The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 22, 2006
Filed:
Jun. 15, 2005
Rene Monshouwer, Eindhoven, NL;
Jacobus Hermanus Maria Neijzen, Eindhoven, NL;
Jan Evert Van Der Werf, Eindhoven, NL;
Rene Monshouwer, Eindhoven, NL;
Jacobus Hermanus Maria Neijzen, Eindhoven, NL;
Jan Evert Van Der Werf, Eindhoven, NL;
ASML Netherlands B.V., Veldhoven, NL;
Abstract
For determining the alignment of a substrate with respect to a mask, a substrate alignment mark, having a periodic structure, and an additional alignment mark, having a periodic structure and provided in a resist layer on top of the substrate, are used. Upon illumination of these two marks, having a period which is considerably smaller than that of a reference mark, an interference pattern is generated, which has a period corresponding to that of the reference mark. By measuring the movement of the interference pattern with respect to the refernce mark, the much smaller mutual movement of the fine alignment marks can be measured. In this way, the resolution and accuracy of a conventional alignment device can be increased considerably.