Described herein are apparatus and methods used to process a substrate in a chamber, in particular to position a non-round substrate in a holding chamber or a processing chamber. Further described herein are methods and apparatus that detect radiation transmitted along the thickness of the substrate between the top surface and the bottom surface, determine a signal strength as the substrate is rotated and obtaining a signal strength pattern to determine a position of the substrate within the chamber with respect to a center position.

In a method of controlling a lithographic apparatus, historical performance measurements are used to calculate a process model relating to a lithographic process. Current positions of a plurality of alignment marks provided on a current substrate are measured and used to calculate a substrate model relating to a current substrate. Additionally, historical position measurements obtained at the time of processing the prior substrates are used with the historical performance measurements to calculate a model mapping. The model mapping is applied to modify the substrate model. The lithographic apparatus is controlled using the process model and the modified substrate model together. Overlay performance is improved by avoiding over- or under-correction of correlated components of the process model and the substrate model. The model mapping may be a subspace mapping, and dimensionality of the model mapping may be reduced, before it is used.

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 configuration dataset indicative of a setting of one or more operational policies of a control of an industrial field device and a measurement dataset indicative of an event associated with the industrial field device is read from a distributed database. An analysis of the measurement dataset is performed, depending on the configuration dataset.

A mark field, having at least two location marks with information for the location of the respective location mark in the mark field, and at least one position mark, which is or can be assigned to one of the location marks. Furthermore, the invention relates to a device for determining X-Y positions of structural features of structures arranged on a substrate, wherein the X-Y positions relative to the mark field, which is fixed with respect to the substrate, can be determined. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a corresponding method.

Disclosed is a silicon wafer processing device; a pre-aligned optical assembly and an edge exposure assembly are provided on a synchronous bi-directional motion module, reducing the occupied space of the device and saving the installation cost; and furthermore, a synchronous bi-directional motion module, a rotation unit and a position compensation unit on a bottom plate are controlled by means of a control assembly, so as to reduce the operational complexity; and moreover, the synchronous bi-directional motion module is controlled to drive the pre-aligned optical assembly and the edge exposure assembly to simultaneously move, so that the operations of pre-aligning and edge exposure can be performed on silicon wafers of different sizes, thereby saving the switching time and increasing the work efficiency. Further disclosed is a method for processing a silicon wafer using a silicon wafer processing device.

An edge exposure apparatus and method are disclosed. The edge exposure apparatus includes: a base frame (1); an edge exposure unit (2) mounted on the base frame and configured to perform an edge exposure process on a wafer; a pre-alignment unit (3) for centering and orienting the wafer and cooperating with the edge exposure unit (2) in the edge exposure process; a cassette unit (4) for storing and detecting the wafer; a robotic arm (5) for transferring the wafer; and a master control unit (6) for controlling the above components of the edge exposure apparatus. The edge exposure unit (2) and the pre-alignment unit (3) share a common worktable, resulting in structural compactness. Alternatively, two pre-alignment units (3) and two edge exposure units (2) may be included in order to increase processing efficiency.

In some embodiments, a reticle structure is provided. The reticle structure includes a reticle stage and a reticle mounted on the reticle stage. The reticle stage includes plural first burls and plural second burls, in which the second burls are disposed on a center of the reticle stage and the first burls disposed on an edge of the reticle stage such that the first burls surround the second burls. The reticle includes a base material and a pattern layer overlying the base material. The base material is secured on the first and second burls of the reticle stage. The pattern layer includes plural first gratings, and each of the first burls is vertically aligned with one of the first gratings.

A microelectronic device is formed by loading a wafer, in which the microelectronic device is being formed, onto a pre-alignment stage for a wafer stepper. If the pre-alignment stage does not align the wafer properly using a notch pin, the wafer is loaded onto a wafer stepper stage of the wafer stepper. The wafer is positioned under a Field Image Alignment (FIA) camera of the wafer stepper, so that the FIA camera provides an image of the wafer notch. The wafer is rotated into a proper position. The wafer is transferred back to the pre-alignment stage. The wafer is aligned using the notch pin. The wafer is transferred to the wafer stepper stage. Fabrication is continued to form the microelectronic device.

The present invention provides a lithography apparatus that forms patterns on substrates including a first substrate and a second substrate following the first substrate, the apparatus including a decision unit configured to obtain a first layout of a plurality of shot regions on a first substrate from detection values of marks in sample shot regions included in each of a plurality of different combinations each constituted by at least two sample shot regions, of sample shot regions where a detection unit has detected the marks in fine alignment with respect to the first substrate and decide sample shot regions included in one of the plurality of combinations as sample shot regions where the detection unit detects the marks in pre-alignment with respect to a second substrate based on the first layout.