An imprinting system and method. An illumination system for imprinting, during a first period of time, that illuminates a first portion of boundary region that surrounds a pattern region with a thickening dosage of light that is within a first dose range, such that the fluid in the first portion of the boundary region does not solidify but does increase a viscosity of the fluid. The illumination system, during a second period of time, illuminates the pattern region with a curing dosage of light that is within a second dose range higher than the first dose range. Prior to illumination, the imprinting includes dispensing droplets and holding a template with a template chuck such that the template contact the droplets and the droplets merge and form a fluid front that spreads through the pattern region and towards the boundary region.

A process of characterizing a process window of a patterning process, the process including: obtaining a set of inspection locations for a pattern, the pattern defining features to be applied to a substrate with a patterning process, the set of inspection locations corresponding to a set of the features, the set of features being selected from among the features according to sensitivity of the respective features to variation in one or more process characteristics of the patterning process; patterning one or more substrates under varying process characteristics of the patterning process; and determining, for each of the variations in the process characteristics, whether at least some of the set of features yield unacceptable patterned structures on the one or more substrates at corresponding inspection locations.

In a method of forming a pattern, a photo resist layer is formed over an underlying layer, the photo resist layer is exposed to an actinic radiation carrying pattern information, the exposed photo resist layer is developed to form a developed resist pattern, a directional etching operation is applied to the developed resist pattern to form a trimmed resist pattern, and the underlying layer is patterned using the trimmed resist pattern as an etching mask.

A system and method for controlling an exposure dose of a light source are disclosed. The system includes an LED light source, a light homogenizer, an energy detection unit and an exposure dose control unit coupled to both the LED light source and the energy detection unit. The energy detection unit includes an energy detector corresponding to the LED light source or the light homogenizer and an energy spot sensor corresponding to a wafer. By using the LED light source capable of producing UV light in lieu of an existing mercury lamp, the system is less hazardous and safer by eliminating the risk of discharging hazardous mercury vapor into the environment when the mercury lamp is broken. Moreover, exposure illuminance of the LED light source can be adjusted and the LED light source can be turned on/off under the control of exposure dose control unit to expose the wafer with high dose control accuracy, without needing to use a variable attenuator or an exposure shutter. This reduces the system's complexity and cost and increases its reliability.

A virtual fabrication environment for semiconductor device fabrication that determines a lowest lithography exposure dose range in which one or more defects are still reparable by deposition and etch operations is discussed. Further techniques for repairing line edge roughness caused by lithography are described.

A method of controlling output of a radiation source, the method including: periodically monitoring an output energy of the radiation source; determining a difference between a reference energy signal and the monitored output energy; determining a feedback value; determining a desired output energy of the radiation source for a subsequent time period; and controlling an input parameter of the radiation source in dependence on the determined desired output energy during the subsequent time period. If the magnitude of the determined difference between the monitored output energy of the radiation source and the reference energy signal exceeds a threshold value: the determined difference does not contribute to the feedback value; and the determined difference is spread over the subsequent time period according to a reference energy signal adjustment profile and the reference energy signal adjustment profile is added to the reference energy signal for the subsequent time period.

The invention relates to a device for determining the exposure energy during the exposure of an element in an optical system, in particular for microlithography, comprising an optical element, a diffractive structure which has a locally varying grating period, and an intensity sensor arrangement, wherein electromagnetic radiation diffracted at the diffractive structure during operation of the optical system, in at least one order of diffraction, is directed to the intensity sensor arrangement by way of total internal reflection effected in the optical element.

A shutter device includes a movable shading module and a movement control module configured to control movement of the movable shading module. The movable shading module includes a shading unit, a driving unit and a signal measuring unit. The shading unit includes two blades, and the movement control module is configured to generate a control signal. The driving unit is configured to receive the control signal and drive the two blades. The signal measuring unit is configured to measure an operating status of the blades feed it back to the movement control module in real time. The movement control module is configured to update the control signal based on the fed back operating status. This shutter device can overcome the problems of low exposure dose accuracy and light leaks arising from the use of existing shutters and provide various accurately-controlled exposure doses suitable for different applications.

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.

A method and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for optimizing a dose map for a multi-beam mask writer includes simulating, by a processor, a substrate pattern based on a design pattern and the dose map associated with the design pattern, and updating a value of the dose map based on a comparison between the substrate pattern and the design pattern. An apparatus for optimizing a dose map for a multi-beam mask writer includes a processor and a memory coupled to the processor configured to store instructions to simulate a substrate pattern based on a design pattern and the dose map associated with the design pattern, and update a value of the dose map based on a comparison between the substrate pattern and the design pattern.