A method for calibrating a manipulable optical module for a microlithographic projection exposure apparatus, which comprises at least one manipulation element for setting an at least one-dimensional local variation profile of an optical property of the optical module is provided. The method comprises: applying a temporally varying excitation signal to the at least one manipulation element; determining a raw measurement data set via a measurement device measuring the respective local variation profile resulting at different times during the variation of the excitation signal; estimating a temporally varying scaling, caused by the temporal variation of the excitation signal, in the variation profiles of the raw measurement data set; determining a full effect profile of the optical property by fitting the temporally varying scaling to the variation profiles of the raw measurement data set; and determining calibration data of the manipulable optical module on the basis of the full effect profile.

A computer-implemented method of generating one or more control actions for controlling a lithographic apparatus. The lithographic apparatus comprises an illumination system for illuminating a mask with a non-uniform radiation beam. The illumination system is configured to receive from a radiation source a radiation beam, and comprising a beam-shaping device configured to receive data specifying profile information, and shape a transverse profile of the radiation beam based on the profile information to form the non-uniform radiation beam. The method comprises processing the profile information to generate an estimated diffraction pattern produced by illuminating the mask with the non-uniform radiation beam, and processing the estimated diffraction pattern to generate one or more control actions for a control system of the lithographic apparatus.

An optical module of an assembly in an optical system comprises an optical element, a first number of position actuators for positioning the optical element, at least one additional actuator for damping deformations of the optical element caused by the parasitic mechanical disturbances, at least one sensor for determining the pose of the optical element, and a control circuit for controlling the optical element. A method comprises acquiring at least one sensor signal relating to the pose of the optical element, decomposing the at least one acquired sensor signal into a signal group having at least one pose component and a signal group having at least one deformation component, positioning the optical element on the basis of the pose components, and damping the deformations on the basis of the deformation components. A control circuit controls an optical element.

A deep learning-based Process Proximity Correction (PPC) method is provided. The method includes: receiving a first layout of After Clean Inspection (ACI) including a plurality of patterns; extracting a plurality of features of unique patterns from the first layout and sampling the plurality of features of unique patterns; executing an algorithm that optimizes a number of unique patterns sampled in the sampling; identifying optimization conditions and dedose conditions derived from the algorithm; creating a deep learning model based on the optimization conditions and the dedose conditions; and performing correction based on the deep learning model.