Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Tadashi Hattori

Akio Aoki

Katsutoshi Sakai

An imprint apparatus executes an imprint process for shaping an imprint material by using a mold. The apparatus includes a controller which obtains first height distribution information indicating a height distribution of a surface of a first substrate, and a measuring device which obtains second height distribution information indicating a height distribution of a surface of a second substrate. The controller controls the imprint process based on corrected height distribution information which is obtained by removing a first component that is an approximation function, of an order not more than a first predetermined order, for approximating the first height distribution information, from the first height distribution information, and a second component which is an approximation function, of an order not more than a second predetermined order, for approximating the second height distribution information.

Imprint apparatus, imprint method, and method of manufacturing article

An imprint apparatus that forms a curable composition on a substrate using a mold includes a first measurement unit configured to measure a height distribution of the substrate at a contact position where the mold and the curable composition are brought into contact with each other. The first measurement unit measures a height of the substrate by bringing a probe into contact with a surface of the substrate, the probe having a contact surface area smaller than a contact surface area of the mold.

The present invention provides an imprint apparatus including a holding unit configured to hold a material, a measurement unit configured to measure a position of the material held by the holding unit, a detection unit configured to detect dechucking of the material in the holding unit, and a control unit configured to control continuation processing for continuing an imprint process if the detection unit has detected the dechucking, wherein the control unit performs, as the continuation processing, processing of causing the holding unit to hold the dechucked material again without unloading the material from the imprint apparatus, and processing of measuring, by the measurement unit, a position of the material held again by the holding unit before the imprint process to use the position for alignment in the imprint process.

An imprinting method in which a pattern of an imprint material can be formed on a substrate while damage of a concave and convex pattern of a mold due to foreign particle is more reliably prevented is provided. An imprinting method of forming the pattern of the imprint material on the substrate using the mold includes: a supply step of supplying the imprint material on the substrate; a pattern forming step of forming the pattern of the imprint material by bringing an imprint material in a predetermined shot region on the substrate into contact with a concave and convex pattern of the mold after supplying the imprint material; and a foreign particle pressing step of pressing the foreign particle using a pressing surface of a pressing unit facing a surface of the substrate if the foreign particle is present on the surface of the substrate in a predetermined shot region, wherein the foreign particle pressing step is performed before the pattern forming step, and in the foreign particle pressing step, the foreign particle is pressed so that an amount of protrusion is smaller than a film thickness of the imprint material after the pattern forming step.

Imprinting method, imprint apparatus, and article manufacturing method

The present invention provides an imprint apparatus which forms a pattern of an imprint material on a substrate by using a mold, the apparatus including a mold holding unit configured to hold the mold, a substrate holding unit configured to hold the substrate, an image capturing unit configured such that a field of view of the image capturing unit includes a pattern region of the mold held by the molding unit, and a control unit configured to determine, based on an image obtained by capturing at least one of the mold and the substrate by the image capturing unit after a mold separating operation for separating the mold from a cured imprint material on the substrate, whether an abnormality is generated in the mold separating operation.

Imprint apparatus and method of manufacturing article

The present invention provides an imprint apparatus which forms a pattern on an imprint material on a substrate by using a mold, the apparatus comprising a measurement unit configured to measure an inclination of a surface of the substrate at a second position different from a first position where the mold is brought into contact with the imprint material, and a control unit configured to control at least one of inclinations of a surface of the mold and the surface of the substrate when bringing the mold into contact with the imprint material at the first position, wherein the control unit controls at least one of the inclinations based on information representing inclinations of a surface of a reference substrate at the first position and the second position, and a measurement result obtained by the measurement unit.

An imprint apparatus includes: a first driving mechanism configured to move at least one of a mold holder and a substrate holder such that a mold and an imprint material are contact with each other; a second driving mechanism configured to move at least one of the holders such that the substrate is aligned with the mold; a measurement device configured to measure relative positions between a mold mark and a substrate mark in a state in which the mold and the imprint material are not in contact with each other; and a controller configured to control the second driving mechanism based on information of a relationship between a moving amount of at least one of the holders, and change in relative positions between the marks, information of the moving amount, and information of the measured relative positions.

Imprint apparatus and article manufacturing method

When a substrate stage is located in a first area, a first measurement device measures the same portion of the substrate at the plural measurement points both before and after the stage is horizontally driven. A controller calculates a first difference of the stage in the vertical direction in the first area accompanying driving of the stage horizontally, based on a first measurement result, calculates a value representing a surface shape of the substrate by subtracting the first difference from the first measurement result, calculates a second difference of the stage in the vertical direction in the second area accompanying driving of the stage horizontally by subtracting the value from a value representing a vertical position of the substrate when the stage is located in the second area, and controls a vertical position of the stage in the second area based on the second difference.

Exposure apparatus and method of manufacturing device

An exposure apparatus includes a first measurement device, a second measurement device, and a controller. The first measurement device measures the position of a substrate stage in the optical axis direction when the substrate stage is scanned in the first direction. The second measurement device measures the surface positions of the substrate in the optical axis direction at a plurality of measurement points on one straight line extending in the second direction on the substrate. The controller controls the second measurement device to measure at least one identical region on the substrate at different measurement points of the plurality of measurement points both before and after the substrate stage moves in steps in the second direction, and calculates a measurement error of the first measurement device attributed to the driving of the substrate stage in the second direction based on the measurement result obtained by the second measurement device.

An alignment stage includes a first plane mirror which extends in two directions substantially perpendicular to each other in order to measure the position of a stage in the translation direction and the tilt of the stage in the direction of height, a first measurement unit which irradiates the plane mirror with a laser beam and measures the position of the stage in the translation direction by using reflection of the laser beam, and a second measurement unit which irradiates the first plane mirror with a laser beam and measures the position by using reflection of the laser beam at a position vertically spaced apart from the firs measurement unit in order to measure the tilt of the stage. A third measurement unit which measures the tilt of the stage with respect to the surface of the surface plate in the direction of height, and an arithmetic unit calculates the error of the first plane mirror corresponding to each position of the stage on the basis of the difference between the first tilt amount based on the difference between the measurement results of the first and second measurement units, and the second tilt amount measured by the third measurement unit. A control unit corrects the first tilt amount and drives the stage on the basis of an error obtained in advance by the arithmetic unit in accordance with a position to which the stage moves.

Alignment stage, exposure apparatus, and semiconductor device manufacturing method

A high speed, wide-range, high-accuracy positioning stage device for eliminating errors due to deterministic elements such as variation of surface machining accuracy of a bar mirror and for preventing error accumulation due to indeterminate elements such as air fluctuations when switching between laser interferometers. When an X1 laser interferometer as a first position measurement device and an X2 laser interferometer as a second position measurement device are switched, at a place at which at least two position measurement devices are activated, when a value is handed over from the X1 laser interferometer, which was activated, to the X2 laser interferometer, which is to be activated, errors due to the effect of X-bar mirror flatness and air fluctuations are found by a correction function for the X-bar mirror and/or a table and the average of the measured values, and the value of the X2 laser interferometer is corrected by a correction device such as a calculation device.

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Utsunomiya, Japan

Tadashi Hattori