Carl Zeiss Smt Gmbh

Carl Zeiss Sms Ltd.

Carl-zeiss-smt Ag

Carl Zeiss Meditec Ag

Michael Arnz

Gerd Klose

Dirk Seidel

Matthias Manger

Joachim Stuehler

Uwe Schellhorn

Oswald Gromer

Toralf Gruner

Markus Deguenther

Michael Totzeck

Sascha Bleidistel

Joachim Hartjes

Lars Stoppe

Markus Schwab

Thomas Scheruebl

Wolfgang Harnisch

Dirk Beyer

Sascha Perlitz

Michael Kuechel

Joachim Heppner

Alexander Huebel

Robert Pomraenke

Mikhail Levtonov

Volkmar Betz

Juergen Penzing

Juergen Massig

A method for determining a registration error of a feature on a mask, including providing a first aerial image that was captured by means of a position measuring device and includes at least the feature, simulating, from pattern specifications of the mask, a second aerial image that includes at least the feature, taking into account at least one effect that causes distortion of the first aerial image, and determining the registration error of the feature as the distance of the position of the feature in the first aerial image from the position of the feature in the second aerial image. Also provided is a method for simulating an aerial image from pattern specifications of a mask and a position measuring device for carrying out the method.

Method for determining the registration of a structure on a photomask and apparatus to perform the method

A projection exposure apparatus includes a projection lens, a wavefront manipulator and a wavefront measuring device for measuring a wavefront in the projection lens. The wavefront measuring device includes a Moir&#xe9; grating arrangement having an object grating and an image grating which are designed to be arranged in an object plane and an image plane, respectively, of the projection lens. The object grating and the image grating are coordinated with one another in a manner true to scale in such a way as to generate a Moir&#xe9; superimposition pattern from an imaging of the object grating onto the image plane and the image grating. The Moir&#xe9; grating arrangement is designed in such a way as to simultaneously generate the Moir&#xe9; superimposition pattern for a plurality of field points of an object field in the object plane and/or of an image field in the image plane.

Projection exposure apparatus with wavefront measuring device and optical wavefront manipulator

A test object for measuring the point spread function (PSF) of an optical system having a given Airy diameter (d) comprises a structure to be imaged having a plurality of structure elements to be imaged, wherein the structure elements are embodied and arranged in such a way that the structure has at least two axes of symmetry.

Test object for measuring the point spread function of an optical system

A method for determining a lateral offset of a pattern on a substrate relative to a desired position with the steps: a) providing a plurality of measurement and simulation images of the pattern with equidistant defocus positions, b) forming a plurality of first and second pairs, which each has a measurement image and a simulation image, wherein each first pair has the same first focal distance and each second pair has the same second focal distance, being different from the first focal distance, of the defocus positions thereof, and determining a first and second lateral distance of the patterns for each first and second pair, respectively, c) determining a first and a second linear fit line based on the determined first and second lateral distances, respectively, and d) determining the lateral offset of the pattern on the substrate relative to the desired position using the linear fit lines of step c).

Method and device for determining a lateral offset of a pattern on a substrate relative to a desired position

A measuring device () for measuring an illumination property of an illumination system (), which is configured for two-dimensional irradiation of a substrate () arranged in an illumination plane () with illumination radiation (). Two differing measurement beam paths () are formed in the measuring device, each arranged to guide the illumination radiation emitted by the illumination system onto a spatially resolving intensity detector () of the measuring device. A first () of the measurement beam paths is arranged to measure an intensity distribution in the illumination plane and the second () of the measurement beam paths is arranged to measure an intensity distribution in a pupil of the illumination system. The measuring device also includes an imaging optical unit () arranged in the first measurement beam path () such that the illumination radiation guided in the first measurement beam path passes through the imaging optical unit.

Measuring device for measuring an illumination property

There is provided an autofocus device for an imaging device which has an imaging lens system with a first focal plane, an object stage for holding an object and a first movement module for the relative movement of object stage and imaging lens system, wherein the autofocus device comprises an image-recording module with a second focal plane the position of which relative to the first focal plane is known,

Grating-assisted autofocus device and autofocusing method for an imaging device

An autofocus device for an imaging device is provided, which has an imaging optic having a first focal plane and an object table for moving an object to be imaged relative to the first focal plane, wherein said autofocus device comprises a) an image recording module having a second focal plane, the location thereof relative to the first focal plane being known, b) a lighting module (BM) for imaging a focusing image along a lighting beam path in a focusing image plane such that, if the object is positioned in a target position at a predetermined distance to the second focal plane, the lighting beam path is folded because of reflection on the object and the focusing image, which lies in the focusing image plane, intersects the second focal plane or lies therein, and c) a control module, which activates the object table to focus the imaging device so that the object is positioned in the target position, from a signal of the image recording module, which the image recording module generates on the basis of the recording thereof of the focusing image when the object is positioned in the target position, derives the deviation of the object position from the target position, and, based on the derived deviation, the predetermined distance, and the relative location of the first and second focal planes, activates the object table so that the object is positioned in the first focal plane.

Autofocus device and autofocusing method for an imaging device

The position of a first structure relative to a second structure can be determined by a) providing a reference image containing the first structure, b) providing a measurement image containing the second structure, in which the measurement image is recorded with an image sensor with a plurality of sensor pixels and the image sensor has at least one known faulty sensor pixel, c) producing a masked measurement image with a masked region that corresponds to the second structure, and forming an optimization function of the shift of the masked measurement image and the reference image relative to each other, d) determining the extreme value of the optimization function and determining the optimum value of the shift based on the extreme value, and e) determining the position of the first structure relative to the second structure on the basis of the optimum shift value.

Method and device for determining the position of a first structure relative to a second structure or a part thereof

A method for measuring the relative local position error of one of the sections of an object that is exposed section by section, in particular of a lithography mask or of a wafer, is provided, each exposed section having a plurality of measurement marks, wherein a) a region of the object which is larger than the one section is imaged in magnified fashion and is detected as an image, b) position errors of the measurement marks contained in the detected image are determined on the basis of the detected image, c) corrected position errors are derived by position error components which are caused by the magnified imaging and detection being extracted from the determined position errors of the measurement marks, d) the relative local position error of the one section is derived on the basis of the corrected position errors of the measurement marks.

Method and device for measuring the relative local position error of one of the sections of an object that is exposed section by section

A method is provided for determining the position of a first structure () relative to a second structure () or a part thereof, said method having the steps of: a) providing a first picture (F) having a multiplicity of pixels and which contains the first structure, b) providing a second picture (F) having a multiplicity of pixels and which contains the second structure, c) forming an optimization function with the displacement of the two pictures relative to one another as parameter, the optimization function overlying the two pictures and masking the overlay such that in a determination of an extreme value of the optimization function a contribution is made only by the region of the overlay that corresponds to the second structure or the part thereof, d) ascertaining the extreme value of the optimization function and determining the optimal value of the displacement based on the extreme value of the optimization function, and e) determining the position of the first structure relative to the second structure or a part thereof with the optimal displacement value ascertained in step d).

Determination of the relative position of two structures

A method and an apparatus for determining the position of a structure on a mask for microlithography, in which the position is determined by comparing an aerial image, measured by a recording device, of a portion of the mask with an aerial image determined by simulation. The position determination includes carrying out a plurality of such comparisons which differ from one another with regard to the input parameters of the simulation.

Method and apparatus for the position determination of structures on a mask for microlithography

A method for calibrating a specimen stage of a metrology system is provided, in which a specimen that has multiple marks is positioned successively in different calibration positions, each mark is positioned in the photography range of an optical system by means of the specimen stage in each calibration position of the specimen, and the mark position is measured using the optical system. A model is set up that describes positioning errors of the specimen stage using a system of functions having calibration parameters to be determined. The model takes into consideration at least one systematic measurement error that occurs during the measurement of the mark positions. The values of the calibration parameters are determined based on the model with consideration of the measured mark positions.

Method for calibrating a specimen stage of a metrology system and metrology system comprising a specimen stage

The position of an edge of a marker structure in an image of the marker structure is determined with subpixel accuracy. A discrete intensity profile of the edge, having profile pixels, is derived from the image pixels, and a continuous profile function of the edge is determined based on the profile pixels. Profile pixels whose intensity values are near an intensity threshold value are selected as evaluation pixels. Based on the evaluation pixels, a curve of continuous intensity is calculated. A position coordinate at which the intensity value of the continuous intensity curve matches the threshold value is selected as a first position coordinate, and the distance is determined between the first position coordinate and the position coordinate of the evaluation pixel that, from among the evaluation pixels previously selected, has the closest intensity value to the threshold value. The determined distance is compared to a predetermined threshold, and if the distance is greater than the threshold, a shift is effected, and the process iteratively performs the steps of selects the adjacent profile pixels, calculates the curve of continuous intensity, and so forth. If the distance is not greater than the threshold, the position of the edge in the captured image is determined with subpixel accuracy from all the distances determined in step g).

Method and device for determining the position of an edge of a marker structure with subpixel accuracy in an image, having a plurality of pixels, of the marker structure

A method is provided for determining the position of a structure on a carrier, relative to a reference point of the carrier, said method comprising the steps of: a) providing an image including a reference structure; b) recording an image of the structure on the carrier by means of a recording device, with a known recording position relative to the reference points; c) superimposing the two images to form one superimposed image; d) determining the image distance of the two structures in the superimposed image; e) shifting the two structures in the superimposed image relative to one another, depending on the determined image distance; f) checking whether the determined image distance is below a predetermined maximum value; wherein, if the image distance is below the maximum value, the method is continued in step g), and, if the image distance is not below the maximum value, steps d)-f) are repeated, taking into account the determined image distance/distances: g) determining the position of the structure relative to the reference point, on the basis of the recording position in step b) and of the image distance/image distances determined in step(s) d).

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Oberkochen, Germany

Michael Arnz