US Patent Issued to NIKON on April 14 for "Stage apparatus, exposure apparatus, method of manufacturing flat panel display, and device manufacturing method" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 15 -- United States Patent no. 12,601,980, issued on April 14, was assigned to NIKON Corp. (Tokyo).

"Stage apparatus, exposure apparatus, method of manufacturing flat panel display, and device manufacturing method" was invented by Hideaki Nishino (Tokyo) and Atsushi Hara (Tokyo).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A stage apparatus includes a movable body having a first support surface for supporting an object, a support portion that is elastically deformable, has a predetermined thickness, and supports the movable body, a support device having a second support surface that supports the support portion, and a drive unit configured to move the movable body so that an angle bet...