TW202336538A - Exposure apparatus and exposure method - Google Patents

Abstract

The purpose of the exposure apparatus and exposure method according to the invention is that it can appropriately carry out exposure according to the shape of a substrate even if the substrate has no alignment mark formed thereon. The exposure apparatus of the invention comprises: a stage for supporting a substrate to be processed; an exposure portion for exposing the surface of the substrate through a light beam according to predetermined exposure data to perform drawing; a moving mechanisms enabling the stage and the exposure portion to relatively move; an imaging portion for imaging the edge of the unexposed substrate supported by the stage; and a drawing control portion for detecting the edge position of the substrate at a plurality of portions according to the imaging result of the imaging portion and controlling an incident position of the light beam to the substrate based upon the detection result.

Description

Exposure device and exposure method

The present invention relates to a technology that draws a pattern on a substrate such as a printed wiring board or a glass substrate and exposes the substrate.

As a technology for forming patterns such as wiring patterns on various substrates such as semiconductor substrates, printed wiring substrates, and glass substrates, a modulated light beam is incident on a photosensitive layer formed on the surface of the substrate based on drawing data, thereby exposing the photosensitive layer. In this technology, in order to draw at an appropriate position on the substrate, an alignment process must be performed. The alignment process adjusts the incident position of the light beam on the substrate.

For example, in the technology described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2022-021438 (Patent Document 1), an alignment mark formed on the surface of a substrate placed on a stage is imaged with a camera, and detection is performed based on the position. Alignment adjustments are made as a result. In addition to adjusting the alignment by mechanically adjusting the relative position of the exposure head and the stage, for example, as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2021-152572 (Patent Document 2), alignment adjustment is achieved by correcting the drawing data or adjusting the light beam. The launch timing, etc. can also be realized.

(The problem that the invention wants to solve)

In the above-mentioned prior art, it is necessary to form alignment marks on the substrate in advance. However, there are also cases where the alignment mark itself is formed by exposure. In this case, the alignment mark formed by the initial exposure is used as a position reference for subsequent processing. For example, when a multi-layer pattern is formed on a substrate through multiple exposures, as long as the relative positions between the layers are consistent, it can be said that there is no need for strict positional alignment in the initial exposure.

For example, when the substrate has deformation such as expansion or contraction, it is desirable to correct the drawing pattern in accordance with the shape of the substrate. When the initial exposure is performed without considering this point to form alignment marks, subsequent alignment adjustments based on the formed alignment marks may not necessarily be suitable for the shape of the substrate. (Technical means to solve problems)

The present invention has been accomplished in view of the above-mentioned problems, and an object thereof is to provide a technology that can appropriately perform exposure according to the shape of the substrate even if the alignment mark is not formed on the substrate.

An aspect of the exposure device of the present invention includes: a stage that supports a substrate to be processed; an exposure unit that exposes and draws the surface of the substrate with a light beam based on predetermined exposure data; and a moving mechanism that causes the aforementioned The stage and the exposure part move relatively; the imaging unit takes an image of the edge portion of the unexposed substrate supported on the stage; and the drawing control unit detects the substrate at a plurality of locations based on the imaging results of the imaging unit. edge position, and based on the detection result, the incident position of the aforementioned light beam toward the aforementioned substrate is controlled.

Furthermore, an aspect of the exposure method of the present invention is that in the exposure method, while the stage supporting the substrate to be processed and the exposure section are relatively moved, the exposure section is caused to expose the substrate to the substrate with a light beam based on predetermined exposure data. The surface of the substrate is exposed and drawn, the edge portion of the unexposed substrate supported on the stage is photographed, the edge positions of the substrate are detected at multiple locations based on the imaging results, and the light beam is controlled to move toward the substrate based on the detection results. The incident position.

In the invention thus constituted, the edge portion of the unexposed substrate is photographed, the edge position of the substrate is detected at a plurality of locations, and the incident position of the light beam toward the substrate is controlled based on the detection results. By performing position detection on multiple locations on the edge of the substrate, the shape of the substrate can be estimated. For example, when the substrate is deformed due to expansion, contraction, distortion, etc., the relative position between the detected edges becomes different from the original positional relationship. If the detection result of the edge position is reflected in the relative incident position of the light beam toward the substrate during exposure, drawing that matches the shape of the substrate can be performed. (Compare the effectiveness of previous technologies)

As described above, according to the present invention, the edge portion of the unexposed substrate is imaged, the edge position is detected at a plurality of locations, and the incident position of the light beam toward the substrate is controlled based on the results. Therefore, even when the substrate is deformed due to expansion, contraction, distortion, etc., or when alignment marks are not formed on the substrate, drawing can be performed at an appropriate position on the substrate.

FIG. 1 is a front view schematically showing the schematic structure of the exposure device of the present invention. In addition, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the electrical structure of the exposure device of FIG. 1 . In Figure 1 and the following drawings, the horizontal direction is the X direction, the horizontal direction orthogonal to the X direction is the Y direction, the vertical direction is the Z direction, and the rotation direction centered on the rotation axis parallel to the Z direction is appropriately represented. θ.

The exposure device 1 draws a pattern on the photosensitive material by irradiating a predetermined pattern of laser light onto a substrate S (substrate to be exposed) on which a layer of a photosensitive material such as a resist is formed. As the substrate S, various substrates such as printed wiring boards, glass substrates for various display devices, and semiconductor substrates can be applied.

The exposure device 1 is provided with a main body 11, and the main body 11 is composed of a main body frame 111 and a cover plate (not shown) attached to the main body frame 111. Furthermore, various components of the exposure device 1 are arranged inside and outside the main body 11, respectively.

The interior of the body 11 of the exposure device 1 is divided into a processing area 112 and a transfer area 113 . In the processing area 112, the stage 2, the stage driving mechanism 3, the exposure unit 4 and the alignment unit 5 are mainly arranged. Moreover, the illumination unit 6 which supplies illumination light to the alignment unit 5 is arrange|positioned outside the main body 11. The transfer area 113 is provided with a transfer device 7 such as a transfer robot that carries the substrate S out and into the processing area 112 . Furthermore, a control unit 9 is disposed inside the main body 11. The control unit 9 is electrically connected to each part of the exposure device 1 and controls the operation of each part.

The transfer device 7 disposed in the transfer area 113 inside the main body 11 receives unprocessed substrates S from an external transfer device or substrate storage device (not shown) and carries (loads) them into the processing area 112 . Furthermore, the processed substrate S is carried out (unloaded) from the processing area 112 and discharged to the outside. The loading of the unprocessed substrate S and the unloading of the processed substrate S are performed by the transport device 7 in accordance with instructions from the control unit 9 .

The stage 2 has a flat-plate shape and holds the substrate S placed on its upper surface in a horizontal attitude. A plurality of suction holes (not shown) are formed on the upper surface of the stage 2. By applying negative pressure (suction pressure) to the suction holes, the substrate S placed on the stage 2 is fixed to the surface of the stage 2. upper surface. The stage 2 is driven by a stage driving mechanism 3 .

The stage drive mechanism 3 is an X-Y-Z-θ drive mechanism that moves the stage 2 in the Y direction (main scanning direction), X direction (sub-scanning direction), Z direction, and rotation direction θ (yaw direction). The stage driving mechanism 3 has: a Y-axis robot 31, which is a single-axis robot extending along the Y direction; a workbench 32, which is driven in the Y direction by the Y-axis robot 31; and an X-axis robot 33, which is attached to the workbench. The upper surface of 32 is a single-axis robot extending along the X direction; the worktable 34 is driven in the X direction by the The table 34 is driven in the rotation direction θ.

Therefore, the stage driving mechanism 3 can drive the stage 2 in the Y direction through the Y-axis servo motor of the Y-axis robot 31, and can drive the stage 2 in the X direction through the X-axis servo motor of the X-axis robot 33. The stage 2 is driven in the rotation direction θ by the θ-axis servo motor included in the θ-axis robot 35 . The servo motors are omitted from the illustration. In addition, the stage driving mechanism 3 can drive the stage 2 in the Z direction by the Z-axis robot 37 (not shown in FIG. 1 ). The stage driving mechanism 3 of the present invention moves the substrate placed on the stage 2 by operating the Y-axis robot 31, the X-axis robot 33, the θ-axis robot 35 and the Z-axis robot 37 based on instructions from the control unit 9 S moves.

The exposure unit 4 includes an exposure head 41 disposed above the substrate S on the stage 2 and a light irradiation part 43 that irradiates the exposure head 41 with laser light. The light irradiation unit 43 includes a laser drive unit 431, a laser oscillator 432, and an illumination optical system 433. A plurality of exposure units 4 may be provided so that their positions are different in the X direction.

Due to the operation of the laser driving unit 431, the laser light emitted from the laser oscillator 432 is irradiated toward the exposure head 41 through the illumination optical system 433. The exposure head 41 modulates the laser light irradiated from the light irradiation part 43 by using a spatial light modulator, and irradiates the substrate S moving directly below it. In this way, the substrate S is exposed with the laser beam, and a pattern is drawn on the substrate S (exposure operation).

The alignment unit 5 has an alignment camera 51 arranged above the substrate S on the stage 2 . The alignment camera 51 has a lens barrel, an objective lens, and a CCD image sensor, and captures images of alignment marks provided on the upper surface of the substrate S moving right below it. The CCD image sensor provided in the alignment camera 51 is composed of, for example, an area image sensor (two-dimensional image sensor). As will be described later, a plurality of alignment cameras 51 (three sets in the present embodiment) are provided at different positions in the X direction.

The illumination unit 6 is connected to the optical fiber 61 via the lens barrel of the alignment camera 51 and supplies illumination light to the alignment camera 51 . The illumination light guided by the optical fiber 61 extending from the illumination unit 6 is guided to the upper surface of the substrate S through the lens barrel of the alignment camera 51 . Then, the reflected light caused by the substrate S is incident on the CCD image sensor through the objective lens. Thereby, the upper surface of the substrate S is captured and a captured image is obtained. The alignment camera 51 is electrically connected to the control unit 9 , acquires a captured image according to instructions from the control unit 9 , and sends the captured image to the control unit 9 .

The control unit 9 acquires the position of the alignment mark represented by the captured image captured by the alignment camera 51 . Furthermore, the control unit 9 controls the exposure unit 4 based on the position of the alignment mark, thereby adjusting the pattern of the laser light irradiated from the exposure head 41 to the substrate S during the exposure operation. Then, the control unit 9 draws a pattern on the substrate S by irradiating the modulated laser light from the exposure head 41 to the substrate S. The modulated laser light has been modulated according to the pattern to be drawn.

The control unit 9 realizes various processes by controlling the operations of each of the above-mentioned units. For this purpose, the control unit 9 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 91, a memory (RAM) 92, a storage 93, an input unit 94, a display unit 95, an interface unit 96, and the like. The CPU 91 reads and executes the control program 931 stored in the memory 93 in advance, and performs various actions described below. The memory 92 is used for calculation processing performed by the CPU 91 or for short-term storage of data generated as a result of calculation processing. The storage 93 long-term memory contains various data or control programs. Specifically, in addition to the control program 931 executed by the CPU 91, the memory 93 also stores, for example, design data, that is, CAD (Computer Aided Design) data 932. The CAD data 932 represents the pattern to be drawn. content.

The input unit 94 accepts operation input from the user. For this purpose, the input unit 94 has a suitable input device (not shown) such as a keyboard, a mouse, and a touch panel. The display unit 95 notifies the user of various information through display output, and has an appropriate display device such as a liquid crystal display for this purpose. The interface section 96 is responsible for communication with external devices. For example, when the exposure device 1 receives the control program 931 and the CAD data 932 from the outside, the interface unit 96 functions. For this purpose, the interface section 96 may also have a function for reading data from an external recording medium.

The CPU 91 implements functional blocks such as the exposure data generation unit 911, the exposure control unit 912, the focus control unit 913, and the stage control unit 914 in software by executing the control program 931. In addition, at least part of each of these functional blocks can also be implemented by dedicated hardware.

The exposure data generating unit 911 generates exposure data based on the CAD data 932 read from the storage 93. The exposure data is used to modulate the light beam according to the pattern. When the substrate S has deformation such as distortion, the exposure data generating unit 911 corrects the exposure data according to the amount of distortion of the substrate S, thereby performing drawing according to the shape of the substrate S. The exposure data is sent to the exposure head 41, and the exposure head 41 modulates the laser light emitted from the light irradiation part 43 according to the exposure data. In this way, the modulated light beam modulated according to the pattern is irradiated to the substrate S, so that the surface of the substrate S is partially exposed to draw the pattern.

The exposure control unit 912 controls the light irradiation unit 43 to emit a laser beam with predetermined power and spot size. The focus control unit 913 controls the projection optical system (not shown) provided in the exposure head 41 to focus the laser beam on the surface of the substrate S.

The stage control unit 914 controls the stage driving mechanism 3 to realize the movement of the stage 2 for alignment adjustment and the movement of the stage 2 for scanning movement during exposure. In the alignment adjustment, the position of the stage 2 is adjusted in the X direction, Y direction, Z direction, and θ direction so that the relative positional relationship between the substrate S placed on the stage 2 and the exposure head 41 at the start of exposure is Become a predetermined relationship. On the other hand, in the scanning movement, the main scanning movement is combined with the step feed in the X direction at a fixed pitch (sub-scanning movement), and the main scanning movement is performed by moving the stage 2 in the Y direction at a fixed speed. The substrate S passes under the exposure head 41 .

Next, the exposure operation performed by the exposure device 1 configured as above will be described. In addition, the basic operation of the exposure device having such a structure is well known in the art, so the description of the operation is omitted here. In addition, for example, as described in Patent Documents 1 and 2, the alignment adjustment method for drawing the substrate S on which the alignment marks are previously formed at an appropriate position or the exposure data correction method are also conventional techniques, and therefore the details are omitted. instruction.

In this embodiment, the incident position of the laser light on the substrate S is adjusted through mechanical alignment between the substrate S placed on the stage 2 and the exposure head 41, and correction is performed to match the substrate S. The exposure data whose shape deforms the pattern is used to adjust the incident position of the laser light, and is combined and executed. These adjustments are all adjusted to the positional relationship between each point in the pattern to be formed and the position where the laser beam irradiated by exposure to form the point is incident on the substrate S. Therefore, although the specific methods of these adjustments are different, in the end, the incident position of the laser beam on the substrate S can be adjusted comprehensively. In this manual, the processing for such adjustments is collectively referred to as "drawing position adjustment."

When the alignment marks are planned to be part of the pattern formed by exposure, there are no alignment marks on the unexposed substrate S. Therefore, when the exposure before forming the alignment mark is used, for example, in an exposure operation to form a pattern including the alignment mark, the alignment mark cannot be used as a reference for position alignment.

For example, when a multi-layer pattern is formed by repeating exposure a plurality of times, it is sufficient as long as relative positional alignment can be performed between the patterns of each layer. Therefore, it may be considered that strict adjustment of the drawing position is not required in the first exposure used to form a pattern including alignment marks. This is because by using the alignment mark formed by the initial exposure as a position reference, the position alignment between layers can be performed in subsequent exposures.

On the other hand, a major advantage of an exposure device that does not use a mask but directly draws with laser light modulated by exposure data is that it can deform the pattern according to the shape of the substrate S and draw. In order to take advantage of this advantage, the position of the alignment mark itself only needs to be adjusted according to the shape of the substrate S. For example, it may be considered to determine in advance whether the substrate will undergo deformation such as expansion or contraction during processing.

3A to 3C are diagrams showing the relationship between the deformation of the substrate and the pattern formation area on the substrate. For example, as shown in FIG. 3A , consider the case where a plurality of pattern forming regions Rp in which patterns are formed by exposure are provided on an undistorted rectangular substrate S1 . Alignment marks AM are formed in the vicinity of the peripheral edge of the pattern formation region Rp, inside or outside the pattern formation region Rp by the initial exposure.

As shown in FIG. 3B , the actual substrate S2 sometimes has some distortion or deformation. In this example, the left and right sides of the substrate S2 are curved, and the width of the central portion is slightly smaller than the width of the upper and lower ends of the substrate S2. Furthermore, the shape of transformation is not limited to this, and it can have various shapes.

Here, there are two ideas when setting the pattern formation area Rp and forming the alignment mark AM. The first type, as shown in FIG. 3B , is based on the idea of forming the alignment mark AM and setting the pattern formation region Rp in the same manner as when the substrate S2 is not deformed, regardless of the deformation of the substrate S2. The second type is the idea of adjusting the shape and position of the alignment mark AM and the pattern formation region Rp according to the deformation of the substrate S2, as shown in FIG. 3C. Among them, a method for realizing the latter has not yet been proposed. The adjustment of the drawing position in this embodiment is one of the methods to realize this.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the exposure process of this embodiment. In addition, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the relationship between the arrangement of the alignment camera and the imaging position. This processing is realized by the CPU 91 executing the control program 931 stored in the memory 93 in advance. When the unexposed substrate S is placed on the stage 2 (step S101), the stage driving mechanism 3 executes the main scanning movement to move the stage 2 in the main scanning direction (Y direction), and aligns the camera 51 to include The edge portion of the substrate S is imaged at a plurality of locations (step S102). Furthermore, the number of the alignment cameras 51, their arrangement, the number of imaging locations, etc. are not limited to those illustrated here, and they can be set arbitrarily.

As shown by the dotted line in FIG. 5 , the alignment camera 51 images the inside of a plurality of imaging areas Ri set to include the four corners and edges of the rectangular substrate S. The edge position of the substrate S is detected from each captured image (step S103), and the outer shape and posture of the substrate S on the stage 2 are estimated from the detection results (step S104). The substrate S may assume various postures on the stage 2 due to deformation caused by its own distortion, etc., and positional deviation caused by deviation in the placement position toward the stage 2 . The positional deviation caused by the deviation in the mounting position of the stage 2 can be eliminated by adjusting the position of the stage 2 in the X, Y, Z, and θ directions (step S105).

On the other hand, when there is deformation caused by distortion of the substrate S itself, it is a positional deviation that cannot be eliminated even by alignment adjustment. In this regard, the detection result of the edge position can be reflected when the exposure data is produced based on the CAD data, for example, data correction such as pattern enlargement, reduction or deformation can be performed (step S106), thereby corresponding. More specifically, by correcting the exposure data using the edge position detection results of the substrate S instead of the alignment mark position detection results in the technology described in Patent Document 2, it is possible to eliminate errors caused by the deformation of the substrate S. position deviation.

In addition, in response to the positional deviation in the X direction (sub-scanning direction) caused by the deformation of the substrate S, the width of the laser beam can be controlled by controlling the distance feed amount of the stage 2 relative to the exposure head 41 as needed. Wait to respond. The positional deviation in the Y direction can be dealt with by controlling the operation timing of the light modulator provided in the exposure head 41 . Furthermore, these adjustments can also be combined appropriately.

The substrate S whose positional relationship with the exposure head 41 has been adjusted through the alignment adjustment is exposed based on the corrected exposure data while being scanned and moved by the movement of the stage 2 (step S107). Thereby, a pattern deformed corresponding to the outer peripheral shape of the substrate S is formed on the substrate S. The substrate S after the exposure is completed is carried out from the exposure device 1 (step S108), and is subjected to processing such as development and cleaning in subsequent steps to develop the pattern. The pattern includes alignment marks AM, so the alignment marks AM are arranged corresponding to the S shape of the substrate.

In the second and subsequent exposures, the drawing position is adjusted using the developed alignment mark AM as a position reference, and patterns are sequentially stacked. At this time, known techniques can be applied to the alignment process. In this way, in the present embodiment, in the first exposure operation on the substrate S that has not been exposed and has no alignment marks, the shape of the substrate S is estimated by detecting the edge position of the substrate S, and the drawing position is adjusted based on the result. .

Thereby, it is possible to adapt the pattern formed in the initial exposure to the shape of the substrate S for the substrate S without alignment marks. Furthermore, if the alignment mark is formed by the exposure at this time, even in the subsequent exposure using it as a position reference, the formed pattern can be made into a shape suitable for the substrate S. Even when patterns are formed in multiple layers, it is of course possible to adjust the patterns to the shape of the substrate S and to achieve good relative positioning between the layers.

6A to 6C are diagrams schematically showing the process of estimating the outline of the substrate based on the imaging results. As shown in FIG. 5 , a plurality of alignment cameras 51 (three sets in this embodiment) are provided along the X direction. These alignment cameras 51 are arranged, for example, to substantially include both end portions and the center portion of the substrate S in the X direction. in the camera field of view. By causing each alignment camera 51 to intermittently perform imaging while scanning and moving the substrate S in the Y direction, images of each imaging region Ri shown by the dotted line in FIG. 6A are acquired.

By performing edge detection on each imaging area Ri, the edge position of the substrate S can be determined, and the outer shape of the substrate S can be estimated based on the positional relationship between the edges. That is, as shown by the dotted line in FIG. 6B , by connecting the detected edges with a straight line, the rough outer peripheral shape Ss of the substrate S can be estimated. In addition, the shape can also be estimated through appropriate curve approximation. In order to improve the accuracy of estimation, especially for a rectangular or polygonal substrate S, it is best to include the corner portion C in the imaging field of view.

Moreover, it is preferable that the imaging area Ri is determined corresponding to the arrangement of the pattern formation area Rp of the substrate S (FIG. 3A). That is, as shown in FIG. 6C , it is preferable to set the imaging area Ri so as to correspond to each pattern forming area Rp set on the substrate S as much as possible, for example, to include the corner portion of the pattern forming area Rp. Thus, the deformation of the substrate S near each pattern formation region Rp is grasped through actual measurement. Therefore, the adjustment of the pattern formation area Rp corresponding to this, that is, the drawing position adjustment, can be performed with high precision.

In particular, it is more preferable to set the imaging area Ri so as to include the position of the alignment mark AM formed at or near the peripheral portion of the pattern formation area Rp as much as possible. If so, the alignment mark AM, which serves as a position reference in subsequent processing, is arranged corresponding to the shape of the substrate S. Even if the drawing position adjustment of each layer pattern is performed based on the alignment mark AM, it can be made consistent with the shape of the substrate S. .

The content of the pattern to be drawn or its arrangement is determined by the design data, that is, the CAD data 932. Therefore, this purpose can be achieved by obtaining information related to the arrangement of the pattern formation area Rp or the alignment mark AM from the CAD data 932 and setting the imaging area Ri corresponding to the data.

As described above, in the exposure device 1 of this embodiment, the stage 2, the stage driving mechanism 3, the exposure unit 4 and the alignment camera 51 serve as the "stage", "moving mechanism" and "exposure" of the present invention, respectively. Department" and "Camera Department" to function. In addition, the control unit 9 functions as the "drawing control unit" of the present invention.

In addition, this invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, As long as it does not deviate from the summary, various changes other than the above-mentioned embodiment can be made. For example, as mentioned above, the arrangement of the aiming camera and the imaging area is not limited to the above embodiment, and can be set arbitrarily. In addition, the arrangement may not be equally spaced.

In addition, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the substrate S to be processed does not have alignment marks in an unexposed state, but alignment marks are formed on the surface by the first exposure. However, the above-mentioned drawing position adjustment process can effectively function even for a substrate on which alignment marks are formed in advance.

In addition, the above embodiment is based on the premise that after the alignment mark is formed on the substrate S in the first exposure, a plurality of exposures are performed using this as a position reference. However, the above drawing position adjustment process is effective regardless of whether the pattern formed by the first exposure includes alignment marks or whether the second and subsequent exposures are scheduled.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the alignment camera 51 used for alignment adjustment is also used to image the edge portion of the substrate S. However, imaging of the edge portion can also be performed by imaging means different from the alignment camera.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the relative movement of the substrate S, the exposure head 41 and the alignment camera 51 is realized by moving the stage 2 on which the substrate S is mounted. However, instead of the above situation, relative movement can be achieved by driving the alignment camera 51 or the exposure head 41 .

As explained above by exemplifying the specific embodiments, in the exposure device of the present invention, for example, the drawing control unit may be configured to determine the relative position of the outer peripheral portion of the substrate with respect to the exposure portion based on the detection result of the edge position. , to control the incident position of the beam. With this configuration, it is possible to perform drawing suitable for the outline of the substrate.

For another example, the drawing control unit may be configured to correct the exposure data based on the detection result of the edge position. In an exposure device that exposes the light beam controlled by the exposure data by directly incident on the substrate without using a mask, the incident position of the light beam can be changed by correcting the exposure data to change the pattern shape. Therefore, it can also perform drawing corresponding to the distortion or expansion and contraction of the substrate that cannot be handled by mechanical alignment adjustments such as parallel movement or rotation.

For another example, the emission timing of the light beam from the exposure part can also be adjusted based on the edge detection result. According to this structure, it is possible to cope with the positional deviation along the relative movement direction of the exposure part and the substrate.

For another example, it may be configured to adjust at least one of the relative movement state of the moving mechanism and the relative posture of the stage and the exposure unit based on the edge detection result. According to this structure, it is possible to cope with the positional deviation by mechanically adjusting the relative position of the exposure part and the substrate.

For another example, the imaging location of the edge portion by the imaging unit can also be determined based on design data that has determined the content to be depicted. According to this structure, imaging can be performed based on the arrangement of the drawing pattern formed on the substrate, so that the arrangement of the drawing pattern can be made more suitable for the shape of the substrate.

For another example, the exposure unit may be configured to draw a pattern including an alignment mark that serves as a position reference in subsequent exposure on the substrate. In particular, when a substrate is exposed a plurality of times, it may be configured such that a pattern including an alignment mark is drawn in the first exposure of an unexposed substrate. In this way, by arranging the alignment mark on the substrate, it can be used as a position reference for subsequent processing. Furthermore, by applying the adjustment of the present invention to the exposure for forming the alignment marks, the arrangement of the alignment marks and subsequent processes based on this can be optimized to match the shape of the substrate.

For another example, in the exposure method of the present invention, when multiple exposures are performed on a substrate, it is preferable to control the incident position based on the edge detection result in the first exposure of the unexposed substrate. The present invention adjusts the drawing position based on the edge detection result of the substrate, so it can effectively function even when there is no mark on the substrate to serve as a position reference.

The present invention is applicable to exposure devices and exposure methods that use various substrates as processing objects. In particular, the present invention can be applied to substrates that have a larger allowable dimensional tolerance than semiconductor wafers and substrates that are prone to expansion, contraction or distortion during processing or handling, such as printed wiring substrates. exert remarkable effects. (industrial availability)

This invention is applicable to the technical field which forms a pattern on various substrates, such as a printed wiring board and a glass substrate, and exposes a board|substrate, for example.

1: Exposure device 2: Carrier stage 3: Stage driving mechanism (moving mechanism) 4: Exposure unit (exposure section) 5: Alignment unit 6: Lighting unit 7:Conveying device 9: Control section (drawing control section) 11:Ontology 31:Y-axis robot 32:Workbench 33:X-axis robot 34:Workbench 35:θ axis robot 37:Z-axis robot 41: Exposure head (exposure part) 43:Light irradiation part 51: Aim the camera (camera department) 61: Optical fiber 91:CPU (Central Processing Unit) 92:Memory 93:Storage 94:Input part 95:Display part 96: Interface face 111:Ontology framework 112: Processing area 113:Handover area 431:Laser driver department 432:Laser oscillator 433: Illumination optical system 911: Exposure data generation department 912:Exposure Control Department 913: Focus on Control Department 914: Carrier control department 931:Control program 932: CAD data (computer-aided design data) AM: Alignment mark C: Corner part Ri: camera area Rp: pattern formation area S: Substrate (substrate to be exposed) S1: Substrate (undistorted rectangular substrate) S2: Substrate (actual substrate) Ss: peripheral shape X: X direction (sub-scanning direction) Y: Y direction (main scanning direction) Z: Z direction (vertical direction) θ: Rotation direction (deflection direction)

FIG. 1 is a front view schematically showing the schematic structure of the exposure device of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the electrical structure of the exposure device of FIG. 1 . FIG. 3A is a diagram showing the relationship between the deformation of the substrate and the pattern formation area on the substrate. FIG. 3B is a diagram showing the relationship between the deformation of the substrate and the pattern formation area on the substrate. FIG. 3C is a diagram showing the relationship between the deformation of the substrate and the pattern formation area on the substrate. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the exposure process of this embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the relationship between the arrangement of the alignment camera and the imaging position. FIG. 6A is a diagram schematically showing the process of estimating the outline of the substrate based on the imaging results. FIG. 6B is a diagram schematically showing the process of estimating the outline of the substrate based on the imaging results. FIG. 6C is a diagram schematically showing the process of estimating the outline of the substrate based on the imaging results.

1: Exposure device

2: Carrier stage

3: Carrier stage driving mechanism

4: Exposure unit

5: Alignment unit

6: Lighting unit

7:Conveying device

9:Control Department

11:Ontology

31:Y-axis robot

32,34: workbench

33:X-axis robot

35:θ axis robot

41:Exposure head

43:Light irradiation part

51: Aim the camera

61: Optical fiber

111:Ontology framework

112: Processing area

113:Handover area

431:Laser driver department

432:Laser oscillator

433: Illumination optical system

S: Substrate (substrate to be exposed)

Claims (12)

An exposure device, which has: The carrier platform supports the substrate of the processing object; An exposure part, which exposes and draws the surface of the aforementioned substrate through a light beam according to the established exposure data; A moving mechanism that relatively moves the stage and the exposure part; an imaging unit that takes an image of the edge portion of the substrate supported on the stage before being exposed; The drawing control unit detects the edge positions of the substrate at a plurality of locations based on the imaging results of the imaging unit, and controls the incident position of the light beam toward the substrate based on the detection results. The exposure device of claim 1, wherein, The drawing control unit controls the incident position of the light beam based on the relative position of the outer peripheral portion of the substrate with respect to the exposure portion estimated from the detection results. The exposure device of claim 1, wherein, The aforementioned drawing control unit corrects the aforementioned exposure data based on the aforementioned detection result. The exposure device of claim 1, wherein, The drawing control unit adjusts the emission timing of the light beam from the exposure unit based on the detection result. The exposure device of claim 1, wherein, The drawing control unit adjusts the manner in which the relative movement is performed by the moving mechanism based on the detection result. The exposure device of claim 1, wherein, The drawing control unit adjusts the relative posture of the stage and the exposure unit based on the detection result. The exposure device as claimed in any one of items 1 to 6, wherein, The imaging location of the edge portion by the imaging unit is determined based on the design data that determines the content to be depicted. The exposure device as claimed in any one of items 1 to 6, wherein, The exposure part draws a pattern including an alignment mark that serves as a position reference in subsequent exposure on the substrate. An exposure method in which a stage supporting a substrate to be processed and an exposure unit are relatively moved while the exposure unit exposes and draws the surface of the substrate with a light beam based on predetermined exposure data, wherein: The edge portion of the unexposed substrate supported on the stage is photographed, the edge positions of the substrate are detected at multiple locations based on the imaging results, and the incident position of the light beam toward the substrate is controlled based on the detection results. Such as the exposure method of claim 9, wherein, Perform a plurality of aforementioned exposures on a aforementioned substrate; In the first exposure of the unexposed substrate, the incident position is controlled based on the detection results. Such as the exposure method of claim 10, wherein, In the first exposure, a pattern including alignment marks that serve as a position reference for subsequent exposures is drawn on the substrate. If the exposure method of any one of items 9 to 11 is requested, wherein, The aforementioned substrate is a printed wiring board.