A digital lithography system includes adjacent scan regions, exposure units located above the scan regions, a memory, and a processing device operatively coupled to the memory. The exposure units include a first exposure unit associated with a first scan region and a second exposure unit associated with a second scan region. The processing device is to initiate a digital lithography process to pattern a substrate disposed on a stage in accordance with instructions. The processing device is to further perform a first pass of the first exposure unit over a stitching region at an interface of the first scan region and the second scan region at a first time. The processing device is to further perform a second pass of the second exposure unit over the stitching region at a second time that varies from the first time by less than forty seconds.

The present invention relates to photoresist compositions comprising a base resin such as a monomer capable of radical polymerization upon photoinitiation, and photoinitiator molecules such as a diketone, and multicolor photolithography methods. Photoresist compositions comprise photoinitiator molecules that are exposed to a first radiation source, thereby exciting the photoinitiator molecules from a ground state to a pre-activated state. The pre-activated state molecules are then exposed to a second radiation source in selected locations, thereby deactivating the pre-activated state molecules in the selected locations. Any remaining pre-activated state molecules are exposed to a third radiation source, exciting such remaining pre-activated state photoinitiator molecules to an activated state. Polymerization of the base resin is then initiated.

In a method of manufacturing a semiconductor package, a lower redistribution wiring layer having a central region and a peripheral region surrounding the central region is formed. A photosensitive insulating layer is formed on the lower redistribution wiring layer. A first light is radiated onto the photosensitive insulating layer through a first mask to form a first hardened portion on the central region. A second light is radiated onto the photosensitive insulating layer through a second mask to form a second hardened portion on the peripheral region, the second hardened portion surrounding through opening regions. Non-hardened portions in the through opening regions and at least a portion of the first hardened portion are removed. Conductive structures are formed in the through opening regions. The second hardened portion and the remainder of the first hardened portion are removed using a strip solution.

A method to easily determine the parameters of a second process for manufacturing from the parameters of a first process is provided. Metrics representative of the differences between the two processes are computed from a number of values of the parameters, which can be measured for the two processes on a calibration layout, or which can be determined from pre-existing values for layouts or reference data for the two processes by an interpolation/extrapolation procedure. The number of metrics is selected so that their combination gives a precise representation of the differences between the two processes in all areas of a design. Advantageously, the metrics are calculated as a product of convolution of the target design and a compound of a kernel function and a deformation function.

The present invention provides a method for multiscale patterning of a sample. The method includes: placing the sample in an apparatus having both thermo-optical lithography capability and thermal scanning probe lithography capability; and patterning two patterns onto the sample, respectively by: thermo-optical lithography, wherein light is emitted from a light source onto the sample to heat the latter and thereby write a first pattern that is the largest of the two patterns; and thermal scanning probe lithography, wherein the sample and a heated probe tip are brought in contact for writing a second pattern that has substantially smaller critical dimensions than the first pattern. There is also provided an apparatus for multiscale patterning of a sample.

A method for performing a lithographic apparatus setup calibration and/or drift correction for a specific lithographic apparatus of a population of lithographic apparatuses to be used in a manufacturing process for manufacturing an integrated circuit extending across a plurality of layers on a substrate. The method includes determining a spatial error distribution of an apparatus parameter across spatial coordinates on the substrate for each lithographic apparatus of the population of lithographic apparatuses and/or each layer of the plurality of layers; determining a reference distribution by aggregating each of the spatial error distributions to optimize the reference distribution such that a spatial distribution of a parameter of interest of the manufacturing process is co-optimized across the population of lithographic apparatuses and/or plurality of layers; and using the reference distribution as a target distribution for the apparatus parameter for each lithographic apparatus and/or layer.

In a method of tool matching, aberration maps of two or more optical systems of two or more scanner tools are determined. A photoresist pattern is generated by projecting a first layout pattern by an optical system of each one of the two or more scanner tools on a respective substrate. One or more Zernike coefficients of the two or more optical systems are adjusted based on the determined aberration maps of the two or more optical systems to minimize critical dimension (CD) variations in a first region of the photoresist patterns on each respective substrate.

An optical alignment system including an illumination system configured to condition a radiation beam to form a first off-axis monopole, a marker configured to diffract the first off-axis monopole to form zeroth and first diffraction orders, a projection system configured to collect the zeroth and first diffraction orders and form an image of the marker, and a sensor apparatus configured to detect the image of the marker.