METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REDUCING NON-UNIFORMITY AREA EFFECTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES

摘要

The non-uniformity edge effect that can affect the quality of chips near the edge of a semiconductor wafer of various steps in the manufacture of integrated circuits is reduced. This is achieved by increasing the field area exposed by a step and repeat printer only when printing squares for chips located near the wafer edge. As a result there is also printed for processing an additional non-functional area outside the functional area to reduce the non-uniformity effect. This increases throughput of the printing apparatus.