Disclosed is a method for determining a focus parameter value used to expose at least one structure on a substrate. The method comprises obtaining measurement data relating to a measurement of said at least one structure, wherein the at least one structure comprises a single periodic structure per measurement location and decomposing said measurement data into component data comprising one or more components of said measurement data. At least one of said components is processed to extract processed component data having a reduced dependence on non-focus related effects and a value for the focus parameter is determined from said processed component data. Associated apparatuses and patterning devices are also disclosed.

A method for selecting an optimal set of locations for a measurement or feature on a substrate, the method includes: defining a first candidate solution of locations, defining a second candidate solution with locations based on modification of a coordinate in a solution domain of the first candidate solution, and selecting the first and/or second candidate solution as the optimal solution according to a constraint associated with the substrate.

Disclosed herein is a computer-implemented method for determining an overlapping process window (OPW) of an area of interest on a portion of a design layout for a device manufacturing process for imaging the portion onto a substrate, the method comprising: obtaining a plurality of features in the area of interest; obtaining a plurality of values of one or more processing parameters of the device manufacturing process; determining existence of defects, probability of the existence of defects, or both in imaging the plurality of features by the device manufacturing process under each of the plurality of values; and determining the OPW of the area of interest from the existence of defects, the probability of the existence of defects, or both.

A method is provided that comprises printing FEM wafers having different predefined focus offsets and multiple corresponding sites, measuring signals from the sites, and quantifying a focus inaccuracy by comparing the measured signals from the corresponding sites across the wafers.

Disclosed is an adaptive groove focusing and leveling device for measuring the height and the inclination of the surface of a measured object (400). The measured object (400) is provided with cyclic grooves (401) in the surface and supported by a moving table; the focusing and leveling device sequentially comprises an illumination unit, a projection unit, a detection unit and a detector (212); the measured object (400) is positioned between the projection unit and the detection unit along the light path, the projection unit comprises a projection slit (203) and is used for forming a plurality of measuring points (501) on the measured object (400), and each measuring point (501) comprises at least three measuring child light spots (502), wherein the at least three measuring child light spots (502) are arranged at unequal intervals, so that when the plurality of measuring points (501) are projected to the surface of the measured object (400), at least two of the at least three measuring child light spots (502) of each measuring point (501) can be positioned outside the grooves (401), and then the height and the inclination of the surface of the measured object (400) are measured.

While a wafer stage linearly moves in a Y-axis direction, a multipoint AF system detects surface position information of the wafer surface at a plurality of detection points that are set at a predetermined distance in an X-axis direction and also a plurality of alignment systems that are arrayed in a line along the X-axis direction detect each of marks at positions different from one another on the wafer. That is, detection of surface position information of the wafer surface at a plurality of detection points and detection of the marks at positions different from one another on the wafer are finished, only by the wafer stage (wafer) linearly passing through the array of the plurality of detection points of the multipoint AF system and the plurality of alignment systems, and therefore, the throughput can be improved.

An exposure apparatus including an obtainment unit configured to obtain, for each of a plurality of exposure regions on a substrate, surface positions in a height direction in the exposure region, and a control unit configured to control, based on the obtained surface positions, driving of a substrate stage in the height direction, wherein the control unit obtains an approximate surface approximately representing a cross-sectional shape of a surface of the exposure region from the obtained surface positions obtained, and for a first exposure region for which information related to the approximate surface does not exceed a predetermined range, controls the driving based on a correction value related to the driving obtained from an approximate surface approximately representing a cross-sectional shape of a surface of the exposure region that has been exposed prior to the first exposure region.

Disclosed is a substrate and associated patterning device. The substrate comprises at least one target arrangement suitable for metrology of a lithographic process, the target arrangement comprising at least one pair of similar target regions which are arranged such that the target arrangement is, or at least the target regions for measurement in a single direction together are, centrosymmetric. A metrology method is also disclosed for measuring the substrate. A metrology method is also disclosed comprising which comprises measuring such a target arrangement and determining a value for a parameter of interest from the scattered radiation, while correcting for distortion of the metrology apparatus used.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide an exposure condition evaluation device that appropriately evaluates a wafer exposure condition or calculates an appropriate exposure condition, on the basis of information obtained from an FEM wafer, without relying on the formation state of the FEM wafer. In order to achieve the foregoing, the present invention proposes an exposure condition evaluation device which evaluates an exposure condition of a reduction projection exposure device, on the basis of the information of patterns exposed on a sample by the reduction projection exposure device, and which uses a second feature amount of a plurality of patterns formed by making exposure conditions uniform to correct a first feature amount of a plurality of patterns formed by a plurality of different exposure condition settings.

In various embodiments, an exposure mask may include a carrier, a first exposure structure in a first structure plane of the carrier, and a second exposure structure in a second structure plane of the carrier. The two structure planes differ from one another.