Temperature Control System with Multi-closed Loops for Lithography Projection Lens

Abstract

Image quality is one of the most important specifications of optical lithography tool and is affected notably by temperature, vibration, and contamination of projection lens(PL). Traditional method of local temperature control is easier to introduce vibration and contamination, so temperature control system with multi-closed loops is developed to control the temperature inside the PL, and to isolate the influence of vibration and contamination. A new remote indirect-temperature-control(RITC) method is proposed in which cooling water is circulated to perform indirect-temperature-control of the PL. Heater and cooler embedded temperature control unit(TCU) is used to condition the temperature of the cooling water, and the TCU must be kept away from the PL so that the influence of vibration and contamination can be avoided. A new multi-closed loops control structure incorporating an internal cascade control structure(CCS) and an external parallel cascade control structure(PCCS) is designed to prevent large inertia, multi-delay, and multi-disturbance of the RITC system. A nonlinear proportional-integral(PI) algorithm is applied to further enhance the convergence rate and precision of the control process. Contrast experiments of different control loops and algorithms were implemented to verify the impact on the control performance. It is shown that the temperature control system with multi-closed loops reaches a precision specification at ±0.006 ℃ with fast convergence rate, strong robustness, and self-adaptability. This method has been successfully used in an optical lithography tool which produces a pattern of 100 nm critical dimension(CD), and its performances are satisfactory.