Provided are a method for testing a photosensitive composition and a method for producing a photosensitive composition that can easily test whether or not the photosensitive composition exhibits a predetermined LWR. The method for testing a photosensitive composition has a step 1 of using a reference photosensitive composition including an acid decomposable resin having a group that is decomposed by an action of an acid to generate a polar group and a photoacid generator, to form a resist film on a substrate 1, removing the resist film on the substrate 1 using a treatment liquid, and measuring a number of defects on the substrate 1 in which the resist film on the substrate 1 has been removed, to obtain reference data; a step 2 of using a photosensitive composition for measurement including components of the same types as types of components included in the reference photosensitive composition, to form a resist film on a substrate 2, removing the resist film on the substrate 2 using a treatment liquid, and measuring a number of defects on the substrate 2 in which the resist film on the substrate 2 has been removed, to obtain measurement data; and a step 3 of performing comparison between the reference data and the measurement data to determine whether or not an allowable range is satisfied, wherein the treatment liquid includes predetermined components.

A method of measuring an overlay or focus parameter from a target and associated metrology apparatus. The method includes configuring measurement radiation to obtain a configured measurement spectrum of the measurement radiation by: imposing an intensity weighting on individual wavelength bands of the measurement radiation such that the individual wavelength bands have an intensity according to the intensity weighting, the intensity weighting being such that a measured value for the overlay or focus parameter is at least partially corrected for the effect of target imperfections; and/or imposing a modulation on a measurement spectrum of the measurement radiation. The configured measurement radiation is used to measure the target. A value for the overlay or focus parameter is determined from scattered radiation resultant from measurement of the target.

A system may include a controller for receiving one or more images of a metrology target including periodic features with one or more known pitches, pre-processing the one or more images using a decomposition technique to generate one or more pre-processed images, and generating one or more metrology measurements for the metrology target based on the one or more pre-processed images. Pre-processing a particular image of the one or more images may include constructing one or more trajectory matrices from the particular image, generating reconstruction components associated with the particular image from the one or more trajectory matrices using the decomposition technique, and generating a particular one of the one or more pre-processed images by based on a subset of the reconstruction components including signals with at least one of the one or more known pitches.

Disclosed is an overlay measurement apparatus which may include: a light source unit configured to direct an illumination to an overlay measurement target formed in a wafer; a lens unit having an objective lens and a lens focus actuator; a detection unit acquiring a focus image at a measurement position; a stage on which the wafer is seated; and a control unit controlling the lens unit to acquire the overlay measurement target, processing a first sample image of the overlay measurement target detected by the detection unit and a second sample image rotated at 180 degrees based on the first sample image and detected, and calculating a difference between the processed images to calculate the difference as a correction image for correcting an image for which overlay is measured.

Disclosed is a method for modeling alignment data over a substrate area relating to a substrate being exposed in a lithographic process. The method comprises obtaining alignment data relating to said substrate and separating the alignment data into systematic component which is relatively stable between different substrates and a non-systematic component which is not relatively stable between different substrates. The systematic component and the non-systematic component are individually modeled and a process correction for the substrate determined based on the modeled systematic component and modeled non-systematic component.

To monitor semiconductor manufacturing process variation, contours of identical pattern features are determined based on SEM images, and the contours are aggregated and statistically analyzed to determine the variation of the feature. Some of the contours are outliers, and the aggregation and averaging of the contours hides these outliers. The present disclosure describes filtering certain outlier contours before they are aggregated and statistically analyzed. The filtering can be performed at multiple levels, such as based on individual points on the contours in the set of inspection contours, or based on overall geometrical shapes of the contours in the set of inspection contours.

A method for predicting yield relating to a process of manufacturing semiconductor devices on a substrate, the method including: obtaining a trained first model which translates modeled parameters into a yield parameter, the modeled parameters including: a) a geometrical parameter associated with one or more selected from: a geometric characteristic, dimension or position of a device element manufactured by the process and b) a trained free parameter; obtaining process parameter data including data regarding a process parameter characterizing the process; converting the process parameter data into values of the geometrical parameter; and predicting the yield parameter using the trained first model and the values of the geometrical parameter.

A method may include, but is not limited to, receiving a measurement including a metrology parameter for a layer of a metrology target and an alignment mark from an overlay metrology tool prior to a lithography process; deriving a merit figure from the metrology parameter and the alignment mark; deriving a correction factor from the merit figure; providing the correction factor to the lithography process via a feed forward process; receiving an additional measurement including an additional metrology parameter for the layer and an additional layer from an additional overlay metrology tool after the lithography process; deriving an adjustment from the additional metrology parameter; and providing the adjustment to the lithography process via a feedback process.

Methods and corresponding metrology modules and systems, which measure metrology parameter(s) of a previous layer of a metrology target and/or an alignment mark, prior to producing a current layer of the metrology target, derive merit figure(s) from the measured metrology parameter(s) to indicate an inaccuracy, and compensate for the inaccuracy to enhance subsequent overlay measurements of the metrology target. In an example embodiment, methods and corresponding metrology modules and systems use stand-alone metrology tool(s) and track-integrated metrology tool(s) at distinct measurement patterns to address separately different aspects of variation among wafers.

A wavelet-analysis system and method for use in fabricating semiconductor device wafers, the system including a misregistration metrology tool operative to measure at least one measurement site on a wafer, thereby generating an output signal, and a wavelet-based analysis engine operative to generate at least one wavelet-transformed signal by applying at least one wavelet transformation to the output signal and generate a quality metric by analyzing the wavelet-transformed signal.