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Exposure apparatus
| Details |
Inventors: Hagiwara, Shigeru;
Assignee: Nikon Corporation (Tokyo, JP)
Primary Examiner: Adams; Russell
Assistant Examiner: Nguyen; Hung Henry
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Oliff & Berridge PLC
An exposure apparatus illuminates a mask pattern and transfers the image of the pattern onto a photosensitive substrate. The exposure apparatus includes a chamber which houses an exposure unit, an air-conditioner for adjusting the atmosphere in the chamber to a constant condition, a drain for draining condensate produced in the air-conditioner, a trapping system for temporarily trapping the condensate before draining it, and a liquid supply system for supplying clean liquid to the trapping system. A U-tube or a solenoid valve is provided at a midway position of a drain pipe for the trapping system to prevent the entry of impurities from the outside into the apparatus. Otherwise, impurities may be prevented from entering by interposing a waterproof filter between the air-conditioner and drain to remove impurities in the condensate produced in the air-conditioner. |
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION It is the object of the present invention to provide an exposure apparatus which can solve the problems in the conventional art, prevent outside impurities from flowing reversely through the drain and air-conditioner of the apparatus into the apparatus, and therefore effectively restrain the production of a layer making the surface of a chemically amplified resist slightly soluble, the decrease in illuminance due to a clouded optical material, and so on.
According to the first aspect of the invention, there is provided an exposure apparatus comprising: an exposure unit for illuminating a mask pattern to transfer an image of the mask pattern onto a photosensitive substrate; a chamber which houses the exposure unit, and in which an atmosphere is kept in a constant condition; an air-conditioner for adjusting the atmosphere in the chamber to the constant condition; a drain for draining condensate produced in the air-conditioner; trapping system for temporarily trapping the condensate before draining it; and a liquid supply system for supplying clean liquid continuously or intermittently to the trapping system.
In the exposure apparatus of the invention, during air-conditioning in the air-conditioner, the condensate from a cooler of the air-conditioner is collected temporarily in the trapping system.
At the same time, the trapping system is supplied with clean liquid such as clean water continuously or intermittently by the supply system.
Therefore, a sufficient amount of water stays always in the trap, and the water in the trap keeps flowing out.
Consequently, the impurities dissolved in the drainage including the condensate will be diluted, so that it is possible to prevent them from being concentrated.
It is also possible to prevent the impurities from being concentrated in the trap.
In addition, because clean water flows always into the trap from upstream, substances contained in the water in the trap keep discharged.
Therefore, it is possible to prevent impurities from entering indirectly through the piping system downstream from the trap
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Processing Data 
