Fluid droplet methodology and apparatus for imprint lithography

A method of manufacturing an article, the method comprising:

• providing a fluid dispense system having fluid dispense ports;
• during a first pass, dispensing a formable material onto a surface of a substrate by the fluid dispense system having fluid dispense ports to form a first substrate fluid droplet pattern for a first part of an imprint field of the substrate, wherein the substrate and the fluid dispense ports move relative to each other along a translating axis;
• offsetting the fluid dispense ports and substrate relative to each other after dispensing the formable material during the first pass;
• during a second pass, dispensing the formable material onto the surface of the substrate by the fluid dispense system to form a second substrate fluid droplet pattern for a second part of the imprint field, wherein offsetting the fluid dispense ports and substrate relative to each other is performed between the first pass and the second pass,
• wherein:
• the first substrate fluid droplet pattern has fluid droplets of the formable material lying along a plurality of lines, wherein lines of the plurality of lines are spaced apart from one another at a pitch in a y-direction, and
• offsetting is along a plane parallel to the surface of the substrate in a direction of the pitch for an offset distance that is a non-integer multiple of the pitch;
• contacting the formable material with the template having a surface;
• and
• curing the formable material to form a layer corresponding to the surface of the template.