An alignment system obtains the characteristics of the light coming back from a wafer stack. A beam analyzer measures changes in wavelength, polarization, and beam profile. This measured information allows for in-line process variation corrections. The correction provides optical monitoring of individual mark stack variations, and in turn provides information to reduce individual mark process variation-induced accuracy error.

An apparatus for a chuck having particle recesses is provided. In some embodiments, the chuck includes a plurality of impressions and a particle recess. The impressions of the plurality of impressions are laterally spaced and extend into the chuck from a top surface of the chuck to a base surface of the chuck. The base surface of the chuck defines bottom surfaces respectively of the impressions and is spaced between the top surface of the chuck and a bottom surface of the chuck. The particle recess extends in to the chuck from the top surface of the chuck to a location spaced between the base surface of the chuck and the bottom surface of the chuck. In particular, the particle recess is configured to underlie a workpiece alignment mark of a workpiece.

A method for forming an aligned mask comprises etching a reference mark on a substrate to demarcate a boundary of an etch region; forming an etch mask on the substrate, using an exposure setting, the etch mask having a boundary; and measuring a distance between the reference mark and the boundary. When the measured distance is outside a margin of a target distance, then the etch mask is removed from the substrate, the exposure setting is changed, a next etch mask is formed using the changed exposure setting, and said measuring is repeated. A set of reference marks can be etched on a top level in a set of levels to demarcate boundaries of etch regions. An etch-trim process can be performed to form steps in the set of levels, wherein the etch-trim process includes at least first and second etch-trim cycles using first and second reference marks.

A shaping apparatus that shapes a composition on a substrate by using a mold, includes a substrate positioning mechanism for positioning the substrate, a mold positioning mechanism for positioning the mold, a dispenser for arranging the composition on a shot region of the substrate, and a gas supply for supplying a gas onto the substrate from a gas supply port in a state in which the substrate is driven by the substrate positioning mechanism. A flow rate of the gas supplied onto the substrate by the gas supply starts to decrease in a period during which the substrate is driven by the substrate positioning mechanism so that the shot region where the composition is arranged by the dispenser is moved under the mold.

A method for determining one or more optimized values of an operational parameter of a sensor system configured to measure a property of a substrate is disclosed. The method includes: determining a quality parameter for a plurality of substrates; determining measurement parameter values for the plurality of substrates using the sensor system for a plurality of values of the operational parameter; comparing a substrate to substrate variation of the quality parameter and a substrate to substrate variation of a mapping of the measurement parameter values; and determining the one or more optimized values of the operational parameter based on the comparing.

A light emitting device (10) includes light emitting elements (12), conductor wirings (14), and alignment marks (18) formed on a substrate (11). The alignment marks (18) and the conductor wirings (14) are formed by printing.

The present invention provides a pattern forming apparatus including a detection optical system configured to obtain optical information of a mark provided on a substrate by detecting the mark, and a processing unit configured to perform a process of obtaining a position of the mark by using a template for obtaining the position of the mark by being applied to the optical information of the mark and a window which indicates a region for extracting an amount of characteristic indicating the position of the mark from a waveform signal obtained from the optical information, wherein the processing unit decides, based on the optical information of the mark obtained by the detection optical system, a parameter indicating at least one of a shape of the template and a shape of the window for each of a plurality of substrates.

The present invention provides an alignment mark, the alignment mark includes at least one dummy mark pattern in a first layer comprises a plurality of dummy mark units arranged along a first direction, and at least one first mark pattern located in a second layer disposed above the first layer, the first mark pattern comprises a plurality of first mark units, each of the first mark units being arranged in a first direction. When viewed in a top view, the first mark pattern completely covers the dummy mark pattern, and the size of each dummy mark unit is smaller than each first mark unit. In addition, each dummy mark unit of the dummy mark pattern has a first width, each first mark unit of the first mark pattern has a second width, and the first width is smaller than half of the second width.

An apparatus for a chuck having particle recesses is provided. In some embodiments, the chuck includes a plurality of impressions and a particle recess. The impressions of the plurality of impressions are laterally spaced and extend into the chuck from a top surface of the chuck to a base surface of the chuck. The base surface of the chuck defines bottom surfaces respectively of the impressions and is spaced between the top surface of the chuck and a bottom surface of the chuck. The particle recess extends in to the chuck from the top surface of the chuck to a location spaced between the base surface of the chuck and the bottom surface of the chuck. In particular, the particle recess is configured to underlie a workpiece alignment mark of a workpiece.

Reducing an alignment error of an imprint lithography template with respect to a substrate includes locating central alignment marks of the template with respect to corresponding central alignment marks of the substrate and locating peripheral alignment marks of the template with respect to corresponding peripheral alignment marks of the substrate. In-plane alignment error of the template is assessed based on relative positions of central alignment marks of the template and corresponding central alignment marks of the substrate. A combined alignment error of the template is assessed based on relative positions of peripheral alignment marks of the template and corresponding peripheral alignment marks of the substrate. Out-of-plane alignment error of the template is assessed based on a difference between the-combined and the in-plane alignment error of the template, and a relative position of the template and the substrate is adjusted to reduce the out-of-plane alignment error of the template.