Positioning system, lithographic apparatus and method

Abstract

A positioning system to position a movable object having a body, the positioning system includes an object position measurement system, an object actuator, and an object controller, wherein the positioning system further includes a stiffener to increase the stiffness and / or to damp relative movements within the body of the object, the stiffener including; one or more sensors, wherein each sensor is arranged to determine a measurement signal representative of an internal strain or relative displacement in the body, one or more actuators, wherein each actuator is arranged to exert an actuation force on a part of the body, and at least one controller, configured to provide on the basis of the measurement signal of at least one of the sensors, an actuation signal to at least one of the actuators to increase the stiffness and / or to damp movements within the body.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to positioning systems, lithographic apparatuses and methods to reduce flexibility and resulting internal deformation by increasing the rigidity and / or damping of the body of an object. Background technique [0002] A lithographic apparatus is a machine that applies a desired pattern to a substrate, usually a target portion of the substrate. For example, lithographic equipment may be used in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In this case, a patterning device, alternatively referred to as a mask or reticle, may be used to generate the circuit pattern to be formed on the individual layers of the IC. The pattern can be transferred onto a target portion (eg, comprising a portion, one or more dies) on a substrate (eg, a silicon wafer). Typically, the pattern is transferred by imaging the pattern onto a layer of radiation sensitive material (resist) provided on the substrate. Typically, a single substrate will con...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, due to the ever-increasing demands on the positioning accuracy and positioning speed of the substrate support structure, the possibility of increasing the structural rigidity of the substrate support structure is limited without causing other problems, such as relative to the weight

[0006] In the process of position control of other objects such as patterning device support structures, there is also the limitation of the flexibility of the substrate support structure due to increased acceleration

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