The invention relates to a device for determining the location of a first mechanical element (10, 156) and a second mechanical element (12, 154) with respect to each other, with a first measurement unit (14, 114, 214) for positioning at the first mechanical element, a second measurement unit (18, 118, 218) for positioning at the second mechanical element, and an analysis unit (22), wherein the first measurement unit has means (24, 124, 224) for producing a light beam bundle (28, 128, 228), wherein the second measurement unit has a scattering surface (34, 134, 234) for scattering of the light impinging on the scattering surface, a camera (36), and means for imaging the scattering surface on the camera, wherein the scattering surface faces the first measurement unit when the measurement units are positioned at the respective mechanical element so as to be impinged on by the light beam bundle.

A mark field, having at least two location marks with information for the location of the respective location mark in the mark field, and at least one position mark, which is or can be assigned to one of the location marks. Furthermore, the invention relates to a device for determining X-Y positions of structural features of structures arranged on a substrate, wherein the X-Y positions relative to the mark field, which is fixed with respect to the substrate, can be determined. Furthermore, the invention relates to a corresponding method.

A pre-alignment measurement device includes, disposed in a direction of propagation of light, a laser, a first cylindrical lens, a first imaging lens, an illumination diaphragm, a second imaging lens, a second cylindrical lens and a CCD detector. The laser, an object under measurement and the CCD detector are arranged at respective apexes of a triangle formed by the measurement device for pre-alignment. A light beam is emanated by the laser and is transformed into a line beam. The line beam is reflected by the object under measurement and then passes through the second cylindrical lens to form a CCD image which has different horizontal and vertical magnifications, allowing horizontal and vertical resolutions to be matched with horizontal and vertical measuring ranges, respectively. The CCD image contains information of a position and a height of a step defined by the object under measurement and the wafer stage.

An example hologram device may include a target holographic view of an encoded holographic image representing an alignment target; and a plurality of non-target holographic views of the encoded holographic image, each non-target holographic view indicating a position relative to the target holographic view.

The present disclosure provides apparatus and methods for overlay measurement. An exemplary overlay measurement apparatus includes an illuminating unit configured to generate illuminating light to illuminate a first overlay marker formed on a wafer to generate reflected light; and a first measuring unit configured to receive the reflected light from the first overlay marker to cause the reflected light to laterally shift and shear to generate interference light, to receive the interference light to form a first image, and to determine existence of an overlay offset and an exact value of the overlay offset, according to the first image.

Disclosed is an optoelectronic measuring device having an electronic magnetic compass for determining an azimuthal alignment of the measuring device and a compensation unit, which is associated with the magnetic compass, for compensating for device-fixed interference fields, wherein the measuring device assumes at least two defined, repeatable operating states, has a different device-fixed interference field in each of the operating states, and the compensation unit carries out an initial compensation of the electronic magnetic compass in a first operating state of the measuring device, wherein the compensation unit has a detection unit for detecting a present operating state, a memory unit for storing a magnetic offset resulting from the different device-fixed interference fields between the first and a second operating state of the measuring device, and a computer unit for computing the azimuthal alignment of the measuring device depending on an ascertained operating state and based on the magnetic offset.

An angular offset apparatus for determining an angular offset, or scribe line offset (SLO), of two objects within a drilling environment. The angular offset apparatus may include a sensing component and a target component located at various locations within the drilling environment. The sensing component may implement one or more sensors configured to collect data associated with the target component and the drilling environment to determine the SLO between the two objects. The angular offset apparatus, along with the calculated SLO, is designed to ensure accuracy and safety during drilling operations.

Aspects of the embodiments are directed to non-contact systems, methods and devices for optical detection of objects in space at precise angles. This method involves the design and fabrication of photodiode arrays for measuring angular response using self-aligned Schottky platinum silicide (PtSi) PIN photodiodes (PN-diodes with an intrinsic layer sandwiched in between) that provide linear angular measurements from incident light in multiple dimensions. A self-aligned device is defined as one in which is not sensitive to photomask layer registrations. This design eliminates device offset between “left” and right” channels for normal incident light as compared to more conventional PIN diode constructions.

The invention relates to a system and a method for active grating position tracking in X-ray differential phase contrast imaging and dark-field imaging. The alignment of at least one grating positioned in an X-ray imaging device is measured by illuminating a reflection area located on the grating with a light beam, and detecting a reflection pattern of the light beam reflected by the reflection area. The reflection pattern is compared with a reference pattern corresponding to an alignment optimized for X-ray differential phase contrast imaging, and the X-ray imaging device is controlled upon the comparison of the reflection pattern and the reference pattern.

An interferometric measurement method precisely determines parallelism and 3D position of guide pin holes and fiber holes in multi-fiber ferrules used in connectors. The parallelism and position are measured for the ferrule with inserted reference guide pins and reference fibers by scanning the ferrule from side in an interferometric system. Fiber hole deviations from designated locations on the ferrule end face and distance between the fiber holes and the guide pin holes are calculated as well.