MASKLESS ALIGNER UTILIZING OPTICAL MODULATOR AND METHOD FOR MONITORING PATTERN GENERATION PERFORMANCE BY OPTICAL MODULATOR

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a pattern monitoring method for monitoring illuminance irregularities and defects in exposure transfer, and to provide an aligner having such a function in a maskless aligner utilizing a phase-modulating optical modulator.;SOLUTION: The pattern monitoring method in the aligner has the optical modulator having at least one element for giving a plurality of phase differences to incident light and a projection optical system for projecting a pattern on a body to be exposed by using first diffraction light in light emitted from the optical modulator. The method comprises a step for detecting second diffraction light having an order that differs from that of the first diffraction light in light emitted from the optical modulator, and a step for acquiring the state of the pattern projected onto the body to be exposed based on the detection result in the detection step.;COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI