US Patent Issued to NIKON on June 17 for "Surface position detection device, exposure apparatus, substrate-processing system, and device-manufacturing method" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,334,404, issued on June 17, was assigned to NIKON Corp. (Tokyo).

"Surface position detection device, exposure apparatus, substrate-processing system, and device-manufacturing method" was invented by Satoshi Takahashi (Kumagaya-shi, Japan) and Michio Ohashi (Tokyo).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A surface position detection device that information of a detected surface along an axis that intersects the detected surface includes: a light transmission unit having a modulated intensity in the detected surface in a first direction within the detected surface are radiated and superimposed onto the detected surface obliquely from a direction hav...