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Design of a synchronization control

system for lithography based on
repetitive control method

Hao, Zhongyang, Peng, Guiyong, Li, Xin, Chen, Xinglin

Zhongyang Hao, Guiyong Peng, Xin Li, Xinglin Chen, "Design of a

synchronization control system for lithography based on repetitive control
method," Proc. SPIE 8759, Eighth International Symposium on Precision
Engineering Measurement and Instrumentation, 875935 (31 January 2013);
doi: 10.1117/12.2018740

Event: International Symposium on Precision Engineering Measurement and

Instrumentation 2012, 2012, Chengdu, China

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 Design of a synchronization control system for lithography based on
repetitive control method
Hao Zhongyang1, Peng Guiyong2, Li Xin1, Chen Xinglin1
1. Department of Control Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001,
China
2. School of Control and Computer Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing,
102206,China

ABSTRACT

A repetitive control theory is proposed to solve the synchronization problem between the wafer stage and reticle
stage. A macro-micro control method is used based on a macro-micro control structure in which a linear motor is
combined with a voice coil motor. A synchronization controller of the reticle stage is added base on the conventional
PID control system. The repetitive controller is designed based on the repeated movement of the reticle stage and the
wafer stage during the scan and exposure period, and the effects of synchronization control system can be improved
because of the repetitive control can effectively track and inhibit the periodicity excitation signal. The repetitive control
system effectively reduces the synchronization error during the scan and exposure period，in the meanwhile keep the
tracking accuracy and dynamic characters. Simulation results show that the synchronization error can be reduced
effectively.
Keywords: synchronization control; repetitive control; master-slave control; lithography

1. INTRODUCTION

So far, Step & Scan lithography machine is the world’s mainstream semiconductor chip manufacturing equipment.
During the exposure process, the wafer stage and reticle stage of the lithography must keep synchronously when the
stage is moving in the scanning direction. To measure the synchronization, two standards were proposed: the movement
average deviation and standard deviation of the synchronous error. It will seriously affect the exposure of the wafer[1].
Synchronization control has been in-depth study in many areas of mechanical transmission, motor coordination, and
robot. Currently it is one of the most popular control methods that using the cross-coupling synchronization control
method. Since the quality of the wafer stage can be several times then the reticle stage, but the speed is only about 1/4 of
the reticle stage, and the error of reticle stage will be reduced by the Projection Lens. There for, using the reticle stage
track the wafer stage. So far, many kinds of lithography equipment have adopted this control structure[2]. Furthermore
other kinds of control method combined with the master-slave control can also be used in the synchronization control of
lithography, such as sliding mode synchronization control system[3].
Macro-motion part of the executive body is linear motor of micron-level accuracy. To achieve nanometer accuracy
motion, a micro-motion part is needed. A voice coil motor is adopted as an executive body to achieve High-speed trip
campaign and nanometer-level accuracy. The combination of the two parts can achieve a large stroke, high-accuracy

Eighth International Symposium on Precision Engineering Measurement and

Instrumentation, edited by Jiubin Tan, Xianfang Wen, Proc. of SPIE
Vol. 8759, 875935 · © 2013 SPIE · CCC code: /13/$18 · doi: 10.1117/12.2018740

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 8759 875935-1

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 movement. PID control is used as the controller which has the advantage of simple design and easy engineering
realization[4].
Repetitive control is a learning control method for high accuracy tracking a known cycle reference input. It is an
effective method to solve the control problem of periodic excitation signal, because of the high control accuracy, easy
realization and non-parametric dependence of the control performance[5]. Repetitive control is combined with
master-slave control, and the repetitive controller is designed according to the characteristics of wafer stage and reticle
stage. In the meanwhile, the synchronization of wafer stage and reticle stage has been further improved, so is the
exposure of the wafer.

2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM

During the scan and exposure period, define the synchronization error as follows according to the position output of
exposure direction.
1
es (t )  ew (t ) - er (t ) (1)
4
In which, ew (t ) and er (t ) represent the position deviation of wafer stage and reticle stage, and er (t ) represent
the synchronization error.
The synchronization of control system is considered from two statistical properties of synchronization error. One is
called movement average (MA), the other is movement standard deviation (MSD), expression as follows:
tsc
1 tx 
MA( x) 
tsc  tx -
2
tsc
2
es (t )dt (2)

tsc
1 tx 
MSD( x)   es (t ) - MA( x)
2
tsc
2
dt (3)
tsc tx -
2

In which, x represent the exposure point, tsc represent the scanning time, t x is a moment of scanning to the
midpoint of exposure region.
Synchronization error must be at the same level with the position deviation of wafer stage and reticle stage,
that is nanometer level. So it only need to ensure the synchronization of the two micro-system which are the wafer
stage and the reticle stage. Synchronization control system structure is shown in Figure 1. In Figure 1, Plw and Plr is
the macro motion controlled object of wafer stage and reticle stage. Pvw and Pvr is the micro motion controlled
object. Clw ， Clr ， Cvw and Cvr is the controller. ylw (t ) ， ylr (t ) ， yvw (t ) and yvr (t ) is position output es (t )
represent the synchronization error. The PID controller is used in the system, and designed separately. The structure
of the synchronization control system is shown in Figure 1.

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 + ulw ylw
Clw Glw
+
+ yw
_
+
r + evw uvw
Cvw Gvw
yvw
+
es
4 Cs
_
us
evr yvr
Cvr Gvr 1/4
+ uvr
_
+ yr

+ +
ulr ylr
Clr Glr
+

Figure 1 The structure of the synchronization control system

The working principle of the linear motor is the same as the rotary motor. The voice coil motor is one kind of linear
motor, and its frequency response and accuracy is higher than the ordinary one. As same as the rotary motor, the transfer
function of the linear motor or the voice coil motor is,
1
V (s) Bl
 (4)
U ( s) mR L 2 mR
s  2 2 s 1
B 2l 2 R Bl
mR L
In which, represent electromechanical time constan, is electric magnetic time constant. The above
2
B l 2 R

constants can be obtained directly according to the motor parameters.

In figure 1, it needs four controllers in the control system. They are designed of traditional. PID control method
including two Macro motion controller: Clw and Clr , and Micro motion controller Cvw The design bandwidth of the
Macro PID controller is about 150Hz. the indicators of Micro PID controller is of nano level, the design bandwidth is
about 300 Hz.

3. DESIGN OF REPETITIVE CONTROL

A repetitive control session is used in the Macro-motion controller of the reticle stage to improve the control
accuracy and property, because of the stability of the system. When the system is stable and the external is a periodic
S-curve, the synchronization deviation of the system and the position deviation of the reticle stage changes in the same
cycle of the S-curve.
The model of the repetitive controller was combined with the PID and the repetitive controller. First of all, build the
internal model of the S-curve, that is, a positive feedback loop with delay loop of T delay time. The pole of it is located
on the imaginary axis. It will lead the system to diverge when the system is under a small disturbance. In order to ensure

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 system stability, a filer controller q( s) was used in front of the time delay process, which can reduce the synchronous
deviation signal. A feedforward loop b( s) was added to overcome the attenuation. Its input signal is synchronous
deviation signal, its output terminal is connect with the input terminal of the time delay process. In order to improve the
tracking accuracy of the first cycle, a compensation unit was deigned. The structure of the synchronization controller was
shown in Figure 2.

a( s)

b( s )

ES ( s ) + + U S ( s)
q( s) e Ts PID Controller

Figure 2 The structure of the synchronization controller

1
In the figure a(s)  k1 , b(s)  k2 , q( s)  suppose the PID controller was G1 ( s) , then
T1 s  1
U S ( s) a( s)  q( s)(1  a( s))e Ts  b(s)e Ts
CS (s)   G1 (s) (5)
ES ( s) 1  q( s)eTs
The micro motion control volume of the reticle stage is
U (s)  Uvr (s)  U S (s) (6)
Suppose Klw (s)  Clw (s)Glw (s) , Kvw (s)  Cvw (s)Gvw (s) , Kvr (s)  Cvr (s)Gvr (s) , Klr (s)  Clr (s)Glr (s) , the transfer function
of the wafer stage loop is
Yw (s) K vw (s)  Klw (s)  K vw (s) Klw (s)
 (7)
R( s) 1  Kvw ( s)  Klw ( s)  K vw ( s) Klw ( s)
Ew ( s) 1
 (8)
R( s) 1  Kvw ( s)  Klw ( s)  K vw ( s) Klw ( s)
The transfer function from the system input to the synchronization deviation is
ES ( s) P1  P2
 (9)
R( s) CS (Gvr  Gvr Klr )
1
1  K vr  Klr  K vr Klr
Kvw ( s)  Klw ( s)  Kvw ( s) Klw ( s) Kvr ( s)  Klr ( s)  Kvr ( s) Klr ( s)
In which P1  , P2  .
1  Kvw ( s)  Klw ( s)  Kvw ( s) Klw ( s) 1  Kvr ( s)  Klr ( s)  Kvr ( s) Klr ( s)
The system characteristic equation in figure 1 is
1  Kvr (s)  Klr (s)  Kvr (s) Klr (s)  CS (s)(Gvr  Gvr Klr )  0 (10)
As the nonlinear components in CS ( s) , a spectrum to restructure conception was used to analysis the stability of the
system shown in Figure 2[6]. The system characteristic equation change to the following form

M (s)  N (s)eTs  0 (11)

In which, M ( s) and N ( s) is polynomial of S, the spectrum to restructure is

N ( j )
RS ( )  (12)
M (i )

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 The Nyquist criterion can be used to determine the stability. If there was no zero point in right-half plane and
RS ( )  1 (13)
If   R , Time Delay coefficient T, closed loop system keeps stable.
Finally inserting Eq.(5) in Eq.(9)

1  K3  K 4  K3 K 4  a(s)(G4  G4 K3 ) 
(14)
q( s) [(1  a( s))  b( s)](G4  G4 K3 )  (1  K3  K 4  K3 K 4 ) eTs  0

The stabily condition is

(1) The zero point of 1  K3  K4  K3 K4  a(s)(G4  G4 K3 ) is not in the right-half plane

[(1  a(s))  b(s)](G4  G4 K3 )  (1  K3  K 4  K3 K4 )

(2) q( s) 1
1  K3  K 4  K3 K 4  a( s)(G4  G4 K3 ) 

Choose the appropriate a( s) , b( s) and q( s) to meet stability conditions.

4. SIMULATION RESULTS

A complete stepping and scanning process includes a accelerate process, a adjustment process, a scanning process
and a deceleration process. It is a typical of the s-curve. The time of the s-curve in this paper is 300ms, in which the
accelerate and deceleration time are both 60ms, the adjustment time is 20ms, and the scanning time is 140ms.
This paper select the parameter a(s)  9 , b(s)  3.5 , T1  0.003 , the s-curve cycle T is 300ms in the case of
satisfying the stability condition (1) and (2). The figure 3 is the position tracking curves, the figure 4 is the speed
tracking curves, the figure 5 shows the position errors of the reticle stage and the wafer stage. And the figure 6 is a
partial enlarged curve of the figure 5.

0.12
wafer stage 掩模台
reticle stage 工件台
0.1 refenrence 0.5 参考速度

0.08 0.4
速 度 输 出 (m/s)
Position / m

0.06 0.3

0.04 0.2

0.02 0.1

0 0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3
t/s 时 间 (s)

Figure 3 Position tracking curves of the reticle Figure 4 Speed tracking curves of the reticle
stage and the wafer stage stage and the wafer stage

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 -7 -7
x 10 x 10
5
synchronization error 1.5
synchronization error
4 wafer stage wafer stage
reticle stege reticle stege
3 1

2
0.5
1
Error / m

Error / m
0
0
-1

-2 -0.5

-3
-1
-4

-5
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1 0.11
t/s t/s

Figure 5 Position error curves of the reticle Figure 6 The partial enlarged curve of the figure 5
stage and the wafer stage
The system remains stable after adding the repetitive controller. But because the repetitive control is a learning
algorithm, one cycle can’t show the advantage of it.
This paper uses a s-curve as the foundation for cycle continuation. The s-curve cycle is T, time width is t, when
t  T , function values are y (t ) , and when t  T , the function values are y(t )  y(t  kT ) . Here this paper uses ten
s-curves as input, the simulation time is 3s. Figure 7 is the synchronization deviation curve without repetitive controller,
and the figure 8 is the synchronization deviation curve with the repetitive controller.
-7 -7
x 10 x 10
2.5 2.5

2 2
误 差 (m)synchronization deviation / m

1.5 1.5
synchronization deviation / m

1 1

0.5 0.5

0 0

-0.5 -0.5

-1 -1

-1.5 -1.5

-2 -2

-2.5 -2.5
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
t/s t/s

Figure 7 The synchronization deviation without the Figure 8 The synchronization deviation with
repetitive controller the repetitive controller
Figure 9 shows the contrastive results of the first cycle, the fourth cycle and the eighth cycle synchronization
deviation. It shows that the deviation is reduced by the conduct of the learning process of the repetitive controller.

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 -7
x 10
2.5
the first cycle
2 the fourth cycle
the eighth cycle
1.5

synchronization deviation / m
1

0.5

-0.5

-1

-1.5

-2

-2.5
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3
t/s

Figure 9 Contrastive curves of synchronization deviation

The table 1 is the MA and MSD of the synchronization deviation. It shows that synchronization deviation is
reduced. As the conduct of the learning process, the MA of the eighth cycle is reduced by 9.5%, and the MSD is reduced
by 32%.
Table 1 Statistical property of synchronization deviation
The first cycle The fourth cycle The eighth cycle
MA /nm 2.1 2.0 1.9
MSD /nm 5.3 4.8 3.6

5. CONCLUSION

A repetitive control theory is proposed to solve the synchronization problem between the wafer stage and reticle
stage. Constructing the master-slave synchronization control structure within Frame, and according to the characteristics
of the periodic input signal of the S-curve, a synchronization controller is added base on the conventional PID control
system. The repetitive control system effectively reduce the synchronization error during the scan and exposure period，
in the meanwhile keep the tracking accuracy and dynamic characters. Simulation results indicate that the MA and MSD
was reduced, meeting the requirements of the lithography.

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Proc. of SPIE Vol. 8759 875935-7

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