Asml Netherlands B.v.

Stefan Carolus Jacobus Antonius Keij

Arie Jeffrey Den Boef

Maurits Van Der Schaar

Everhardus Cornelis Mos

Andre Bernardus Jeunink

Kaustuve Bhattacharyya

Franciscus Godefridus Casper Bijnen

Bearrach Moest

Laurentius Johannes Adrianus Van Bokhoven

Yang-Shan Huang

Hoite Pieter Theodoor Tolsma

Petrus Franciscus Van Gils

Thomas Augustus Mattaar

Enno Van Den Brink

Stan Henricus Van Der Meulen

Junichi Kanehara

Federico La Torre

Christine Henriette Schouten

Patricius Aloysius Jacobus Tinnemans

Simon Gijsbert Josephus Mathijssen

Antoine Gaston Marie Kiers

Henricus Petrus Maria Pellemans

Mircea Dusa

Haico Victor Kok

Irwan Dani Setija

Ralph Brinkhof

Henricus Johannes Lambertus Megens

Igor Matheus Petronella Aarts

Peter Clement Paul Vanoppen

Samee Ur Rehman

Leendert Jan Karssemeijer

Cas Johannes Petrus Maria Van Nuenen

A metrology method relating to measurement of a structure on a substrate, the structure being subject to one or more asymmetric deviation. The method includes obtaining at least one intensity asymmetry value relating to the one or more asymmetric deviations, wherein the at least one intensity asymmetry value includes a metric related to a difference or imbalance between the respective intensities or amplitudes of at least two diffraction orders of radiation diffracted by the structure; determining at least one phase offset value corresponding to the one or more asymmetric deviations based on the at least one intensity asymmetry value; and determining one or more measurement corrections for the one or more asymmetric deviations from the at least one phase offset value.

Metrology method and associated metrology and lithographic apparatuses

In order to improve the throughput performance and/or economy of a measurement apparatus, the present disclosure provides a metrology apparatus including: a first measuring apparatus; a second measuring apparatus; a first substrate stage configured to hold a first substrate and/or a second substrate; a second substrate stage configured to hold the first substrate and/or the second substrate; a first substrate handler configured to handle the first substrate and/or the second substrate; and a second substrate handler configured to handle the first substrate and/or the second substrate, wherein the first substrate is loaded from a first, second or third FOUP, wherein the second substrate is loaded from the first, second or third FOUP, wherein the first measuring apparatus is an alignment measuring apparatus, and wherein the second measuring apparatus is a level sensor, a film thickness measuring apparatus or a spectral reflectance measuring apparatus.

Measurement apparatus

A lithographic apparatus comprising a support structure constructed to support a patterning device and associated pellicle, the patterning device being capable of imparting the radiation beam with a pattern in its cross-section to form a patterned radiation beam, and a projection system configured to project the patterned radiation beam onto a target portion of a substrate, wherein the support structure is located in a housing and wherein pressure sensors are located in the housing.

Lithographic method

A lithographic apparatus has a support structure constructed to support a patterning device and associated pellicle, the patterning device being capable of imparting the radiation beam with a pattern in its cross-section to form a patterned radiation beam, and a projection system configured to project the patterned radiation beam onto a target portion of a substrate, wherein the support structure is located in a housing and wherein pressure sensors are located in the housing.

Asymmetry properties of a periodic target on a substrate, such as a grating on a wafer, are determined. An inspection apparatus has a broadband illumination source with illumination beams point mirrored in the pupil plane of a high numerical aperture objective lens. The substrate and target are illuminated via the objective lens from a first direction and a second direction mirror reflected with respect to the plane of the substrate. A quad wedge optical device separately redirects diffraction orders of radiation scattered from the substrate and separates diffraction orders from illumination along each of the first and second directions. For example the zeroth and first orders are separated for each incident direction. After capture in multimode fibers, spectrometers are used to measure the intensity of the separately redirected diffraction orders as a function of wavelength.

Inspection apparatus and method, lithographic apparatus, lithographic processing cell and device manufacturing method

A lithographic apparatus arranged to transfer a pattern from a patterning device onto a substrate includes a reference set of gratings provided in the substrate, the reference set including two reference gratings having line elements in a first direction and one reference grating having line elements in a second, perpendicular, direction. A measurement set of gratings is provided on top of the reference set of gratings, the measurement set comprising three measurement gratings similar to the reference gratings. Two of the measurement gratings are oppositely biased in the second direction relative to the respective reference gratings. An overlay measurement device is provided to measure asymmetry of the three gratings in the reference set and the measurement set, and to derive from the measured asymmetry the overlay in both the first and second direction.

Lithographic apparatus and device manufacturing method using overlay measurement

A substrate includes an overlay target. The overlay target can include two superposed layers. Each of the two superposed layers includes two gratings with a different pitch from each other.

Substrate used in a method and apparatus for angular-resolved spectroscopic lithography characterization

An overlay target on a substrate includes two sets of gratings; the first set having a pitch Pand the second set having a pitch Pand each set including a grating with an orientation substantially perpendicular to the first grating of each set. When a layer of resist is to be aligned with the layer below it, the same overlay marks are provided on the upper layer and the relative positions of the overlay targets on the upper layer and the lower layer are compared by shining an overlay beam on to the overlay targets and measuring the diffraction spectrum of the reflected beam. Having two sets of overlay targets with different pitches in gratings enables the measurement of overlay errors that are greater than the pitch of either one of the overlay gratings.

Method and apparatus for angular-resolved spectroscopic lithography characterization

Simultaneous measurement of two orthogonally polarized beams upon diffraction from a substrate is done to determine properties of the substrate. Linearly polarized light sources with their radiation polarized in orthogonal directions are passed via two non-polarizing beamsplitters, one rotated by 90&#xb0; with respect to the other. The combined beam is then diffracted off a substrate before being passed back through a non-polarizing beamsplitter and through a phase shifter and a Wollaston prism before being measured by a CCD camera. In this way, the phase and intensities for various phase steps of the two polarized beams may thereby be measured and the polarization state of the beams may be determined. If the phase shifter is turned to zero (i.e. with no phase shifting), the grating of the substrate has its parameters measured with TE and TM polarized light simultaneously with the same detector system.

An inspection system is arranged to measure an overlay error by projecting a plurality of radiation beams, differing in wavelength and/or polarization, onto two targets. A first radiation beam is projected onto a first target and the reflected radiation Ais detected. The first target comprises two gratings having a bias +d with respect to each other. The first radiation beam is also projected on to a second target, which comprises two gratings having a bias &#x2212;d with respect to each other, and the reflected radiation Ais detected. A second radiation beam, having a different wavelength and/or polarization from the first radiation beam, is projected onto the first target and reflected radiation Ais detected and projected onto the second target and reflected radiation Ais detected. Detected radiations A, A, A, and Ais used to determine the overlay error.

A lithographic apparatus according to one embodiment includes an alignment system for aligning a substrate. The alignment system comprises an illuminator system configured to illuminate an alignment mark on the substrate with an illumination spot, the alignment mark comprising a plurality of lines and spaces. The system also includes a combiner system configured to transfer two images of the illuminated alignment mark without spatial filtering of the images, rotate the images 180&#xb0; relatively to each other, and combine the two images; and a detection system configured to detect an alignment signal from the combined images and to determine a unique alignment position by selecting a specific one of extreme values in the detected alignment signal.

Lithographic apparatus, alignment system, and device manufacturing method

A lithographic apparatus arranged to transfer a pattern from a patterning device onto a substrate includes two reference gratings provided in the substrate and two measurement gratings on top of the reference gratings, the measurement gratings being similar to the reference gratings, and oppositely biased in a single direction relative to the respective reference gratings. An overlay measurement device with an image sensor is used for obtaining pixel data of a measurement spot in each of the two measurement gratings. Asymmetry for each pixel in the measurement spot is measured, and from the pixel asymmetry measurements in associated pixels of each of the two measurement gratings an overlay value and a process dependent value is determined, as well as a quality indicator for the overlay value and the process dependent value.

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Breda, Netherlands

Stefan Carolus Jacobus Antonius Keij