A fixation system for fixing a flexible substrate includes a handling device and a support plate being separate from the handling device. The handling device has a bearing surface with vacuum openings. The support plate has support surface for supporting the substrate and a connection surface in contact with the bearing surface of the handling device. The support plate has through holes extending from the support surface to the connection surface, wherein at least one of the through holes is fluidically connected to one of the vacuum openings of the handling device. Moreover, a support plate for a fixation system as well as a method for producing a support plate are disclosed.

A method, system and program for determining a position of a feature referenced to a substrate. The method includes measuring a position of the feature, receiving an intended placement of the feature and determining an estimate of a placement error based on knowledge of a relative position of a first reference feature referenced to a first layer on a substrate with respect to a second reference feature referenced to a second layer on a substrate. The updated position may be used to position the layer of the substrate having the feature, or another layer of the substrate, or another layer of another substrate.

Embodiments of semiconductor structures for wafer flatness control and methods for using and forming the same are disclosed. In an example, a model indicative of a flatness difference of a wafer between a first direction and a second direction is obtained. The flatness difference is associated with one of a plurality of fabrication stages of a plurality of semiconductor devices on a front side of the wafer. A compensation pattern is determined for reducing the flatness difference based on the model. At the one of the plurality of the fabrication stages, a compensation structure is formed on a backside opposite to the front side of the wafer based on the compensation pattern to reduce the flatness difference.

The present disclosure describes a method for improving post-photolithography critical dimension (CD) uniformity for features printed on a photoresist. A layer can be formed on one or more printed features and subsequently etched to improve overall CD uniformity across the features. For example the method includes a material layer disposed over a substrate and a photoresist over the material layer. The photoresist is patterned to form a first feature with a first critical dimension (CD) and a second feature with a second CD that is larger than the first CD. Further, a layer is formed with one or more deposition/etch cycles in the second feature to form a modified second CD that is nominally equal to the first CD.

A suction device includes an adapter having a supply passage to which a negative pressure fluid is supplied, a bellows connected to a lower end of the adapter, and a pad member formed at the distal end of the bellows. The pad member has plural first and second ribs on a suction surface that attracts a workpiece under suction. The first ribs are disposed on an outer circumferential side of an attachment provided in the center of the pad member and extend toward the outer circumferential side. The second ribs are provided on an outer circumferential side of the first ribs, and are disposed in a circumferentially offset manner with respect to the first ribs. Additionally, between the respective first ribs which are disposed alongside one another in the circumferential direction of a skirt, supply paths are formed to which the negative pressure fluid is supplied from the attachment.

A method for monitoring a lithographic process, and associated lithographic apparatus. The method includes obtaining height variation data relating to a substrate supported by a substrate support and fitting a regression through the height variation data, the regression approximating the shape of the substrate; residual data between the height variation data and the regression is determined; and variation of the residual data is monitored over time. The residual data may be deconvolved based on known features of the substrate support.

Proposed is an apparatus for processing substrates and a facility for processing substrates including a heating unit. The heating unit includes a heating plate provided in a heating space to heat a substrate while supporting the substrate; and a fixing portion configured to fix a position of the heating plate, wherein the fixing portion includes a plurality of fixing members spaced at regular intervals along a circumference of the heating plate, and the position of the heating plate may be fixed using a magnetic attraction of a magnetic member. At this time, the center position of the heating plate is fixed by the fixing members using the attraction of the magnetic member and at the same time, even if the heating plate is thermally expanded, the heating plate may remain level.

The present invention provides an exposure method of exposing a substrate while moving an original and the substrate in a scanning direction, the method including performing a step of specifying a position of a concave-convex portion present in the substrate, and performing a step of driving the substrate, based on the position of the concave-convex portion specified and a measurement value of the position in the height direction of each measurement point obtained by causing a light beam to obliquely enter each of a plurality of measurement points while moving the substrate in the scanning direction, so that the position in the height direction of the substrate will be a target position, when exposing the substrate.

Embodiments herein beneficially enable simultaneous processing of a plurality of substrates in a digital direct write lithography processing system. In one embodiment a method of processing a plurality of substrate includes positioning a plurality of substrates on a substrate carrier of a processing system, positioning the substrate carrier under the plurality of optical modules, independently leveling each of the plurality of substrates, determining offset information for each of the plurality of substrates, generating patterning instructions based on the offset information for each of the plurality of substrates, and patterning each of the plurality of substrates using the plurality of optical modules. The processing system comprises a base, a motion stage disposed on the base, the substrate carrier disposed on the motion stage, a bridge disposed above a surface of the base and separated therefrom, and a plurality of optical modules disposed on the bridge.

The present disclosure describes a method for improving post-photolithography critical dimension (CD) uniformity for features printed on a photoresist. A layer can be formed on one or more printed features and subsequently etched to improve overall CD uniformity across the features. For example the method includes a material layer disposed over a substrate and a photoresist over the material layer. The photoresist is patterned to form a first feature with a first critical dimension (CD) and a second feature with a second CD that is larger than the first CD. Further, a layer is formed with one or more deposition/etch cycles in the second feature to form a modified second CD that is nominally equal to the first CD.