JPH08323568A - Stage device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To improve the allowable acceleration during backward acceleration of the stage. A magnet 38 is provided in a portion of the X stage 16 corresponding to a portion of the Y stage 14 near the V-shaped guide. According to this, as shown in (A), when the Y stage 14 is subjected to backward acceleration, as shown in FIG.
A rotation biasing force (not shown) for rotating the X stage 16 counterclockwise around the 2a is generated, and the X stage 1 is rotated.
6 tries to jump up, the clockwise moment M1 by the magnetic force of the magnet 38 having the arm length equal to the distance L1 between the rotary shaft 42a and the magnet 38 acts as a suppressing force for suppressing jumping up of the X stage 16. Therefore, as a result, the allowable acceleration of the Y stage 16 can be increased.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a stage device,
More specifically, a stage having a structure in which a first stage and a second stage are respectively movable in two axial directions orthogonal to each other, and the second stage moves along the flat guide and the V-shaped guide on the first stage. Regarding the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in the field of semiconductor manufacturing equipment and the like, a stacking type XY stage apparatus using a VF type guide surface provided with a V-shaped guide and a flat guide has been used. FIG. 11 shows an example of a conventional XY stage device of this type. 11A is a plan view and FIG. 11B is a right side view of FIG. 11A.

In these figures, the Y stage 50 is
A rotary motor 58 and a feed screw 6 are provided along a flat guide 54 and a V-shaped guide 56 that extend on the base 52 in the Y direction (vertical direction in FIG. 11A).
It is driven by 0. Similarly, the X stage 62 is mounted on the Y stage 50 in the X direction (see FIG. 11).
It is driven by a rotary motor 68 and a feed screw 70 along a flat guide 64 and a V-shaped guide 66 which are respectively extended in the left-right direction (A).

[0004]

In recent years, there has been an increasingly severe demand for higher stage movement speed of this type of XY stage apparatus. Specifically, this speedup is realized by improving the acceleration of the stage drive.

However, when driving the stage using the feed screw as in the conventional XY stage apparatus, if the rigidity in the direction (radial direction) orthogonal to the axis of the feed screw is made too strong, the guide portion and the feed screw Since it is impossible to practically reduce the parallelism to zero, the load on the rotary motor that drives the feed screw becomes too large.
For this reason, the rigidity of the feed screw is set to an appropriate value. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 12A, when a large backward acceleration (rightward in the figure) is applied to the Y stage 50, the inertia of the X stage 62 mounted on the Y stage 50 is increased. When a rotational urging force (rotational moment) that tries to rotate the shaft 72a in the direction of the arrow A is generated by the force and a large acceleration exceeding the limit acceleration is applied to the Y stage 50, the so-called jumping up of the X stage 62 occurs. appear. Similarly, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 7, when acceleration in the forward direction (leftward in the figure) is applied to the Y stage 50, the X stage 62 is rotated by a rotational urging force (rotational force) that causes the X stage 62 to rotate in the direction of arrow B about the shaft 72b. Moment) is generated and a large acceleration exceeding a certain limit acceleration is applied, the X stage 62 jumps up.

When the jumping phenomenon of the X stage 62 occurs, a reading error occurs in a stage position measuring sensor (generally constituted by a laser interferometer) or the like which monitors the position of the X stage 62, and in the worst case. In this case, it becomes impossible to detect the position, and the stage position measurement sensor must be reset.
The surface of the flat guide 54, the surface of the V-shaped guide 56 or the surface of the projecting portion of the lower end surface of the X stage facing them, or a point moving body (not shown) interposed between the flat guide 54, the V guide 56 and the X stage 62 The needle roller is used), and scratches such as indentations may be produced on the surface of the X-stage, and the durability of these parts and the movement accuracy of the stage may be significantly adversely affected. It can be said that there is.

By the way, the limit acceleration (hereinafter referred to as "allowable acceleration") at which the jumping phenomenon of the X stage does not occur due to the relationship between the center of gravity of the X stage and the arrangement of the V-shaped guide and the flat guide acts on the Y stage. The direction of the acceleration to be performed, that is, the forward acceleration and the backward acceleration greatly differ. The inventors made a prototype of an XY stage device similar to the conventional one for comparison with the XY stage device according to the present invention, and conducted an experiment using this prototype. In case A)), the permissible acceleration is about 6
m / sec ^2, allowable acceleration at the time of forward acceleration (in the case of FIG. 12 (B)) was about 10 m / sec ^2.

The present invention has been made under the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a stage apparatus capable of improving the allowable acceleration, particularly the allowable acceleration during the backward acceleration.

[0009]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
A first stage movable in a predetermined first direction, and the first stage
A second stage movable on a stage in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, wherein the second stage extends on the first stage in the second direction at predetermined intervals; In a stage device configured to move along a V-shaped guide, a rotational biasing force of the second stage around a predetermined axis in the second direction, the position of which is determined according to the moving direction of the first stage, is suppressed. The suppression means is provided between the both stages.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the stage apparatus according to the first aspect, the suppressing means attracts the portion near the V-shaped guide of the first stage and the corresponding portion of the second stage to each other. It is characterized by including a magnet that generates a magnetic force.

According to a third aspect of the invention, in the stage apparatus according to the second aspect, the magnet is an electromagnet.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the stage apparatus according to the first or second aspect, the suppressing means includes the V-shaped guide in which an inclination angle of a slope near the flat guide is set to 45 degrees or less. It is characterized by

[0013]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the backward acceleration and the forward acceleration are applied to the first stage, the positions thereof are determined in accordance with the directions of the respective accelerations, and the predetermined axis in the second direction. A rotational urging force is generated that tries to rotate the first stage in a direction in which the first stage jumps up, but the rotational urging force is suppressed by the suppressing unit. Therefore, the allowable acceleration can be increased as compared with the case where the suppression force of the suppression unit does not work.

According to the second aspect of the invention, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, the suppressing means includes the first stage (1
4) A magnet 3 for generating a magnetic force that attracts the portion near the V-shaped guide and the corresponding portion of the second stage (16) to each other.
Contains 8. According to this, as shown in FIG. 4 (A), when the first stage (14) is subjected to the backward acceleration, the second stage (1
A rotational biasing force (not shown) is generated to rotate 6) counterclockwise, and this rotational biasing force increases as the acceleration increases, and the second stage (16) tries to jump up. The clockwise moment M1 by the magnetic force of the magnet 38 having the arm length equal to the distance L1 between the rotary shaft 42a and the magnet 38 acts as a suppressing force for suppressing jumping up of the second stage (16). Therefore, as a result, the allowable acceleration can be increased. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4 (B), when the first stage (14) is subjected to acceleration in the forward direction, as shown in the figure, the second stage (1
6) A rotational urging force (not shown) for rotating clockwise is generated, and a clockwise moment M2 having the arm length equal to the distance L2 between the rotating shaft 42b and the magnet 38 increases the rotational urging force. Acts in the direction. However. Since the arm length of the moment M2 in this case is very short, the moment M2 is much smaller than the moment M1. That is, in this case, the moment M2 generated by the magnetic force of the magnet 38 acts in the direction of reducing the allowable acceleration, but the amount of reduction is extremely small.

Therefore, the permissible acceleration during the backward acceleration of the first stage can be greatly increased, and the permissible acceleration that is inevitably generated during the forward acceleration can be suppressed to be small.

According to a third aspect of the invention, in the stage apparatus according to the second aspect, the magnet is an electromagnet. According to this, it becomes possible to freely control the generation of the tensile force (magnetic force). Therefore, it is possible to control that the magnetic force is generated only during the backward acceleration of the first stage where the pulling force is actually required, and not at other times, and the flat guide is used not only on the V-shaped guide side. Side, an electromagnet is also arranged so that only the electromagnet on the V-shaped guide side can generate magnetic force during the backward acceleration of the first stage, and only the electromagnet on the flat guide side can generate magnetic force during the forward acceleration of the first stage. If
It is possible to increase not only the backward allowable acceleration of the first stage but also the forward allowable acceleration.

According to the invention described in claim 4, for example, as shown in FIG. 8, the suppressing means is a flat guide 28.
It includes the V-shaped guide 26 in which the inclination angle of the inclined surface is set to 45 degrees or less. According to this, when the inclination angle is 45 degrees (when the apex angle θ is 90 degrees), the first stage (14)
The force that causes the second stage (16) to bounce upward when the vehicle is accelerated backward, that is, the rotational biasing force becomes small, and the second stage 16 hardly jumps up.

[0018]

【Example】

<< First Embodiment >> A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 shows a plan view of an XY stage device 10 as a stage device according to the first embodiment, and FIG. 2 shows a right side view of FIG.

The XY stage device 10 includes a base 12 and
A Y stage 14 as a first stage movable on the base 12 in the Y direction (predetermined first direction) in FIG.
And an X stage 16 as a second stage that is movable on the Y stage 14 in the X direction (second direction) orthogonal to the Y direction.

To further explain this in detail, X on the base 12
In the vicinity of both end portions in the direction, a flat guide 18 and a V-type guide surface forming a V-F type guide surface for guiding the Y stage 14 in the Y direction.
The character guides 20 and the character guides 20 extend in the Y direction. A Y drive motor 22 is attached to one end of the base 12 in the Y direction.
One end of the feed screw 24 is connected to the motor 2 through a connecting element such as a coupling (not shown). The other end of the feed screw 24 is connected to the Y stage 14. In this embodiment, a ball screw is used as the feed screw 24, and a nut (not shown) that is screwed into the ball screw via a ball (not shown) is integrally attached to the Y stage 14. The Y stage 14 has a flat guide 18 and a V
The Y drive motor 22 and the feed screw 2 along the character guide 20.
It is driven by 4 and.

In the vicinity of both ends in the Y direction on the Y stage 14, a V-shaped guide 26 and a flat guide 28, which form a VF type guide surface for guiding the X stage 16 in the X direction, respectively extend along the X direction. It is set up. An X drive motor 30 is attached to one end of the Y stage 14 in the X direction, and the feed screw 32 is attached to the X drive motor 30.
Has one end connected via a connecting element such as a coupling (not shown). The other end of the feed screw 32 has the X stage 1
6. In this embodiment, a ball screw is used as the feed screw 32, and a nut 34 that is screwed into the ball screw via a ball (not shown) is integrally attached to the X stage 16 (see FIG. 2). . X
The stage 16 includes a V-shaped guide 26 and a flat guide 28.
The X drive motor 30 and the feed screw 32 can be moved along.

Incidentally, so-called slide screws may be used as the feed screws 24 and 32, but in such a case, it is necessary to use a lubricant such as grease to smooth the operation of the feed screws.

The VF type guide surface of the X stage 16 will be described in more detail. As shown in FIG.
A flat guide 28 is provided on the left side of FIG. 4 and a V-shaped guide 26 is provided on the right side of FIG. X at the center of these guides 26, 28
A feed screw 32 for driving the stage extends in a direction orthogonal to the paper surface.

The flat guide 28 is composed of a band-shaped convex portion having a predetermined width formed on the upper surface of the Y stage 14, and its upper surface is literally flat. This flat guide 2
8 on the lower surface of the X-stage 16 facing the flat guide 26, the strip-shaped projection 16A protruding downward facing the flat guide 26.
Is formed, and the lower surface of the strip-shaped convex portion 16A is flat. The V-shaped guide 26 has a predetermined width on the upper surface of the Y stage 14 and has a specific angle (usually 90 degrees for ease of processing).
A V-shaped convex portion 16B corresponding to the V-shaped guide 26 is formed on the lower surface of the X stage 16 facing the V-shaped guide 26.
In addition, between the flat guide 28 and the strip-shaped convex portion 16A and between the V-shaped convex portion 16B and the V-shaped guide 26, as shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG.
A, 36B and 36C are respectively interposed. These needle rollers 36A, 36B, 36C include
A predetermined clearance (gap) is created between the X stage 16 and the Y stage 14, and both stages 16 and 1
A diameter is used that allows 4 to be parallel to each other. Needle rollers 36A, 36B, 36
C reduces frictional resistance when the X stage 16 is driven, and guides 28 and 26 and the strip-shaped convex portion 1 facing them.
6A, V-shaped convex portion 16B (guide surface) is used for the purpose of increasing the durability. The VF type guide surface of the Y stage 14 is also configured in the same manner.

Further, in the first embodiment, the X stage 16
The permanent magnet 38 constituting the suppressing means is provided outside the V-shaped convex portion 16B in the direction orthogonal to the paper surface of FIG. 3 (in the X direction).
Installed along with embedded. here,
As the Y stage 14, a cast iron one that is a magnetic material is used, and the magnetic force F of the permanent magnet 38 causes the X stage 16 to be attracted to the Y stage upper surface side facing the magnet 38 of the Y stage 14. In addition, Y stage 1
4, when a ceramic stage or the like is used, a magnetic material plate may be attached to the upper surface of the Y stage, and the permanent magnet 38 and the magnetic material may constitute the suppressing means.

Next, the operation of the permanent magnet 38 as the suppressing means will be described with reference to FIG. First of all,
As shown in FIG. 4A, a case where the Y stage 14 receives backward acceleration will be described. Y stage 1
When 4 moves rearward, the V-shaped convex portion 16B is caused due to the property (inertia) of staying in the original position of the X stage 16.
V-shaped guide 26 via needle roller 36B
The front slope of the is pushed, and vertical drag is generated on the slope. Y
Acceleration acting on the stage 14 (that is, the Y stage 14
While the thrust force acting on the Y stage is small, the X stage 16 moves rearward integrally with the Y stage 14 while being pressed against the Y stage by its own weight. However, Y
When the acceleration acting on the stage 14 becomes large, the V
The vertical reaction force generated on the front slope of the character guide 26 becomes large, and the vertical component of this vertical reaction force causes the X stage 16 to move in the Y direction.
When it becomes larger than the force (force due to its own weight) pressed against the stage 14 side, the X stage 16 causes the axis near the front end of the Y stage (actually, as shown in FIG. 4A).
This axis is located near the front edge of the flat guide 28)
A rotational urging force (counterclockwise rotational moment) about 42a is generated to try to jump up, but the magnetic force F of the permanent magnet 38 sets the clockwise rotational moment M1 = F × L1 with the arm length as L1. To work. Therefore, the permanent magnet 38
The rotational moment M1 generated by the magnetic force F of the X-axis suppresses the jump of the X stage 16, and the jump does not occur on the X stage 16 until the acceleration such that the rotational biasing force of the rotational moment M1 or more is generated. It is possible to increase the allowable acceleration. In this case, the larger the arm length L1 is,
Further, the larger the magnetic force F of the permanent magnet 38, the greater the effect of preventing jumping up, but if the magnetic force F is too large, the movement of the X stage 16 will be hindered, so the magnetic force F will be above a certain level. Increasing the size is not realistic.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG.
When a forward acceleration acts on the Y stage 14,
The magnetic force of the permanent magnet 38 is the rotation axis near the rear end of the Y stage 14 acting on the X stage 16 (this axis is actually
42b located near the upper end of the needle roller 36C)
It acts in the direction of increasing the rotational urging force (clockwise rotational urging force), but the arm length L2 of the rotational moment M2 = F × L2 in this case is as shown in FIG. 4 (B). Very small. Therefore, due to the magnetic force of the permanent magnet 38, the generated moment M2 acts in the direction of reducing the allowable acceleration, but the amount of reduction is extremely small.

That is, according to the first embodiment, the allowable acceleration at the time of backward acceleration of the Y stage 14 can be greatly increased, and the decrease of the allowable acceleration that is inevitably generated at the time of forward acceleration can be suppressed. be able to.

In an experiment conducted by the inventors of the present invention, by setting the tensile force to the facing surface of the permanent magnet 38 to about 8 Kgf, the allowable acceleration at the backward acceleration of the Y stage is 6 m / s.
It was possible to improve from ec ² (in the case of the conventional example) to about 10 m / sec ² .

As described above, according to the first embodiment, the jump of the X stage 16 is less likely to occur even if the acceleration of the Y stage 14 during acceleration / deceleration is set to a higher value.
Durability of the stage without scratching the surface (guide surface) of the needle rollers 36A to 36C as rolling elements, the flat guide 28, the V-shaped guide 26, the strip-shaped convex portion 16A, and the V-shaped convex portion 16B. The risk of adversely affecting Further, for example, when the position of the X stage 16 is detected by a laser interferometer or the like, a reading error of the interferometer due to jumping up of the X stage 16 is less likely to occur, so that highly accurate stage position control can be realized. . Therefore, by the low-cost means of adding a permanent magnet, the Y stage 14 which is faster than the conventional one can be obtained.
Can be driven.

Further, as a secondary effect, there is also an effect of shortening the positioning time of the X stage 16. That is, as shown in FIG. 5, when the X stage 16 starts moving as shown by the arrow C, an eddy current 40 is generated on the surface of the Y stage 14 facing the permanent magnet 38 due to the electromagnetic induction effect. By the action of the eddy current 40 and the magnetic force F (magnetic field),
A resistance force D opposite to the moving direction C is generated. This resistance force D is proportional to the moving speed of the X stage 16, that is, it becomes a viscous resistance. The generation of the viscous resistance in this portion has a great effect of suppressing the vibration generated when the X stage 16 is positioned with respect to the Y stage 14, so that the X stage 16 can be positioned in a shorter time. Become.

<Modification> FIG. 6A shows an XY stage apparatus which is a modification of the above embodiment. This modification is different from the first embodiment only in that the permanent magnet 38 is mounted inside the V-shaped convex portion 16B on the lower surface of the X stage 16. Therefore, in the XY stage apparatus of this modified example, the magnetic force F of the permanent magnet 38 for obtaining the same performance (permissible acceleration during backward acceleration) as that of the first embodiment is about 1.5 of that of the first embodiment. Permanent magnet 38
When the Y stage 14 is accelerated in the forward direction, a magnetic force F causes a moment in a direction to suppress the rotational urging force acting on the X stage 16. Therefore, the allowable acceleration during the forward acceleration of the Y stage 14 is somewhat increased. There is an advantage that you can.

FIG. 6B shows another modified example.
The permanent magnets 38A and 38B are attached to the inside and outside of the V-shaped convex portion 16B on the lower surface of the X stage 16, respectively. In this case, the allowable acceleration at the time of backward acceleration of the Y stage 14 can be set to a larger value. However, if the total magnetic force of the permanent magnets 38A and 38B becomes too large, the X stage 16 will be affected. The resistance applied to the X drive motor 30 becomes too large and the load applied to the X drive motor 30 becomes large.
It is desirable that the total of the magnetic forces of A and 38B be set to an appropriate value.

<< Second Embodiment >> Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Here, the same components as those in the first embodiment described above are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.

The XY stage device 44 of the second embodiment shown in FIG. 7 is characterized in that the permanent magnet 38 is replaced with an electromagnet 46 constituting a suppressing means. The electromagnet 46 receives a signal from the stage controller 48 that controls the Y drive motor 22, and the magnetic force (pulling force) of the electromagnet 46 is controlled. The configuration of the other parts is the same as that of the first embodiment described above.

According to the stage device 44 of the second embodiment, the same effect as that of the first embodiment described above can be obtained, and at the time of backward acceleration of the Y stage 14 where a tensile force (magnetic force) is actually required. Since it is possible to control that only the magnetic force is generated and the magnetic force is not generated at other times, it is possible to minimize the influence on an externally provided magnetic sensitive sensor or the like. In fact, it can be said that the effect of using the electromagnet 46 is considerably large considering that the measurement by such a sensor is not performed during stage acceleration / deceleration. Note that, for reference, the leakage flux to the outside of the permanent magnet 38 in the first embodiment is several Gauss to 20.
It is about Gauss, which is almost the same as geomagnetism.
In the stage device 44 of the embodiment, the influence on the magnetically sensitive sensor or the like can be further reduced below this level.

The electromagnet 46 is set to V as in the above modification.
Of course, they may be arranged inside the V-shaped convex portion 16B or on both sides of the V-shaped convex portion 16B. Further, when the electromagnet 46 is used as the suppressing means, since the generation of the magnetic force can be controlled as described above, for example, the V-shaped convex portion 1
The electromagnet 4 is provided not only on the 6B side but also near the strip-shaped convex portion 16A.
6 may be attached. In such a case, the Y stage 1
4 when accelerating in the backward direction, the electromagnet 4 near the V-shaped convex portion 16B
If the magnetic force is generated only in the Y stage 14 and the magnetic force is generated only in the electromagnet 46 in the vicinity of the band-shaped convex portion 16A when the Y stage 14 is accelerated in the forward direction, the forward allowable acceleration as well as the backward allowable acceleration of the Y stage 14 is generated. There is an advantage when it becomes possible to increase the size.

In the first and second embodiments, the magnet 3 is used.
8 or the electromagnet 46 is attached to the X stage 16 side as an example, but it may be attached to the Y stage 14 side.

<< Third Embodiment >> Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Third shown in FIG. 8 (A)
The stage device 49 of the embodiment is characterized in that the apex angle θ of the V-shaped guide 26 and the corresponding V-shaped convex portion 16B is set to an angle smaller than 90 degrees. The configuration of other parts is the same as that of the first embodiment.

Generally, the vertical component force of the vertical reaction force acting on the slope increases as the apex angle θ increases. That is, FIG.
In (B), the inclination angle of the slope a is α ₁ and the inclination angle of the slope b is α ₂ (α ₁ <α ₂ ), and the normal force N of the same magnitude is used.
If 1 and N2 are generated on both slopes a and b,
Comparing the magnitudes of these vertical component forces M1 and M2, M1 <M2 is clear from the figure.

From this, if the inclination angle of the slope of the V-shaped guide 26 near the flat guide 28 is smaller than 45 degrees, the Y stage 14 is more inclined than the inclination angle of 45 degrees (the apex angle θ is 90 degrees). Stage 1 that occurs during rearward acceleration
The force to bounce the 6 upward, that is, the rotational urging force becomes small, and the jump of the X stage 16 is less likely to occur. Therefore, the backward allowable acceleration can be increased.

According to the analytical calculation, if the apex angle θ is set to 60 degrees, the allowable acceleration during backward acceleration is 6 m / sec.
² (when the apex angle θ = 90 degrees) can be improved to about 10 m / sec ² .

<Modification> However, setting the processing angle (vertical angle θ) of the V-shaped guide 26 to other than 90 degrees causes various problems in processing, and it is basically desirable to set it to 90 degrees. In that case, while maintaining θ = 90 degrees, the V-shaped guide 26 and the V-shaped convex portion 1 are provided as in the modification shown in FIG.
6B may be tilted with respect to the vertical axis. Even in this case, the inclination angle of the slope of the V-shaped guide 26 near the flat guide 28 is smaller than 45 degrees, so that the same effect as the third embodiment can be obtained.

According to the analytical calculation, by inclining by 10 degrees, the allowable acceleration at the time of backward acceleration can be improved from 6 m / sec ² (without inclination) to about 9 m / sec ² .

In the examples of FIGS. 8 and 9, the diameter of the needle roller needs to be optimized according to the processing angle. In addition, as in the example of FIG. 8 or FIG.
It is needless to say that when the inclination angle of the slope near the flat guide 28 is smaller than 45 degrees, the magnets of the first and second embodiments may be used together to form the suppressing means. Nor.

In the first to third embodiments, the stage driving means is constituted by the feed screw and the motor (rotary motor) for driving the feed screw. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Instead, the present invention exerts the same effect when the stage driving means is constituted by a linear motor or the like.

FIG. 10 shows an example in which the driving means for the X stage 16 and the Y stage 14 is constituted by a so-called moving magnet type linear motor. Figure 10
In (A), the Y stage 14 includes a stator 1 extending in the Y direction at both ends of the base 12 in the X direction.
The movers 104A and 104B provided at both ends of the Y stage 14 in the X direction along the 02A and 102B move in the Y direction. Similarly, the X stage 16 includes stators 106A and 106B extending along the X direction at both ends of the Y stage 14 in the Y direction.
The movers 108A and 108B respectively provided on both ends of the X stage 16 in the Y direction along the direction are driven in the X direction. FIG. 10 (B) is a right side view schematically showing the X stage 16 and the Y stage 14 in FIG. 10 (A).

As in the example of FIG. 10, the X stage 16, Y
Even when the stage 14 is driven by a linear motor, the modified example of FIG. 6B is obtained by the action of the permanent magnets 38A and 38B attached inside and outside the V-shaped convex portion 16B on the lower surface of the X stage 16. The same effect as in the case of can be obtained.

Examples of other driving means include friction driving and belt driving. Further, even when the X stage and the Y stage are driven by different types of driving means, the present invention can be applied, and the same effects as those of the above-described respective embodiments and modified examples are exhibited.

[0050]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The allowable acceleration, particularly the allowable acceleration at the time of backward acceleration of the first stage, can be improved, and there is an unprecedented excellent effect that higher-speed stage driving can be realized.

In particular, according to the second aspect of the invention, in addition to the above effects, since the magnetic force of the magnet acts as a viscous resistance when the second stage moves, the positioning time of the second stage can be shortened. There is also an effect that you can.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is possible to perform control such that the magnetic force is generated only during the backward acceleration of the first stage where the pulling force is actually required, and the magnetic force is not generated at other times. Therefore, there is also an advantage that it is possible to minimize the influence on an externally provided magnetically sensitive sensor or the like.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an XY stage device according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a right side view of FIG.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view showing an X stage and a Y stage portion of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the apparatus of FIG.

5A and 5B are views for explaining an attendant effect of the apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a modification of the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a stage device according to a second embodiment.

8A is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a stage device according to a third embodiment, and FIG. 8B is a diagram for explaining the operation of the device of FIG. 8A.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a modification of the third embodiment.

FIG. 10A is a plan view of a stage device in which driving means for the X stage and the Y stage are composed of linear motors;
(B) is a schematic right side view of the X stage and the Y stage in (A).

11A and 11B are diagrams showing a configuration of a conventional XY stage apparatus, in which FIG. 11A is a plan view and FIG. 11B is a right side view of FIG.

FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining a problem to be solved by the invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 XY Stage Device (Stage Device) 14 Y Stage (First Stage) 16 X Stage (Second Stage) 26 V-shaped Guide 28 Flat Guide 38 Permanent Magnet (Suppression Means) 44 XY Stage Device (Stage Device) 46 Electromagnet

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A second stage, comprising: a first stage movable in a predetermined first direction; and a second stage movable on the first stage in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction. In a stage device having a structure in which a member moves along a flat guide and a V-shaped guide that are extended in the second direction at a predetermined interval on the first stage, the position thereof is changed according to the moving direction of the first stage. A stage device characterized in that a suppressing means for suppressing a rotational biasing force of the second stage around a predetermined axis in the second direction to be determined is provided between the both stages. 2. The suppressing means includes a magnet that generates a magnetic force that attracts the portion near the V-shaped guide of the first stage and the corresponding portion of the second stage to each other. The described stage device. 3. The stage apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the magnet is an electromagnet. 4. The stage apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the suppressing unit includes the V-shaped guide in which an inclination angle of a slope near the flat guide is set to 45 degrees or less.