Asml Netherlands B.v.

Mitutoyo Corporation

Johannes Anna Quaedackers

Erik Roelof Loopstra

Jeroen Johannes Sophia Maria Mertens

Nicolaas Ten Kate

Joost Jeroen Ottens

Patricius Aloysius Jacobus Tinnemans

Johannes Henricus Wilhelmus Jacobs

Michel Riepen

Marco Koert Stavenga

Martinus Cornelis Maria Verhagen

Franciscus Johannes Joseph Janssen

Jacobus Johannus Leonardus Hendricus Verspay

Theodorus Petrus Maria Cadee

Boris Menchtchikov

Antonius Johannus Van Der Net

Herman Boom

Frederik Eduard De Jong

Stoyan Nihtianov

Christianus Gerardus Maria De Mol

Richard Moerman

Koen Goorman

Marcel Johannus Elisabeth Hubertus Muitjens

Martin Frans Pierre Smeets

Bart Leonard Peter Schoondermark

Christian Marinus Leewis

Maria Elisabeth Reuhman-Huisken

Aschwin Lodewijk Hendricus Johannes Van Meer

Adriaan Tiemen Zuiderweg

Aschwin Lodewijk Hendricus Johannes Vermeer

Marcus Adrianus Van De Kerkhof

Hugo Augustinus Joseph Cramer

Antoine Gaston Marie Kiers

Henricus Johannes Lambertus Megens

Peter Clement Paul Vanoppen

Ken Motohashi

Eddy Cornelis Antonius Van Der Heijden

Han Haitjema

Hieronymus Johannus Christiaan Meessen

Dorothea Maria Christina Oorschot

Christine Corinne Mattheus

Yin Fong Choi

Paul Christiaan Hinnen

Jozef Maria Finders

Hans Van Der Laan

Tatsuya Nagahama

Cédric Désiré Grouwstra

Youri Johannes Laurentius Maria Van Dommelen

Johannes Wilhelmus De Klerk

Koen Van Ingen Schenau

Judocus Marie Dominicus Stoeldraijer

Patrick Wong

Jeroen Hubert Rommers

Rik Vangheluwe

Thijs Egidius Johannes Knaapen

Michel Franciscus Johannes Van Rooy

Harm Visscher

Mana Elisabeth Reuhman-Huisken

Ralf Martinus Marinus Daverveld

Alexander Serebryakov

Jacobus Johannus Leonardus Hendricus Verspaij

In a method and system for measuring a height map of a surface of an object, the following steps are carried out. Height maps of different sections of the surface of the object are measured, using an optical profilometer having a field of view covering an individual section, wherein each height map comprises height data. The measured height maps are grouped into different sets of height maps, wherein within each set each one of the height maps of the set has a valid overlap to at least one other height map of the set, and wherein each height map belongs to one set and does not have a valid overlap with any height map of another set. Within each set, the measured height maps are stitched to a sub-composite stitched height map. The sub-composite stitched height maps are combined to a composite height map.

Method and system for measuring a height map of a surface of an object, and computer program therefor

A lithographic apparatus is described having a liquid supply system configured to at least partly fill a space between a projection system of the lithographic apparatus and a substrate with liquid, a barrier member arranged to substantially contain the liquid within the space, and a heater.

Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method involving a heater

An interferometric optical device that measures the curved wall shape of a cylindrical object and includes: an interferometric optical system that emits measurement light at the curved wall of the object, collects the light reflected by the object, and creates a composite wave that combines the reflected light and a reference light; a rotation drive assembly that is connected to the interferometric optical system and rotationally displaces the interferometric optical system centered about a rotation axis that coincides with a center axis of the cylindrical shape of the object; a sensor that acquires a two-dimensional distribution of the intensity of the composite wave using a plurality of photoreceptor elements arrayed two-dimensionally; and a computation device that computes the internal wall shape of the object based on the plurality of two-dimensional distributions acquired in a state where a rotation angle for the rotation drive mechanism varies.

Optical interference measuring device

Method and system for calculating a height map of a surface of an object from an image stack in scanning optical 2.5D profiling of the surface by an optical system, a focal plane is scanned at different height positions with respect to the object surface. An image is captured at each height position of the focal plane to form the image stack. The scanning of the focal plane comprises long range sensing and short range sensing a displacement of the focal plane for sensing low and high spatial frequency components. The height position of the focal plane is estimated by combining the low and high spatial frequency components. A height position of each image in the image stack is calculated, based on the estimated height position of each respective focal plane. The images of the image stack are interpolated to equidistant height positions for obtaining a corrected image stack.

Method and system for calculating a height map of a surface of an object from an image stack in scanning optical 2.5D profiling of the surface by an optical system

A method for measuring a height map of multiple fields of view on a surface of a substrate with an optical profilometer and combining them to a composite height map, the method includes: moving the profilometer relative to the surface from field to field along a route; measuring height maps of fields on the surface along the route with the profilometer; and, combining a plurality of height maps of measured fields by normalizing said height maps to each other to produce a composite height map of the surface; wherein the route is configured to minimize sensitivity to height drifting of the profilometer during combining a plurality of the height maps.

Method for measuring a height map of multiple fields of view and combining them to a composite height map with minimized sensitivity to instrument drift

Provided is a method for calculating a height map of a sample comprising a body of a transparent material having a refractive index with an inclined or curved surface, the body being provided on an underlying surface extending laterally from underneath the body. The method may include positioning a first area of a body of a transparent material with an inclined or curved surface and a second area of the underlying surface extending laterally from underneath the body under an optical profiler, measuring a height map of the first area and the second area with the optical profiler; and calculating a height map of the inclined or curved surface by using the refractive index, the measured height map of the first area and the second area.

Method for calculating a height map of a body of transparent material having an inclined or curved surface

A lithographic apparatus is described having a liquid supply system configured to at least partly fill a space between a projection system of the lithographic apparatus and a substrate with liquid, a substrate temperature control system configured to provide a control signal to control a substrate temperature conditioning system based on a determined temperature; and a parameter control system configured to adjust a lithographic apparatus parameter, that is other than, or in addition to, the control signal, based on temperature information of the substrate and/or substrate table or on a measure derived from the temperature information.

The present invention provides an interference measuring device with an optical system that can receive light reflected from a measurement object of a surface profile that is not perpendicular to an optical axis. An interference measuring device includes a light source for emitting light and an interferometric objective lens. The interferometric objective lens includes a reference mirror disposed in a reference beam path and a beam splitter that splits the incident light into a beam traveling along the reference beam path and a beam traveling along a measurement beam path. The beam splitter also combines the beam reflected off the reference mirror with the beam reflected off a measurement object disposed in the measurement beam path before emitting the combined beams. The interference measuring device further includes an imaging unit for taking an image of the combined beams forming on the unit and an aperture stop disposed in an optical path linking the interferometric objective lens, the light source, and the imaging unit together. The aperture stop is movable along an optical axis of the interferometric objective lens.

Interference measuring device and method of measurement using the same device

Method for measuring a height map of a test, including measuring a coarse height map of the test surface with a pre-map sensor provided to an optical profiler with a relatively long working distance and/or a large field of view, storing the coarse height map in a memory, subdividing the coarse height map into sections appropriate for the field of view of a high resolution optical profiler sensor provided to the optical profiler, calculating corresponding X, Y and Z positions for the optical profiler sensor with respect to the test surface, calculating a trajectory in the X, Y, Z-direction for the optical profiler sensor with respect to the test surface using the calculated X, Y, Z-positions, moving the optical profiler in the X, Y, Z-direction with respect to the test surface according to the trajectory, and measuring a high accuracy height map with the high resolution optical profiler sensor.

Method for measuring a high accuracy height map of a test surface

In order to determine whether an exposure apparatus is outputting the correct dose of radiation and its projection system is focusing the radiation correctly, a test pattern is used on a mask for printing a specific marker onto a substrate. This marker is then measured by an inspection apparatus, such as a scatterometer, to determine whether there are errors in focus and dose and other related properties. The test pattern is configured such that changes in focus and dose may be easily determined by measuring the properties of a pattern that is exposed using the mask. The test pattern may be a 2D pattern where physical or geometric properties, e.g., pitch, are different in each of the two dimensions. The test pattern may also be a one-dimensional pattern made up of an array of structures in one dimension, the structures being made up of at least one substructure, the substructures reacting differently to focus and dose and giving rise to an exposed pattern from which focus and dose may be determined.

Lithographic focus and dose measurement using a 2-D target

Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method involving a heater and a temperature sensor

Method of determining a property of a sample from a correlogram obtainable by scanning of a surface of the sample through a focal plane of an objective using broad-band interferometry is provided. The correlogram may be displaying interference radiation intensity as a function of the scanning distance from the surface. The correlogram may be correlated with a secondary correlogram to obtain a cross correlogram or with the same correlogram to obtain an autocorrelogram. A property of the sample may be determined from the auto or cross correlogram.

Method and apparatus for determining a property of a surface

A method of measurement of at-resolution overlay offset may be implemented in a scatterometer. At least three targets are provided on a wafer, each target comprising a first marker grating and a second interleaved marker grating and each target having a different overlay bias between its first and second marker. The first and second markers are provided by subsequent lithography steps in a double patterning lithographic process. The targets are measured with a scatterometer and for each target a measured CD of at least one of the markers is determined using reconstruction. The CD of the first marker may be fixed in the reconstruction. The measured CDs and at least one of the overlay biases is used to determine an overlay result corresponding to a minimum measured CD. The overlay result may be determined by fitting a function such as a parabola to the measured CDs and the overlay biases and determining the overlay at the minimum of the fitted function.

Method and apparatus for overlay measurement

Growing community of inventors

Veldhoven, Netherlands

Johannes Anna Quaedackers