An imprint apparatus that forms a pattern of an imprint material on a substrate using a mold having a pattern formation area. The imprint apparatus includes a mold measurement unit configured to measure a position of the pattern formation area of the mold, a light modulation element configured to control an intensity distribution of irradiation light applied to the substrate, an irradiation light measurement unit configured to measure a position of the irradiation light, and a control unit configured to control the position of the irradiation light with respect to the position of the pattern formation area based on a measurement result of the position of the pattern formation area by the mold measurement unit and a measurement result of the position of the irradiation light by the irradiation light measurement unit.

A formable material in contact with a template is irradiated to form a reference film using a predefined registration pattern associated with a spatial light modulator (SLM). The reference film is inspected to generate positional information of elements of the SLM relative to an imprint field edge. Positional offset of the elements of the SLM with respect to a holder of the template based on the positional information is determined. Control parameters for the SLM are determined based on the positional offset.

The present invention provides an imprint apparatus that forms an imprint material pattern on a substrate by using a mold, comprising: a discharge unit on which a plurality of discharge outlets configured to discharge an imprint material are arranged; a measurement unit configured to measure a relative tilt between the discharge unit and the substrate; and a control unit configured to control a process of causing the discharge unit to discharge the imprint material while relatively moving the discharge unit and the substrate to each other, wherein the control unit is configured to change a relative movement direction of the discharge unit and the substrate in the process in accordance with the relative tilt measured by the measurement unit so as to reduce an arrangement error of the imprint material, discharged from the plurality of discharge outlets, on the substrate.

According to one embodiment, a mark is a mark arranged on a substrate and including a line-and-space pattern having a substantially constant pitch on the substrate, the mark including: a first mark in which the line-and-space pattern extends in a direction at an angle that is less than 90° or greater than 90° with respect to the first direction, the first mark including a pair of first patterns arranged at a distance in a first direction along the substrate or a first periodic pattern having a period in the first direction; and a second mark in which the line-and-space pattern extends in a direction at an angle that is less than 90° or greater than 90° with respect to the second direction, the second mark including a pair of second patterns provided in correspondence with the pair of first patterns and arranged at a distance in a second direction along the substrate and intersecting the first direction or a second periodic pattern provided in correspondence with the first periodic pattern and having a period in the second direction.

An imprint apparatus that forms a pattern by imprinting an imprint material on a substrate using an original, includes: an original support unit; a substrate support unit; a driving unit relatively driving the original support unit and the substrate support unit; a detection unit detecting a first alignment mark of the original and a second alignment mark of the substrate; a position adjustment unit adjusting a relative position between the original and the detection unit; and a control unit controlling the position adjustment unit to adjust a relative position between the original and the detection unit based on a position of the first alignment mark detected by the detection unit in a field of view of the detection unit during imprinting, and perform an alignment between the substrate and the original by the driving unit based on the first and second alignment marks detected by the detection unit.

A method and system for optimizing forces applied to actuators during a nanoimprint lithography process is provided. A first set of forces within a first set of force limits is selected to be applied to edges of a template. A first residual distortion representative of a first predicted overlay error associated with a simulated imprinting method in which the first set of forces are applied to the edges of the template is estimated. A second set of forces is selected within a second set of force limits to be applied to the edges of the template. A second residual distortion is estimated that is representative of a second predicted overlay error associated with the simulated imprinting method in which the second set of forces are applied to edges of the template. An initial set of forces having a narrowest set of force limits and residual distortion that is below a residual threshold from among the first set of forces and the second set of forces is selected.

An imprint lithography apparatus having a first frame to be mounted on a floor, a second frame mounted on the first frame via a kinematic coupling, an alignment sensor mounted on the second frame, to align an imprint lithography template arrangement with a target portion of a substrate, and a position sensor to measure a position of the imprint lithography template arrangement and/or a substrate stage relative to the second frame.

An imprint apparatus includes a deforming mechanism for deforming a pattern region of a mold, and performs, after first processing for applying a first deformation amount, second processing for curing an imprint material in a state where the imprint material and the pattern region are in contact with each other and where a second deformation amount is given to the mold by the deforming mechanism to reduce an overlay error between each shot region and the pattern region. A magnitude relation between a driving force of the deforming mechanism required to set a deformation amount of the mold to the first deformation amount and a driving force of the deforming mechanism required to set the deformation amount of the mold to the second deformation amount varies depending on a magnitude of the driving force of the deforming mechanism for setting the deformation amount to the second deformation amount.

Devices, systems, and methods (a) receive a field material map that represents of a spatial distribution of a volume of a material over a rectangular region; (b) divide the rectangular region into two rectangular child regions along a division axis; (c) determine if the material volume in each rectangular child region is within a range of a specific volume; (d) for each rectangular child region that is not within the range of the specific volume, perform (b) for each rectangular child region as the rectangular region along a division axis that has been rotated by 90 degrees relative to the division axis that was used to generate the rectangular child region; (e) repeat (b)-(d) until all rectangular child regions meet the criteria in (c); and (f) output a drop pattern that includes one or more drop locations inside each rectangular child region that meets the criteria in (c).

A positioning apparatus includes a guide, a movable member capable of moving in a first direction while being guided by the guide, and a driver configured to drive the movable member in the first direction. The driver includes a feed screw extending in the first direction, a nut configured to threadably engage with the feed screw and move in the first direction along with a rotation of the feed screw, and a connecting device configured to connect the nut and the movable member. The connecting device includes a hollow rod with one end connected to the movable member and the other end connected to the nut, and the feed screw is inserted into a hollow portion of the rod.