The present invention provides an exposure apparatus which transfers a pattern of a mask onto a substrate by exposing the substrate while scanning the mask and the substrate, the apparatus including a stage configured to hold the substrate and move, a control unit configured to control movement of the stage, a first measurement unit configured to measure a position, in a height direction, of a shot region of the substrate held by the stage before the shot region reaches an exposure area where the shot region is exposed, and a second measurement unit configured to measure the position of the shot region in the height direction prior to the first measurement unit.

Method of measuring a height profile of one or more substrates is provided comprising measuring a first height profile of one or more fields on a substrate using a first sensor arrangement, the first height profile being the sum of a first interfield part and a first intrafield part, measuring a second height profile of one or more further fields on the substrate or on a further substrate using a second sensor arrangement, the second height profile being the sum of a second interfield part and a second intrafield part, determining from the measurements with the first sensor arrangement an average first intrafield part, and determining the height profile of the further fields from the second interfield part and the average first intrafield part thereby correcting the measurements of the second sensor arrangement.

An alignment system (100) and method for positioning and/or keeping a first object (1) at a controlled distanced (D1) with respect to a second object (2). An object stage (11) is configured to hold a surface (1a) of the first object (1) at a distance (D1) over a surface (2a) of the second object (2). A sensor device (31) comprising a probe tip (31a) is connected at a predetermined probe level distance (Dp) relative to the surface (1a) of the first object (1). The probe tip (31a) is configured to perform an atomic force measurement (AFM) of a force (F1) exerted via the probe tip (31a) on a surface (2a) of the second object (2). A controller (80) is configured to control an object stage actuator (21) as a function of the probe level distance (Dp) and the measured force (F1) to maintain the controlled distanced (D1).

Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to a digital lithography system and methods for alignment resolution with the digital lithography system. The digital lithography system includes a metrology system configured to improve overlay alignment for different layers of the lithography process. The metrology system includes an inline metrology system (IMS) in combination with an on tool metrology system (OTM), which enable substrate overlay alignment and die placement correction. The inline metrology system may be positioned on an inline metrology tool and the on tool metrology system is positioned on a digital lithography tool. The inline metrology system facilitates measurement of high-throughput measurement inline metrology data for marks such as die marks and global alignment marks for verification of process stability and die placement data for digital data correction. This inline metrology data can be compared with a design file to determine offsets for the digital data correction.

The present invention provides an exposure apparatus which transfers a pattern of a mask onto a substrate by exposing the substrate while scanning the mask and the substrate, the apparatus including a stage configured to hold the substrate and move, a control unit configured to control movement of the stage, a first measurement unit configured to measure a position, in a height direction, of a shot region of the substrate held by the stage before the shot region reaches an exposure area where the shot region is exposed, and a second measurement unit configured to measure the position of the shot region in the height direction prior to the first measurement unit.

In a method executed in an exposure apparatus, a focus control effective region and a focus control exclusion region are set based on an exposure map and a chip area layout within an exposure area. Focus-leveling data are measured over a wafer. A photo resist layer on the wafer is exposed with an exposure light. When a chip area of a plurality of chip areas of the exposure area is located within an effective region of a wafer, the chip area is included in the focus control effective region, and when a part of or all of a chip area of the plurality of chip areas is located on or outside a periphery of the effective region of the wafer, the chip area is included in the focus control exclusion region In the exposing, a focus-leveling is controlled by using the focus-leveling data measured at the focus control effective region.

Metrology apparatus and methods are disclosed for measuring a structure formed on a substrate. In one arrangement, different components of a radiation beam are selectively extracted after reflection from the structure and independently detected. For each component, radiation is selected from one of a plurality of predetermined regions in a downstream pupil plane of the optical system downstream from the structure. Radiation is further selected from one of two predetermined orthogonal polarization states. The predetermined orthogonal polarization states are oriented differently as a pair for each of at least a subset of components comprising radiation selected from different predetermined regions in the downstream pupil plane.

A method for determining one or more optimized values of an operational parameter of a sensor system configured to measure a property of a substrate is disclosed. The method includes: determining a quality parameter for a plurality of substrates; determining measurement parameter values for the plurality of substrates using the sensor system for a plurality of values of the operational parameter; comparing a substrate to substrate variation of the quality parameter and a substrate to substrate variation of a mapping of the measurement parameter values; and determining the one or more optimized values of the operational parameter based on the comparing.

An initialization method including estimating a characteristic of a property of an object based on a plurality of measurements by the sensor of the property using a respective plurality of different measurement parameters, different ones of the measurements using different measurement parameters, the characteristic including a combination of respective outcomes of respective ones of the measurements weighted by a respective weighting coefficient; performing, for each of a plurality of models of the object, each model configured to enable respective simulation of the performing of the measurements, a respective simulation, the respective simulation including simulating the measurements under control of a respective plurality of different simulation parameters to obtain a respective plurality of simulated characteristics of the property, the different simulation parameters being indicative of the different measurement parameters; determining, for each of the models, a respective bias representative of a respective difference between a respective theoretical characteristic of the property in accordance with the respective model and a respective further combination of the simulated characteristics of the property in the respective model, the respective further combination of the simulated characteristics including the weight coefficients, each particular one of the weight coefficients associated with a particular one of the different simulation parameters; using a cost function configured to optimize a correspondence between the simulated characteristic of the property and the theoretical characteristic of the property, the cost function being a function of the respective biases of the models; and optimizing the cost function to derive the weight coefficients from the cost function; and using the weight coefficients and the associated simulation parameters in a controller associated with the sensor.

The present invention provides an exposure apparatus which transfers a pattern of a mask onto a substrate by exposing the substrate while scanning the mask and the substrate, the apparatus including a stage configured to hold the substrate and move, a control unit configured to control movement of the stage, a first measurement unit configured to measure a position, in a height direction, of a shot region of the substrate held by the stage before the shot region reaches an exposure area where the shot region is exposed, and a second measurement unit configured to measure the position of the shot region in the height direction prior to the first measurement unit.