Asml Netherlands B.v.

Asml Holding N.v.

Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.v.

Simon Reinald Huisman

Sebastianus Adrianus Goorden

Arie Jeffrey Den Boef

Alessandro Polo

Simon Gijsbert Josephus Mathijssen

Duygu Akbulut

Irwan Dani Setija

Justin Lloyd Kreuzer

Henricus Petrus Maria Pellemans

Johannes Antonius Gerardus Akkermans

Stefan Michiel Witte

Sergei Sokolov

Tamer Mohamed Tawfik Ahmed Mohamed Elazhary

Nitish Kumar

Arjan Johannes Anton Beukman

Filippo Alpeggiani

Stephen Edward

Paulus Clemens Maria Planken

Alessandro Antoncecchi

Hao Zhang

Patricius Aloysius Jacobus Tinnemans

Franciscus Godefridus Casper Bijnen

David Ferdinand Vles

Willem Marie Julia Marcel Coene

Igor Matheus Petronella Aarts

Christopher John Mason

Krishanu Shome

Zili Zhou

Erik Willem Bogaart

Jin Lian

Mohamed Swillam

Geert Veenstra

Marinus Petrus Reijnders

Kjeld Sijbrand Eduard Eikema

Yuxiang Lin

Adrianus Johannes Hendrikus Schellekens

Muhsin Eralp

Irit Tzemah

Elahe Yeganegi Dastgerdi

Vu Quang Tran

Disclosed is an illumination arrangement for spectrally shaping a broadband illumination beam to obtain a spectrally shaped illumination beam. The illumination arrangement comprises a beam dispersing element for dispersing the broadband illumination beam and a spatial light modulator for spatially modulating the broadband illumination beam subsequent to being dispersed. The illumination arrangement further comprises at least one of a beam expanding element for expanding said broadband illumination beam in at least one direction, located between an input of the illumination arrangement and the spatial light modulator; and a lens array, each lens of which for directing a respective wavelength band of the broadband illumination beam subsequent to being dispersed onto a respective region of the spatial light modulator.

Illumination apparatus and associated metrology and lithographic apparatuses

Disclosed is a metrology system comprising: a pre-alignment metrology tool operable to measure a plurality of targets on a substrate to obtain measurement data; and a processing unit. The processing unit is operable to: process said measurement data to determine for each target at least one position distribution which describes variation of said position value over at least part of said target; and determine a measurement correction from said at least one position distribution which corrects for within-target variation in each of said targets, said measurement correction for correcting measurements performed by an alignment sensor.

Metrology system and lithographic system

A detection system () includes an illumination system (), a first optical system (), a phase modulator (), a lock-in detector (), and a function generator (). The illumination system is configured to transmit an illumination beam () along an illumination path. The first optical system is configured to transmit the illumination beam toward a diffraction target () on a substrate (). The first optical system is further configured to transmit a signal beam including diffraction order sub-beams () that are diffracted by the diffraction target. The phase modulator is configured to modulate the illumination beam or the signal beam based on a reference signal. The lock-in detector is configured to collect the signal beam and to measure a characteristic of the diffraction target based on the signal beam and the reference signal. The function generator is configured to generate the reference signal for the phase modulator and the lock-in detector.

Overlay measurement system using lock-in amplifier technique

Disclosed is a method of metrology such as alignment metrology. The method comprises obtaining pupil plane measurement dataset at a pupil plane relating to scattered radiation resultant from a measurement of a structure. The method comprises determining a measurement value or correction therefor using the pupil plane measurement dataset and a sensor term relating to sensor optics used to perform said measurement.

Metrology method and lithographic apparatuses

Disclosed is a method of metrology comprising using measurement illumination to measure a target, said measurement illumination comprising a plurality of illumination conditions. The method comprises performing a first measurement capture with a first subset of said plurality of illumination conditions, e.g., each comprising a positive weighting, to obtain a first parameter value and performing a second measurement capture with a second subset of said plurality of illumination conditions, e.g., each comprising a negative weighting, to obtain a second parameter value. An optimized parameter value is determined as a weighted combination of at least the first parameter value and the second parameter value.

Metrology method and associated metrology and lithographic apparatuses

Disclosed is a phase modulator apparatus comprises at least a first phase modulator for modulating input radiation, and a metrology device comprising such a phase modulator apparatus. The first phase modulator comprises a first moving grating in at least an operational state for diffracting the input radiation and Doppler shifting the frequency of the diffracted radiation; and a first compensatory grating element comprising a pitch configured to compensate for wavelength dependent dispersion of at least one diffraction order of said diffracted radiation.

Metrology device and phase modulator apparatus therefor comprising a first moving grating and a first compensatory grating element

An alignment apparatus includes an illumination system configured to direct one or more illumination beams towards an alignment target and receive the diffracted beams from the alignment target. The alignment apparatus also includes a self-referencing Interferometer configured to generate two diffraction sub-beams, wherein the two diffraction sub-beams are orthogonally polarized, rotated 180 degrees with respect to each other around an alignment axis, and spatially overlapped. The alignment apparatus further includes a beam analyzer configured to generate interference between the overlapped components of the diffraction sub-beams and produce two orthogonally polarized optical branches, and a detection system configured to determine a position of the alignment target based on light intensity measurement of the optical branches, wherein the measured light intensity is temporally modulated by a phase modulator.

Phase modulators in alignment to decrease mark size

Disclosed is a method for determining a stage position or correction therefor in a lithographic process. The method comprises obtaining transmission data describing the transmission of alignment radiation onto the substrate; obtaining position data relating to a stage position of said stage and/or a sensor position of said sensor. A weighting is determined for the position data based on said transmission data. The position based on said transmission data, position data and weighting.

Alignment method

A detection system for an alignment sensor, and an alignment sensor and lithographic projection apparatus comprising such a detection system is disclosed. The detection system comprises at least one detection circuit; and a plurality of optical fiber cores for transporting a measurement signal to the at least one detection circuit. At least as subset of the plurality of optical fiber cores are selectively switchable between a detection state and a non-detection state, thereby defining a configurable detection spot.

Detection system for an alignment sensor

Disclosed is an illumination system for delivering incoherent radiation to a metrology sensor system. Also disclosed is an associated metrology system and method. The illumination system comprises a spatial filter system for selective spatial filtering of a beam of said incoherent radiation outside of a module housing of the metrology sensor system. At least one optical guide is provided for guiding the spatially filtered beam of incoherent radiation to the metrology sensor system, the at least one optical guide being such that the radiation guided has a substantially similar output angle as input angle.

Metrology sensor, illumination system and method of generating measurement illumination with a configurable illumination spot diameter

A method of determining a position of a feature (for example an alignment mark) on an object (for example a silicon wafer) is disclosed. The method comprises determining an offset parameter, determining the second position; and determining a first position from the second position and the offset parameter, the position of the mark being the first position. The offset parameter is a measure of a difference in: a first position that is indicative of the position of the feature; and a second position that is indicative of the position of the feature. The offset parameter may be determined using a first measurement apparatus and the second position may be determined using a second, different measurement apparatus.

Alignment method and apparatus

Disclosed is a metrology device () configured to produce measurement illumination comprising a plurality of illumination beams, each of said illumination beams being spatially incoherent or pseudo-spatially incoherent and comprising multiple pupil points in an illumination pupil of the metrology device. Each pupil point in each one of said plurality of illumination beams has a corresponding pupil point in at least one of the other illumination beams of said plurality of illumination beams thereby defining multiple sets of corresponding pupil points, and the pupil points of each set of corresponding pupil points are spatially coherent with respect to each other.

Metrology sensor for position metrology

The invention provides a position sensor () which comprises an optical system () configured to provide measurement radiation () to a substrate (). The optical system is arranged to receive at least a portion of radiation () diffracted by a mark () provided on the substrate. A processor () is applied to derive at least one position-sensitive signal () from the received radiation. The measurement radiation comprises at least a first and a second selected radiation wavelength. The selection of the at least first and second radiation wavelengths is based on a position error swing-curve model.

Position sensor

A sensor apparatus () for determining a position of a target () of a substrate (W) comprising, projection optics () configured to project a radiation beam () onto the substrate, collection optics () configured to collect measurement radiation () that has scattered from the target, a wavefront sensing system () configured to determine a pupil function variation of at least a portion () of the measurement radiation and output a signal () indicative thereof, and a measurement system () configured to receive the signal and to determine the position of the target in at least partial dependence on the collected measurement radiation and the determined pupil function variation of at least a portion of the measurement radiation.

Sensor apparatus and method for lithographic measurements

The invention provides a level sensor to measure a position of a surface of a substrate, comprising a projection unit arranged to direct a beam of radiation to the surface of the substrate and a detection unit. The detection unit comprises a detection grating arranged to receive the beam of radiation reflected on the surface of the substrate, one or more detectors, one or more optical elements to direct the beam of radiation from the detection grating to the one or more detectors, and a processing unit to determine the position of the surface of the substrate on the basis of the beam of radiation received by the one or more detectors. The detection grating and the one or more optical elements are integrated in a single integrated optical element.

Growing community of inventors

Eindhoven, Netherlands

Simon Reinald Huisman