a matrix of each direction component in the vibration of the base plate 3 and the displacement at locations in the mirror 1. Here, if the number of inputs and the number of outputs in each transfer function are different, the transfer function H of the compensator 8b can be determined by Equation (2) in which a pseudo-inverse matrix is used instead of the inverse matrix. In Equation (2), T indicates transpose. Also, in the first embodiment, a method in which the control unit 8 determines the transfer function H of the compensator 8b will be described, but the present invention is not limited thereto. The transfer function H of the compensator 8b may be determined by, for example, determining the transfer function U and the transfer function G through calculation or simulation using an external computer provided outside the optical apparatus 10 or the exposure apparatus.
H=U−1·G (1)
H=(UT·U)−1·UT·G (2)
Hereinafter, a method of determining the transfer function U and the transfer function G will be described. First, a method of determining the transfer function U (first transfer function) will be described. The transfer function U can be obtained by a vibration experiment in which the amplitude ratio and the phase difference between the driving force or command value of the actuator and the displacement of the mirror 1 are checked while the actuator 2 is driven over a wide frequency range. To be more specific, the control unit 8 determines the command value v such that one of the plurality of actuators 2 applies a unit amount of force (driving force) to the mirror 1 over a wide frequency, and controls the single actuator 2 based on the determined command value v. At this time, the control unit 8 causes the measuring unit 4 to measure displacement of each location in the mirror 1 when only one actuator 2 applies a unit amount of force to the mirror 1, and obtains the result of measurement.
The control unit 8 performs a step of controlling one actuator 2 so as to obtain displacement of each location in the mirror 1, sequentially for each actuator 2. By doing so, as shown in
Next, a method of determining the transfer function G (second transfer function) will be described. The transfer function G can be obtained by a vibration experiment in which the amplitude ratio and the phase difference between the vibration of the base plate 3 and the displacement of the mirror 1 are checked while vibration is applied to the base plate 3 over a wide frequency range. In order to perform such a vibration experiment, the optical apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment may include a vibration unit 7 that applies vibration (acceleration) to the base plate 3. The vibration unit 7 may be configured to apply vibration to the base plate 3 in a plurality of (three) directions including the Z direction, the X direction and the Y direction. The control unit 8 causes the measuring unit 4 to measure, in each direction, the amounts of displacement at locations in the mirror 1 when the acceleration a is applied to the base plate 3 by the vibration unit 7, and obtains the result of measurement. By doing so, as shown in
The control unit 8 determines the transfer function H of the compensator 8b by using Equation (1) or Equation (2).
Benefit of Feed-Forward Control
As described above, the optical apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment includes the detection unit 6 that detects the vibration of the base plate 3. Then, the optical apparatus 10 feed-forward controls each actuator 2 configured to apply a force to the mirror 1 based on the result of detection performed by the detection unit 6 such that the amount of displacement of the mirror 1 caused as a result of vibration being generated in the base plate 3 is within an acceptable range. By doing so, the optical apparatus 10 can accurately correct the unintended deformation of the mirror 1 caused by vibration having a high-frequency component.
Second Embodiment
An optical apparatus 20 according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to
The reference object 5 may be supported by a structural body (for example, a casing) that supports the base plate 3, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and the reference object 5 may be supported by a structural body that is different from the structural body supporting the base plate 3. In the case where the reference object 5 and the base plate 3 are supported by the same structural body, as shown in
Third Embodiment
An optical apparatus according to a third embodiment will be described. The optical apparatus according to the third embodiment is different from the optical apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment in that the control system for controlling each actuator 2 such that the shape of the mirror 1 is brought closer to the target shape has a different configuration. In the optical apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment, each actuator 2 is feed-back controlled based on the error between the shape of the mirror 1 the target shape, but in the optical apparatus according to the third embodiment, each actuator 2 is feed-forward controlled based on target shape r′ of the mirror 1. The optical apparatus according to the third embodiment has the same configuration as the optical apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment or the optical apparatus 20 according to the second embodiment, and thus a description of the apparatus configuration is omitted here.
Embodiment of Exposure Apparatus
An exposure apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to
Light emitted from a light source (not shown) included in the illumination optical system IL can form, on the mask 55, an arc-shaped illuminated region that is elongated in, for example, the Y direction through a slit (not shown) included in the illumination optical system IL. The mask 55 and the substrate 56 are held by the mask stage MS and the substrate stage WS, respectively, and are disposed at optically substantially conjugate positions (the positions corresponding to the object plane and the imaging plane of the projection optical system PO) across the projection optical system PO. The projection optical system PO has a predetermined projection magnification (for example, ½), and projects a pattern formed on the mask 55 onto the substrate 56. Then, the mask stage MS and the substrate stage WS are scanned in a direction (for example, the X direction in
The projection optical system PO includes, for example, as shown in
In the configuration of the exposure apparatus 50 described above, the optical apparatus of the above-described embodiment can be used as, for example, an apparatus that deforms the reflecting surface of the concave mirror 53 serving as the mirror 1. By using the optical apparatus of the above-described embodiment in the exposure apparatus 50, the reflecting surface (the first surface 53a and the second surface 53b) of the concave mirror 53 can be deformed at a high speed and with high accuracy, and the optical aberration in the projection optical system PO can be corrected in real time and with high accuracy. The control unit 51 in the exposure apparatus 50 may include the control unit 8 for controlling the actuators 2 in the optical apparatus according to the above-described embodiment. In the case where the optical apparatus according to the above-described embodiment is used as an apparatus that deforms the reflecting surface of the concave mirror 53, the X direction, the Y direction and the Z direction in
Embodiment of Method for Manufacturing Article
A method of manufacturing an article according to an embodiment of the present invention is suitable to manufacture, for example, an article such as a micro device such as a semiconductor device or an element having a micro-structure. The method of manufacturing an article of the present embodiment includes a step of forming a latent image pattern on a substrate on which a photosensitizing agent applied by using the above-described exposure apparatus (step of exposing a substrate with light) and a step of developing the substrate on which the latent image pattern has been formed in the above step. The manufacturing method further includes other known steps (oxidation, film-forming, vapor deposition, doping, planarization, etching, photoresist stripping, dicing, bonding, packaging, and the like). The method of manufacturing an article according to the present embodiment is advantageous in terms of at least one of the performance, quality, productivity and production cost of the article as compared to conventional methods.
While the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures and functions.
This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2014-095510 filed on May 2, 2014, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
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