A digital exposure apparatus includes a lens array, the lens array at least including a first lens unit and a second lens unit, a light transposition assembly arranged on an exit light path of the second lens unit, and the light transposition assembly being used for controlling a light exiting from the second lens unit to be transposed with respect to an exposure direction of the digital exposure apparatus. When the digital exposure apparatus is used for exposure, a light passing through the first lens unit and a light penetrating through the second lens unit are needed to expose the same position for multiple times.

The present application discloses an exposure method and an exposure device thereof. The method includes the following steps: confirming a position of a point to be exposed; capturing and confirming that the point to be exposed is successfully captured; adjusting a light source corresponding to the successfully captured point to be exposed to an adaptive position; and completing an exposure operation by an exposure machine.

Methods and systems for predictively determining tool drift in a digital lithography tool for early warning, and/or adjusting the tool in-situ to mitigate the effects of drift. Drift is measured during manufacturing by measuring alignment marks from eye-to-eye a bridge-to-bridge, among other methods. Measured drift is decomposed into three components: trend—trending drift over time, increment—rate of change of drift over time, and remaining—the difference between the drift, the trend, and the increment. Each component is provided to a machine learning engine, that predicts the next measurement of each component. Predicted measurements may be provided to the tool for use as adjustment parameters to modify how an eye module shoots a pattern onto a substrate, and/or as an early warning when predicted parameters are outside of a desired processing parameter window.

A photomask including a photomask body having a surface on which a mask pattern is formed and to be scanned and subjected to pattern transfer to a resist through a lens assembly including a connecting portion and a non-connecting portion. The mask pattern has a first region subjected to the pattern transfer at the connecting portion of the lens assembly and a second region subjected to the pattern transfer at the non-connecting portion. The mask pattern has, in at least one of the first and second regions, a corrected line width which is adjusted by calculation such that the resist is to have a target line width as designed. The corrected line width has a stepwise change in at least one of a scanning direction and a direction orthogonal to the scanning direction. The stepwise change is made by including a correction component based on a random number.

An exposure apparatus according to the present invention includes an illumination optical system including a first optical modulation unit having a plurality of optical modulation elements, a second optical modulation unit having a plurality of optical modulation elements, and an imaging optical system forming optical images on a predetermined plane by using lights from the first optical modulation unit and the second optical modulation unit, and a projection optical system projecting the optical image formed on the predetermined plane onto a substrate.

Disclosed is a detection apparatus for a metrology device operable to measure a parameter of interest from scattered radiation having been scattered from a sample. The detection device comprises a detector comprising an array of pixels. The array of pixels comprises imaging pixels for detecting an image from which the parameter of interest is determined, and direction detecting pixels for detecting the angle of incidence of said scattered radiation on said detector.

A digital masking system includes a supporting structure for supporting a material, and a pattern imaging apparatus. The pattern imaging apparatus includes a light source device, multiple imaging devices that convert light from the light source device into a plurality of light beams each representing an image, and a combiner that combines the light beams into a single light beam which is projected toward a material.

Devices, systems, and/or methodologies are provided for three dimensional printing, for example, additive manufacturing, wherein an array of energy patterning (e.g., light patterning) modules are used in conjunction with an automated positional control system to coordinate implementation of patterning modules of the array. Implementation of the array can be controlled by a sensory feed-back.

Methods for patterning a substrate are described. A substrate is scanned using a spatial light modulator with a plurality of exposures timed according to a non-crystalline shot pattern. Lithography systems for performing the substrate patterning method and non-transitory computer-readable medium for executing the patterning method are also described.

A multifunction UV or DUV (ultraviolet/deep-ultraviolet) lithography system uses a modified Schwarzschild flat-image projection system to achieve diffraction-limited, distortion-free and double-telecentric imaging over a large image field at high numerical aperture. A back-surface primary mirror enables wide-field imaging without large obscuration loss, and additional lens elements enable diffraction-limited and substantially distortion-free, double-telecentric imaging. The system can perform maskless lithography (either source-modulated or spatially-modulated), mask-projection lithography (either conventional imaging or holographic), mask writing, wafer writing, and patterning of large periodic or aperiodic structures such as microlens arrays and spatial light modulators, with accurate field stitching to cover large areas exceeding the image field size.