The present invention provides a method for calculating a corrected substrate height map of a first substrate using a height level sensor. The method comprises: sampling the first substrate by means of the height level sensor with the first substrate moving with a first velocity, wherein the first velocity is a first at least partially non-constant velocity of the first substrate with respect to the height level sensor, to generate a first height level data, generating a first height map based on the first height level data, and calculating a corrected substrate height map by subtracting a correction map from the first height map, wherein the correction map is calculated from the difference between a first velocity height map and a second velocity height map.

According to one embodiment, a measuring device includes a support body, a first light source, a second light source, a first sensor, and a second sensor. The support body is configured to support an end portion of a measurement target. The first light source is disposed on a front surface side of the support body. The second light source is disposed on a rear surface side of the support body. An optical axis of the second light source coincides with an optical axis of the first light source. The first sensor is configured to acquire an image of a mark in the measurement target in accordance with light from the first light source. The second sensor is configured to acquire an image of the mark in the measurement target in accordance with light from the second light source.

A method for determining a correction relating to a performance metric of a semiconductor manufacturing process, the method including: obtaining a set of pre-process metrology data; processing the set of pre-process metrology data by decomposing the pre-process metrology data into one or more components which: a) correlate to the performance metric; or b) are at least partially correctable by a control process which is part of the semiconductor manufacturing process; and applying a trained model to the processed set of pre-process metrology data to determine the correction for the semiconductor manufacturing process.

A supercontinuum radiation source including a modulator being operable to modulate pump laser radiation including a train of radiation pulses to provide modulated pump laser radiation, the modulation being such to selectively provide a burst of the pulses; and a hollow-core photonic crystal fiber being operable to receive the modulated pump laser radiation and excite a working medium contained within the hollow-core photonic crystal fiber so as to generate supercontinuum radiation.

Disclosed is a metrology sensor apparatus comprising: an illumination system operable to illuminate a metrology mark in on a substrate with illumination radiation; an optical collection system configured to collect scattered radiation, following scattering of the illumination radiation by the metrology mark; and a wavelength dependent spatial filter for spatially filtering the scattered radiation, the wavelength dependent spatial filter having a spatial profile dependent on the wavelength of the scattered radiation. The wavelength dependent spatial filter may comprise a dichroic filter operable to substantially transmit scattered radiation within a first wavelength range and substantially block scattered radiation within a second wavelength range and at least one second filter operable to substantially block scattered radiation at least within the first wavelength range and the second wavelength range.

A method for determining substrate deformation includes obtaining first measurement data associated with mark positions, from measurements of a plurality of substrates; obtaining second measurement data associated with mark positions, from measurements of the plurality of substrates; determining a mapping between the first measurement data and the second measurement data; and decomposing the mapping, by calculating an eigenvalue decomposition for the mapping, to separately determine a first deformation (e.g. mark deformation) that scales differently from a second deformation (e.g. substrate deformation) in the mapping between the data. The steps of determining a mapping and decomposing the mapping may be performed together using non-linear optimization.

Systems and methods for managing multi-objective alignments in imprinting (e.g., single-sided or double-sided) are provided. An example system includes rollers for moving a template roll, a stage for holding a substrate, a dispenser for dispensing resist on the substrate, a light source for curing the resist to form an imprint on the substrate when a template of the template roll is pressed into the resist on the substrate, a first inspection system for registering a fiducial mark of the template to determine a template offset, a second inspection system for registering the imprint on the substrate to determine a wafer registration offset between a target location and an actual location of the imprint, and a controller for controlling to move the substrate with the resist below the template based on the template offset, and determine an overlay bias of the imprint on the substrate based on the wafer registration offset.

An exposure apparatus arranged to project a radiation beam onto a target portion of a substrate, the exposure apparatus having: a first substrate holder configured to hold the substrate; a second substrate holder configured to hold the substrate; a sensor holder configured to hold a sensor and/or detector; a first measurement device having a first alignment system having an alignment sensor configured to measure positions of a substrate alignment mark on the substrate; a second measurement device having a second alignment system having a further alignment sensor configured to measure positions of the substrate alignment mark on the substrate; a first scale arranged on a lower surface of the first substrate holder; and a first encoder head arranged to cooperate with the first scale, the first encoder head located beneath the first alignment system and held by a stationary support.

A method includes exposing number of fields on a substrate, obtaining data about a field and correcting exposure of the field in subsequent exposures. The method includes defining one or more sub-fields of the field based on the obtained data. Data relating to each sub-field is processed to produce sub-field correction information. A subsequent exposure of the one or more sub-fields is corrected using the sub-field correction information. By controlling a lithographic apparatus by reference to data of a particular sub-field within a field, overlay error can be reduced or minimized for a critical feature, rather than being averaged over the whole field. By controlling a lithographic apparatus with reference to a sub-field rather than only the whole field, a residual error can be reduced in each sub-field.

A method for determining a layout of mark positions across a patterning device or substrate, the method including: obtaining a model configured to model data associated with measurements performed on the patterning device or substrate at one or more mark positions; obtaining an initial mark layout including initial mark positions; reducing the initial mark layout by removal of one or more mark positions to obtain a plurality of reduced mark layouts, each reduced mark layout obtained by removal of a different mark position from the initial mark layout; determining a model uncertainty metric associated with usage of the model for each reduced mark layout out of the plurality of reduced mark layouts; and selecting one or more reduced mark layouts based on its associated model uncertainty metric.