A lithography apparatus includes an original holder configured to hold and move an original, a measurement unit configured to measure a misalignment amount of the original with respect to the original holder, and a controller configured to control movement of the original holder. The controller repeatedly performs preliminary driving for moving the original holder before performing the pattern formation. At this time, if the misalignment amount measured by the measurement unit converges to a predetermined convergence value while the preliminary driving is repeatedly performed, the controller ends the preliminary driving.

The present invention provides a measurement method of measuring a rotational shift amount of pattern regions arranged on a substrate with respect to a reference portion provided at an outer edge of the substrate, including obtaining a first image by capturing a target region including a target object on the substrate during detecting a position of the reference portion while rotating the substrate, obtaining a second image by capturing the target object in a state in which the substrate remains still, obtaining a third image indicating a difference between the first image and the second image by correcting the second image with the first image, and obtaining a position of the target object based on the third image and obtaining the rotational shift amount of the pattern regions with respect to the reference portion based on the obtained position of the target object.

A method for determining an offset between a center of a substrate and a center of a depression in a chuck includes providing a test substrate to the depression, the test substrate having a dimension smaller than a dimension of the depression, measuring a position of an alignment mark of the test substrate while in the depression, and determining the offset between the center of the substrate and the center of the depression from the position of the alignment mark.

A conveyance apparatus for conveying a substrate chuck is provided. The apparatus comprises a hand for supporting the substrate chuck, a main body for pivotally supporting the hand about a vertical axis and move in horizontal and vertical directions, and a guiding portion for guiding pivotal motion of the hand. The hand includes hand distal end portions and a hand proximal end portion supported by the main body, and an end surface of the hand proximal end portion facing the main body is formed in an arc shape of a circle centered about a vertical axis of a reference position between the hand distal end portions, and the guiding portion includes a guiding surface that has a shape corresponding to the end surface of the hand proximal end portion and can slidably contact the end surface.

A method of aligning a substrate within an apparatus. The method includes determining a substrate grid based on measurements of a plurality of targets, each at different locations on a substrate. The determining includes repetitions of updating the substrate grid after each measurement of a target, and using the updated grid to align a measurement of a subsequent target.

The alignment apparatus performs alignment of an object in a first direction along a surface of the object, based on a position of a predetermined target formed on the surface, and includes a holding unit that holds the object to be moved, an acquisition unit that acquires an image of the predetermined target formed on the surface of the object held by the holding unit, and a controller that drives the holding unit to realize a relative distance between the object and the acquisition unit in a second direction perpendicular to the surface of the object, a relative tilt between the object and the acquisition unit, or the distance and the tilt, the distance and the tilt being determined based on a correlation degree between the image acquired by the acquisition unit and a template, and detects a position of the predetermined target in the first direction based on the correlation degree.

A measurement system to be used in a micro-device manufacturing line is equipped with: a plurality of measurement devices which performs measurement processing on each substrate; and a controller that can control the plurality of measurement devices, and the plurality of measurement devices includes at least one first measurement device which acquires position information of a plurality of marks formed on a substrate.

A detection apparatus detects an orientation reference of an object to be detected which includes an edge including the orientation reference. The apparatus includes a first detection system configured to detect the edge such that the orientation reference is detected, and a second detection system configured to detect, by projecting a pattern to a surface of the object and detecting an image formed by reflected light from the surface, a position of the surface in a direction perpendicular to the surface. After a focusing operation of the first detection system is performed based on the position of the surface detected by the second detection system, the first detection system detects the orientation reference.

A method to determine a performance indicator indicative of alignment performance of a processed substrate. The method includes obtaining measurement data including a plurality of measured position values of alignment marks on the substrate and calculating a positional deviation between each measured position value and a respective expected position value. These positional deviations are used to determine a directional derivative between the alignment marks, and the directional derivatives are used to determine at least one directional derivative performance indicator.

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.