In order to optimize the transitional time during the successive exposure scans for a step-and-scanlithography and improve the productivity in a wafer production process,an investigation of the motion tra-jectory planning along the scanning direction for wafer stage was carried out.The motions of wafer stagewere divided into two respective logical moves(i.e.step-move and scan-move)and the multi-motion-overlap algorithms(MMOA)were presented for optimizing the transitional time between the successive ex-posure scans.The conventional motion planning method,the Hazehon method and the MMOA were ana-lyzed theoretically and simulated using MATLAB under four different exposure field sizes.The resultsshow that the total time between two successive scans consumed by MMOA is reduced by 4.82%,2.62%,3.06% and 3.96%,compared with those of the conventional motion planning method;and re-duced by 2.58%,0.76%,1.63% and 2.92%,compared with those of the Hazelton method respec-tively.The theoretical analyses and simulation results illuminate that the MMOA can effectively minimizethe transitional step time between successive exposure scans and therefore increase the wafer fabricatingproductivity.
