A method for determining a preferred control strategy relating to control of a manufacturing process for manufacturing an integrated circuit. The method includes: obtaining process data associated with a design of said integrated circuit; and obtaining a plurality of candidate control strategies configured to control the manufacturing process based on the process data, each candidate control strategy including an associated cost metric based on an associated requirement to implement the candidate control strategy. A quality metric related to an expected performance of the manufacturing process is determined for each candidate control strategies, and a preferred control strategy is selected based on the determined quality metrics and associated cost metrics for each candidate control strategy.

Provided is a position measurement apparatus in which a measurement error in a target is reduced. A position measurement apparatus measuring a position of a target includes an illumination unit configured to illuminate the target with illumination light including light of a first wavelength and light of a second wavelength different from the first wavelength, a measurement unit configured to measure the position of the target by detecting light from the target illuminated with the illumination light, and a control unit configured to adjust a ratio of a light intensity of the first wavelength to a light intensity of the second wavelength such that a measurement error varying depending on the position of the target in the measurement unit is reduced.

The alignment apparatus performs alignment of an object in a first direction along a surface of the object, based on a position of a predetermined target formed on the surface, and includes a holding unit that holds the object to be moved, an acquisition unit that acquires an image of the predetermined target formed on the surface of the object held by the holding unit, and a controller that drives the holding unit to realize a relative distance between the object and the acquisition unit in a second direction perpendicular to the surface of the object, a relative tilt between the object and the acquisition unit, or the distance and the tilt, the distance and the tilt being determined based on a correlation degree between the image acquired by the acquisition unit and a template, and detects a position of the predetermined target in the first direction based on the correlation degree.

Embodiments of bonded semiconductor structures and fabrication methods thereof are disclosed. In an example, a bonded structure includes a first bonding layer including a first bonding contact and a first bonding alignment mark, a second bonding layer including a second bonding contact and a second bonding alignment mark, and a bonding interface between the first bonding layer and the second bonding layer. The first bonding alignment mark is aligned with the second bonding alignment mark at the bonding interface, such that the first bonding contact is aligned with the second bonding contact at the bonding interface. The first bonding alignment mark includes a plurality of first repetitive patterns. The second bonding alignment mark includes a plurality of second repetitive patterns different from the plurality of first repetitive patterns.

A method of calculating electromagnetic scattering properties of a structure represented as a nominal structure and a structural perturbation, has the steps: 1008 numerically solving a volume integral equation comprising a nominal linear system 1004 to determine a nominal vector field being independent with respect to the structural perturbation; 1010 using a perturbed linear system 1006 to determine an approximation of a vector field perturbation arising from the structural perturbation, by solving a volume integral equation or an adjoint linear system. Matrix-vector multiplication of a nominal linear system matrix convolution operator may be restricted to sub-matrices; and 1012 calculating electromagnetic scattering properties of the structure using the determined nominal vector field and the determined approximation of the vector field perturbation.

A system for and method of processing a wafer in which a scan signal is analyzed locally to extract information about alignment, overlay, mark quality, wafer quality, and the like.

A metrology system comprises a radiation source, an optical element, first and second detectors, an integrated optical device comprising a multimode waveguide, and a processor. The radiation source generates radiation. The optical element directs radiation toward a target to generate scattered radiation from the target. The first detector receives a first portion of the scattered radiation and generates a first detection signal based on the received first portion. The multimode waveguide interferes a second portion of the scattered radiation using modes of the multimode waveguide. The second detector receives the interfered second portion and generates a second detection signal based on the received interfered second portion. The processor receives the first and second detection signals. The processor analyzes the received first portion, the received interfered second portion, and a propagation property of the multimode waveguide. The processor determines the property of the target based on the analysis.

A measurement apparatus including an illumination system configured to illuminate a target with light including light of a first wavelength and light of a second wavelength, a wavefront changing unit configured to change a wavefront aberration in light from the target, and a control unit configured to control the wavefront changing unit, wherein the wavefront changing unit includes a first region where the light of the first wavelength enters, and a second region where the light of the second wavelength enters, and the control unit controls the wavefront changing unit such that a first correction wavefront for correcting a first wavefront aberration in the light of the first wavelength is generated in the first region, and a second correction wavefront for correcting a second wavefront aberration in the light of the second wavelength is generated in the second region.

A method for detecting a mark using a detection apparatus including a detection unit includes performing a first movement process that moves the detection unit to a first position, performing a second movement process that moves the detection unit to a second position, detecting the mark after the first movement process and the second movement process, and correcting a measurement value of the detected mark using first information about a movement of the detection unit in the first movement process and second information about a movement of the detection unit in the second movement process.

The invention provides a position sensor (300) which comprises an optical system (305,306) configured to provide measurement radiation (304) to a substrate (307). The optical system is arranged to receive at least a portion of radiation (309) diffracted by a mark (308) provided on the substrate. A processor (313) is applied to derive at least one position-sensitive signal (312) from the received radiation. The measurement radiation comprises at least a first and a second selected radiation wavelength. The selection of the at least first and second radiation wavelengths is based on a position error swing-curve model.