Asml Netherlands B.v.

Anagnostis Tsiatmas

Paul Christiaan Hinnen

Hugo Augustinus Joseph Cramer

Thomas Theeuwes

Alok Verma

Elliott Gerard McNamara

Adriaan Johan Van Leest

Shu-jin Wang

Maria Isabel De La Fuente Valentin

Martijn Maria Zaal

Arie Jeffrey Den Boef

Bastiaan Onne Fagginger Auer

Bert Verstraeten

Mariya Vyacheslavivna Medvedyeva

Samee Ur Rehman

Joannes Jitse Venselaar

Mir Homayoun Shahrjerdy

Martinus Hubertus Maria Van Weert

Maurits Van Der Schaar

Nitesh Pandey

Hendrik Jan Hidde Smilde

Youping Zhang

Markus Gerardus Martinus Maria Van Kraaij

Gerbrand Van Der Zouw

Zili Zhou

Sergey Tarabrin

Gonzalo Roberto Sanguinetti

Jean-Pierre Agnes Henricus Marie Vaessen

Nicolas Mauricio Weiss

Thomai Zacharopoulou

Koen Van Witteveen

Armand Eugene Albert Koolen

Hilko Dirk Bos

Johan Maria Van Boxmeer

Alexandru Onose

Elliott Gerard Mc Namara

Thaleia Kontoroupi

Xiaoxin Shang

Paul Jonathan Turner

A method including: obtaining a detected representation of radiation redirected by each of a plurality of structures from a substrate additionally having a device pattern thereon, wherein each structure has an intentional different physical configuration of the respective structure than the respective nominal physical configuration of the respective structure, wherein each structure has geometric symmetry at the respective nominal physical configuration, wherein the intentional different physical configuration of the structure causes an asymmetric optical characteristic distribution and wherein a patterning process parameter measures change in the physical configuration; and determining a value, based on the detected representations and based on the intentional different physical configurations, to setup, monitor or correct a measurement recipe for determining the patterning process parameter.

Method and apparatus to determine a patterning process parameter

A method of determining a parameter of a patterning process, the method including: obtaining a detected representation of radiation redirected by a structure having geometric symmetry at a nominal physical configuration, wherein the detected representation of the radiation was obtained by illuminating a substrate with a radiation beam such that a beam spot on the substrate was filled with the structure; and determining, by a hardware computer system, a value of the patterning process parameter based on optical characteristic values from an asymmetric optical characteristic distribution portion of the detected radiation representation with higher weight than another portion of the detected radiation representation, the asymmetric optical characteristic distribution arising from a different physical configuration of the structure than the nominal physical configuration.

A method of determining overlay of a patterning process, the method including: illuminating a substrate with a radiation beam such that a beam spot on the substrate is filled with one or more physical instances of a unit cell, the unit cell having geometric symmetry at a nominal value of overlay; detecting primarily zeroth order radiation redirected by the one or more physical instances of the unit cell using a detector; and determining, by a hardware computer system, a non-nominal value of overlay of the unit cell from values of an optical characteristic of the detected radiation.

Method and apparatus to determine a patterning process parameter using a unit cell having geometric symmetry

A method, computer program and associated apparatuses for metrology. The method includes determining whether a substrate or substrate portion is subject to a process effect. The method includes: obtaining inspection data including a plurality of sets of measurement data associated with a structure on the substrate or portion thereof (for example measurement pupils); and obtaining fingerprint data describing a spatial variation of a parameter of interest. An iterative mapping of the inspection data to the fingerprint data is performed. Whether the structure is subject to a process effect is based on a degree to which the iterative mapping converges on a solution.

Metrology method and apparatus, computer program and lithographic system

A method of determining overlay of a patterning process, the method including: obtaining a detected representation of radiation redirected by one or more physical instances of a unit cell, wherein the unit cell has geometric symmetry at a nominal value of overlay and wherein the detected representation of the radiation was obtained by illuminating a substrate with a radiation beam such that a beam spot on the substrate was filled with the one or more physical instances of the unit cell; and determining, from optical characteristic values from the detected radiation representation, a value of a first overlay for the unit cell separately from a second overlay for the unit cell that is also obtainable from the same optical characteristic values, wherein the first overlay is in a different direction than the second overlay or between a different combination of parts of the unit cell than the second overlay.

A metrology target includes: a first structure arranged to be created by a first patterning process; and a second structure arranged to be created by a second patterning process, wherein the first structure and/or second structure is not used to create a functional aspect of a device pattern, and wherein the first and second structures together form one or more instances of a unit cell, the unit cell having geometric symmetry at a nominal physical configuration and wherein the unit cell has a feature that causes, at a different physical configuration than the nominal physical configuration due to a relative shift in pattern placement in the first patterning process, the second patterning process and/or another patterning process, an asymmetry in the unit cell.

Methods of determining information about a patterning process. In a method, measurement data from a metrology process applied to each of a plurality of metrology targets on a substrate is obtained. The measurement data for each metrology target includes at least a first contribution and a second contribution. The first contribution is from a parameter of interest of a patterning process used to form the metrology target. The second contribution is from an error in the metrology process. The method further includes using the obtained measurement data from all of the plurality of metrology targets to obtain information about an error in the metrology process, and using the obtained information about the error in the metrology process to extract a value of the parameter of interest for each metrology target.

Method of determining information about a patterning process, method of reducing error in measurement data, method of calibrating a metrology process, method of selecting metrology targets

A method of configuring a parameter determination process, the method including: obtaining a mathematical model of a structure, the mathematical model configured to predict an optical response when illuminating the structure with a radiation beam and the structure having geometric symmetry at a nominal physical configuration; using, by a hardware computer system, the mathematical model to simulate a perturbation in the physical configuration of the structure of a certain amount to determine a corresponding change of the optical response in each of a plurality of pixels to obtain a plurality of pixel sensitivities; and based on the pixel sensitivities, determining a plurality of weights for combination with measured pixel optical characteristic values of the structure on a substrate to yield a value of a parameter associated with change in the physical configuration, each weight corresponding to a pixel.

A substrate has first and second target structures formed thereon by a lithographic process. Each target structure has two-dimensional periodic structure formed in a single material layer on a substrate using first and second lithographic steps, wherein, in the first target structure, features defined in the second lithographic step are displaced relative to features defined in the first lithographic step by a first bias amount that is close to one half of a spatial period of the features formed in the first lithographic step, and, in the second target structure, features defined in the second lithographic step are displaced relative to features defined in the first lithographic step by a second bias amount close to one half of said spatial period and different to the first bias amount. An angle-resolved scatter spectrum of the first target structure and an angle-resolved scatter spectrum of the second target structure is obtained, and a measurement of a parameter of a lithographic process is derived from the measurements using asymmetry found in the scatter spectra of the first and second target structures.

Method and apparatus for measuring a parameter of a lithographic process, substrate and patterning devices for use in the method

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Eindhoven, Netherlands

Anagnostis Tsiatmas