Active control of temperature in scanning probe lithography and maskless lithograpy

A system for monitoring and regulating a photoresist temperature in conjunction with a maskless lithography pattern transfer process, comprising:

• a photoresist layer overlying a substrate;
• a material associated with the photoresist layer, wherein the material exhibits a characteristic which varies over variations in temperature;
• a detection and measuring system which detects the material characteristic and converts the characteristic into an electrical signal;
• a processor operatively coupled to the detection and measuring system, wherein the processor is configured to receive the electrical signal, analyze the electrical signal, and generate a control instruction in response thereto;
• and
• a maskless lithography writing tool operatively coupled to the process, wherein the writing tool operates in accordance with the control instruction.

A method of monitoring and regulating a photoresist temperature in conjunction with a maskless lithography pattern transfer process, comprising the steps of:

• associating a material having a characteristic which varies over variations in temperature with a photoresist layer which overlies a substrate;
• detecting the characteristic during the pattern transfer process;
• determining a temperature of a portion of the photoresist layer using the detected characteristic;
• and
• controlling an operation of a writing tool which performs the pattern transfer process in response to the photoresist layer temperature.

A method of monitoring and regulating a photoresist temperature in conjunction with a maskless lithography pattern transfer process, comprising the steps of:

• associating a material having a characteristic which varies over variations in temperature with a photoresist layer which overlies a substrate;
• initiating a pattern transfer process using a preliminary control routine having a default write rate for one or more writing tools;
• detecting the characteristic during the pattern transfer process;
• determining a temperature of a portion of the photoresist layer using the detected characteristic;
• modifying the default write rate of at least one of the one or more writing tools at one or more locations about the photoresist in response to the determined temperature to maintain the photoresist temperature within a predetermined temperature range;
• and
• storing the modified default rate data in a memory, wherein the modified write rate data is used in conjunction with portions of the preliminary control routine to generate the control routine.