System and Method for Improving the Throughput of a Nanoimprint System

A method of manufacturing an article with an imprinting apparatus comprising:

• applying a formable material to a substrate;
• imprinting a template onto the formable material at a plurality of locations on the substrate,
• wherein a template filing period is a period of time that the formable material takes to fill the template, wherein a template filling time varies among the plurality of locations on the substrate;
• wherein the template filling time for each of the plurality of locations is determined prior to applying the formable material to the substrate;
• wherein the template is aligned to the substrate each time the template is imprinted onto the formable material during an alignment convergence period;
• wherein the alignment convergence period is determined to have completed when real time alignment data indicates that alignment of the template and the substrate is within specified limits;
• wherein the alignment convergence period and the template filing period overlap;
• and
• curing the formable material in the template at each of the plurality of locations after both the alignment convergence period has completed and the template filing period has expired.

An imprinting apparatus controller comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• a processor configured to send instructions to an imprinting apparatus to:
• apply a formable material to a substrate;
• imprint a template onto the formable material at a plurality of locations on the substrate,
• wherein a template filing period is a period of time that the formable material takes to fill the template, wherein a template filling time varies among the plurality of locations on the substrate;
• wherein the template filling time for each of the plurality of locations is determined prior to applying the formable material to the substrate and is stored in the memory;
• wherein the template is aligned to the substrate each time the template is imprinted onto the formable material during an alignment convergence period;
• wherein the alignment convergence period is determined to have completed when real time alignment data received by the processor indicates that alignment of the template and the substrate is within specified limits;
• and
• wherein the alignment convergence period and the template filing period overlap;
• and
• cure the formable material in the template at each of the plurality of locations after both the alignment convergence period has completed and template filing period has expired.

A method of imprinting comprising:

• preparing a template having a patterning surface;
• preparing a substrate;
• contacting a formable material applied to a first field of the substrate with the patterning surface, wherein the first field is large enough to transfer an entire pattern of the template;
• curing the formable material applied to the first field contacted with the template in response to an expiration of a first filling period;
• contacting the formable material applied to a second field of the substrate with the patterning surface, wherein the second field is not large enough to transfer the entire pattern of the template;
• and
• curing the formable material applied to the second field contacted with the template in response to an expiration of a second filling period, and
• wherein the first filling period and the second filling period are different.