An exposure apparatus that exposes a substrate is provided. The apparatus includes a stage configured to hold and move the substrate, and a controller configured to control focus driving of the stage based on a measurement value and a correction value obtained for the focus driving of the stage for a shot region on the substrate. The controller is configured to determine the correction value in accordance with an angle of view at a time of exposure.

Methods and systems for setting up inspection of a specimen with design and noise based care areas are provided. One system includes one or more computer subsystems configured for generating a design-based care area for a specimen. The computer subsystem(s) are also configured for determining one or more output attributes for multiple instances of the care area on the specimen, and the one or more output attributes are determined from output generated by an output acquisition subsystem for the multiple instances. The computer subsystem(s) are further configured for separating the multiple instances of the care area on the specimen into different care area sub-groups such that the different care area sub-groups have statistically different values of the output attribute(s) and selecting a parameter of an inspection recipe for the specimen based on the different care area sub-groups.

The invention relates to a method for determining the thickness of a contaminating layer and/or the type of a contaminating material on a surface (7) in an optical system, in particular on a surface (7) in an EUV lithography system, comprising: irradiating the surface (7) on which plasmonic nanoparticles (8a,b) are formed with measurement radiation (10), detecting the measurement radiation (10a) scattered at the plasmonic nanoparticles (8a,b), and determining the thickness of the contaminating layer and/or the type of the contaminating material on the basis of the detected measurement radiation (10a). The invention also relates to an optical element (1) for reflecting EUV radiation (4), and to an EUV lithography system.

Disclosed is a metrology sensor apparatus and associated method. The metrology sensor apparatus comprises an illumination system operable to illuminate a metrology mark on a substrate with illumination radiation having a first polarization state and an optical collection system configured to collect scattered radiation, following scattering of the illumination radiation by the metrology mark. The metrology mark comprises a main structure and changes, relative to the first polarization state, at least one of a polarization state of a first portion of the scattered radiation predominately resultant from scattering by the main structure and a polarization state of a second portion of radiation predominately resultant from scattering by one or more features other than the main structure, such that the polarization state of the first portion of the scattered radiation is different to the polarization state of the second portion of the scattered radiation. The metrology sensor apparatus further comprises an optical filtering system which filters out the second portion of the scattered radiation based on its polarization state.

A method of controlling a feedback system with a data matching module of an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation source is disclosed. The method includes obtaining a slit integrated energy (SLIE) sensor data and diffractive optical elements (DOE) data. The method performs a data match, by the data matching module, of a time difference of the SLIE sensor data and the DOE data to identify a mismatched set of the SLIE sensor data and the DOE data. The method also determines whether the time difference of the SLIE sensor data and the DOE data of the mismatched set is within an acceptable range. Based on the determination, the method automatically validates a configurable data of the mismatched set such that the SLIE sensor data of the mismatched set is valid for a reflectivity calculation.

System and method for monitoring of performance of a mirror array of a digital scanner with a use of light, illuminating the mirror array at grazing (off-axis) incidence, and an optical imaging system that includes a lateral shearing interferometer (operated in either static or a phase-shifting condition) during and without interrupting the process of exposure of the workpiece with the digital scanner, to either simply identify problematic pixels for further troubleshooting or measure the exact magnitude of the deformation of a mirror element of the mirror array.

Disclosed is a method of determining a characteristic of a target on a substrate and corresponding metrology apparatus and computer program. The method comprises determining a plurality of intensity asymmetry measurements from pairs of complementary pixels comprising a first image pixel in a first image of the target and a second image pixel in a second image of the target. The first image is obtained from first radiation scattered by the target and the second image is obtained from second radiation scattered by the target, the first radiation and second radiation comprising complementary non-zero diffraction orders. The characteristic of the target is then determined from said plurality of intensity asymmetry measurements.

An exposure apparatus includes: an exposure illumination optical system illuminating a spatial light modulator which has a plurality of spatial light modulation elements having a reflecting surface disposed on a disposition plane; a projection optical system projecting light from the spatial light modulator to an exposed substrate; a first detection unit detecting light from the reflecting surface; a second detection unit which is a detection unit detecting light from the reflecting surface and has a detection field of view larger than that of the first detection unit; and a position changing mechanism changing a positional relationship among the first detection unit, the second detection unit, and the spatial light modulator to either a first positional relationship in which the spatial light modulator faces the first detection unit and a second positional relationship in which the spatial light modulator faces the second detection unit.

A device and a method for characterizing the surface shape of a test object. The device for characterizing the surface shape of a test object has a test arrangement (130, 230) for determining the surface shape of a test object (111, 112, 113, 211, 212, 213) using a test wave. The test wave has a wavefront generated by diffraction at a diffractive optical element. The device additionally has a first vacuum chamber (110, 210) and a second vacuum chamber (120, 220), wherein the second vacuum chamber (120, 220) has a magazine for mounting at least two diffractive optical elements (121, 122, 123, 221, 222, 223).

Microlithographic projection exposure apparatus (100) has a projection lens (150) configured to image an object plane (155) onto an image plane (156), wherein an immersion liquid is at least temporarily provided during operation of the projection exposure apparatus between the projection lens and the image plane, wherein a measurement structure (121) is arranged in the immersion liquid, and wherein the measurement structure is configured to generate a measurement pattern. The projection exposure apparatus also has a measurement device (130, 160) configured to measure the measurement pattern. The measurement structure has an absorption layer (125) including silicon oxide and/or silicon oxynitride and/or nitride.