Method for improving accuracy of imprint force application in imprint lithography
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorNilabh K. Roy
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An imprint method is provided. The method includes exercising an imprint head along a preconditioning trajectory before contacting the imprint head with a formable material on a substrate, followed by performing imprinting on the formable material after exercising the imprint head. The exercise of the imprint head along the preconditioning trajectory may be performed after the imprint head has been idled for a predetermined period of time. The exercise of the imprint head along the preconditioning trajectory may also be performed for a duration decided based on expected throughput requirements and tools used for the imprinting process.
Claims16
An imprint method, comprising:
- exercising an imprint head along a preconditioning trajectory before contacting the imprint head with a formable material on a substrate;
- and
- performing imprinting on the formable material after exercising the imprint head along the preconditioning trajectory,
- wherein the preconditioning trajectory is identified to be a plane which results in a reduction in a user defined metric while imprinting the formable material,
- wherein the metric includes:
- a variation in cable stress relaxation force averaged over a substrate for a plurality of substrates;
- a variation in cable stress relaxation force across different force calibration routines;
- or
- a variation in cable stress relaxation force over a first imprint field across different substrates.
A method of manufacturing an article, comprising:
- exercising an imprint head along a preconditioning trajectory before contacting a template with formable material to be applied on a substrate;
- applying formable material on the substrate;
- retaining the template with the imprint head;
- moving the imprint head to bring the template in contact with the formable material;
- and
- imprinting the formable material with a real-time adjusted final imprint force,
- wherein the preconditioning trajectory is identified to be a plane which results in a reduction in a user defined metric while imprinting the formable material,
- wherein the metric includes:
- a variation in cable stress relaxation force averaged over a substrate for a plurality of substrates;
- a variation in cable stress relaxation force across different force calibration routines;
- or
- a variation in cable stress relaxation force over a first imprint field across different substrates.
A method of manufacturing an article, comprising:
- exercising an imprint head along a preconditioning trajectory before contacting a template with formable material to be applied on a substrate;
- applying formable material on the substrate;
- retaining the template with the imprint head;
- moving the imprint head to bring the template in contact with the formable material;
- and
- imprinting the formable material with a real-time adjusted final imprint force,
- wherein a final imprint force for imprinting the formable material is estimated based on a measured overlay error and the preconditioning trajectory chosen to minimize a variation of the final imprint force over multiple substrates or to minimize a difference in final imprint forces between a first substrate and a second substrate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.