Molecular Imprints, Inc.

Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Canon Nanotechnologies, Inc.

Pdf Solutions, Incorporated

Philip D Schumaker

Byung-Jin Choi

Pawan Kumar Nimmakayala

Daniel Babbs

Xiaoming Lu

Tom H Rafferty

Sidlgata V Sreenivasan

Alireza Aghili

Seth J Bamesberger

Van Nguyen Truskett

Yeshwanth Srinivasan

Mario Johannes Meissl

Niyaz Khusnatdinov

Atsushi Kimura

Takuro Yamazaki

Ian Matthew McMackin

Pankaj B Lad

Sharad Saxena

Stephen C Johnson

Norman E Schumaker

Christopher Ellis Jones

Carlo Guardiani

Masahiro Tamura

Jun Ota

Wei Zhang

Angelo Fancello

Jae Hong Kim

Patrick D McNamara

Babak Mokaberi

Jeremy Sevier

Dale Coder

Ian M Mcmackin

A head module of an imprint lithography system includes a base, a control body coupled to the base, a first set of actuators configured to generate a first force to translate the control body relative to the base along a first axis and to rotate the control body relative to the base about a second axis perpendicular to the first axis and about a third axis perpendicular to the first axis and to the second axis, a second set of actuators configured to generate a second force to translate the control body relative to the base in a plane defined by the second axis and the third axis and to rotate the control body relative to the base about the first axis, and a flexure coupling the base and the control body and restricting translation and rotation of the control body with respect to the base.

Nanoimprint lithography with a six degrees-of-freedom imprint head module

An imprint lithography system that pressurizes and depressurizes an air cavity behind a retained imprint template or substrate so as to deflect the template or substrate to aid in filling the template pattern with fluid resist and/or separating the template from the cured resist on the substrate. The system includes a controller, pressure sensors, and an impedance valve for modulating the air cavity pressure so as to reduce pressure wave oscillations within the cavity that otherwise negatively impact overlay accuracy control, fluid spread control and separation control.

System and methods for nanoimprint lithography

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for aligning a template and a substrate, the method including obtaining a moir&#xe9; image based on an interaction of light between corresponding features of the template and the substrate, the moir&#xe9; image including a plurality of moir&#xe9; fringe strips; compressing each moir&#xe9; fringe strip of the moir&#xe9; image by an optical lens array based on a pixel height of an acquisition device, the acquisition device including one or more line scan cameras; processing the compressed moir&#xe9; image by each of the line scan cameras of the acquisition device to determine a misalignment between the template and the substrate; and based on the determined misalignment, adjusting a relative positioning between the template and the substrate.

Optical system for use in stage control

The present invention provides an imprint apparatus which molds an imprint material on a shot region formed on a substrate by using a mold including a pattern surface on which a pattern is formed, comprising a holding unit configured to change a position and orientation of the mold, and a control unit configured to cause the holding unit to incline the mold, and bring the mold and the imprint material into contact with each other while the mold is inclined, wherein after the control unit obtains a shift amount by which a mark on the mold shifts by inclining the mold, and changes relative positions of the mold and the substrate according to the shift amount, the control unit brings the mold and the imprint material into contact with each other.

Imprint apparatus and method of manufacturing article

The present invention provides an imprint apparatus which forms a pattern on a substrate by molding an imprint material on the substrate using a mold, comprising a supply unit configured to supply droplets of the imprint material onto the substrate; and a processing unit configured to acquire arrangement patterns of the droplets on the substrate, wherein based on the arrangement pattern corresponding to a first portion of the mold and the arrangement pattern corresponding to a second portion of the mold, the processing unit acquires the arrangement pattern corresponding to a boundary portion between the first portion and the second portion.

Imprint apparatus, imprint method, and method of manufacturing article

Systems for controlling velocity of a contact line and height profile between a template and a substrate during imprinting of polymerizable material are described.

High throughput imprint based on contact line motion tracking control

Systems and methods for controlling velocity of a contact line and height profile between a template and a substrate during imprinting of polymerizable material are described.

The present invention is directed towards a choice of the shape of the patterned fields for Level 0 (patterned by imprint or photolithography or e-beam, etc.) and Level 1 (patterned by imprint) such that these shapes when tessellated together eliminate the open areas causes by the moats.

Tessellated patterns in imprint lithography

In nano-imprint lithography it is important to detect thickness non-uniformity of a residual layer formed on a substrate. Such non-uniformity is compensated such that a uniform residual layer may be formed. Compensation is performed by calculating a corrected fluid drop pattern.

Residual layer thickness measurement and correction

Imprint lithography may comprise generating a fluid map, generating a fluid drop pattern, and applying a fluid to a substrate according to the fluid drop pattern. The fluid drop pattern may be generated using a stochastic process such as a Monte Carlo or structured experiment over the expected range of process variability for drop locations and drop volumes. Thus, variability in drop placement, volume, or both may be compensated for, resulting in surface features being substantially filled with the fluid during imprint.

Robust optimization to generate drop patterns in imprint lithography which are tolerant of variations in drop volume and drop placement

Imprint lithography may comprise generating a fluid map, generating a fluid drop pattern, and applying a fluid to a substrate according to the fluid drop pattern. The fluid drop pattern may be generated using edge weighting through one or more modified Lloyd's method iterations to result in surface features being substantially filled with the fluid during imprint.

Drop pattern generation with edge weighting

Systems and methods for alignment of template and substrate at the edge of substrate are described.

Alignment for edge field nano-imprinting

Imprint lithography benefits from precise alignment between a template and a substrate during imprinting. A moir&#xe9; signal resulting from indicia on the template and the substrate are acquired by a system comprising a line-scan camera and a digital micromirror device (DMD) which provides a high bandwidth, low-latency signal. Once acquired, the moir&#xe9; signal may be used directly to align the template and the substrate without need for discrete position/angle encoders.

A method of patterning a substrate comprising a plurality of fields, including, inter alia, positioning a first volume of fluid on a first subset of the plurality of fields of the substrate, with the first volume of fluid being subjected to a first evaporation time; positioning a second volume of fluid on a second subset of the plurality of fields of the substrate, differing from the first subset, with the second volume of fluid being subjected to a second evaporation time, differing from the first evaporation time; and patterning the first and second subsets of the plurality of fields, with the first subset of the plurality of fields being patterned prior to the second subset of the plurality of fields being patterned, with a volume associated with the second subset of the plurality of fields being greater than a volume associated with the first subset of the plurality of fields to compensate for the second evaporation time being greater than the first evaporation time.

Patterning a plurality of fields on a substrate to compensate for differing evaporation times

Generating a fluid drop pattern for an imprint lithography process includes selecting an imprinting surface with features and generating a fluid drop pattern including drop locations for placement of a multiplicity of drops of substantially equal volume on an imprint lithography substrate such that some of the drops are substantially aligned with at least some of the features. The fluid drop pattern is generated through an optimization process. The fluid drop pattern allows substantially complete filling of imprinting surface features and formation of a substantially uniform residual layer during the imprint lithography process.

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Austin, TX, United States of America

Philip D Schumaker