Determination method, imprint method, imprint apparatus, article manufacturing method and non-transitory storage medium

An imprint method of forming a pattern of an imprint material on a substrate by using a mold, the method comprising:

• determining a drop pattern indicating a layout of droplets of the imprint material to be arranged on the substrate;
• arranging droplets of the imprint material on the substrate in accordance with the drop pattern determined in the determining the drop pattern;
• wherein determining the drop pattern
• specifying a partial shot region of the plurality of shot regions which has a smaller area than a pattern region of the mold based on a layout of a plurality of shot regions on the substrate;
• determining a posture of the mold when the mold is brought into contact with the imprint material arranged in the partial shot region specified in the specifying;
• obtaining a contact start position at which the mold comes first into contact with the imprint material in the partial shot region based on the posture of the mold determined in the determining the posture;
• and
• determining the drop pattern in the partial shot region so as to arrange droplets of the imprint material at a plurality of positions respectively located along a plurality of different radiation directions from the contact start position, with the contact start position obtained in the obtaining serving, as a starting point.

An imprint apparatus which forms a pattern of an imprint material on a substrate by using a mold, the apparatus comprising:

• a control unit configured to perform processing of determining a drop pattern indicating a layout of droplets of the imprint material to be arranged on the substrate;
• and
• an arranging unit configured to arrange droplets of the imprint material on the substrate based on the drop pattern determined in the processing,
• wherein the processing includes
• specifying a partial shot region of a plurality of shot regions on the substrate which has a smaller area than thee pattern region of the mold based on a layout of the plurality of shot regions,
• determining a posture of the mold when the mold is brought into contact with the imprint material arranged in the specified partial shot region,
• obtaining a contact start position at which the mold comes first into contact with the imprint material in the partial shot region based on the determined posture of the mold, and
• determining the drop pattern in the partial shot region so as to arrange droplets of the imprint material at a plurality of positions respectively located in a plurality of different radiation directions from the obtained contact start position, with the contact start position serving as a starting point.

A non-transitory storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute a determination method of determining a drop pattern indicating a layout of droplets of an imprint material to be arranged on a substrate and used in an imprint apparatus which forms a pattern of the imprint material on the substrate by using a mold, the method comprising:

• specifying a partial shot region of the plurality of shot regions which has a smaller area than a pattern region of the mold based on a layout of a plurality of shot regions on the substrate;
• determining a posture of the mold when the mold is brought into contact with the imprint material arranged in the partial shot region specified in the specifying;
• obtaining a contact start position at which the mold comes first into contact with the imprint material in the partial shot region based on the posture of the mold determined in the determining the posture;
• and
• determining the drop pattern in the partial shot region so as to arrange droplets of the imprint material at a plurality of positions respectively located along a plurality of different radiation directions from the contact start position, with the contact start position obtained in the obtaining serving as a starting point.