Overlay marks, methods of overlay mark design and methods of overlay measurements

An overlay mark for determining the a relative shift between two or more successive layers of a substrate via an imaging device configured for capture an image of the overlay mark, the overlay mark comprising:

• a first set of working zones disposed on a first layer of the substrate and having at least two working zones diagonally opposed to one another and positioned within the a perimeter of the mark, each of the working zones having a periodic structure of coarsely segmented elements positioned therein, the coarsely segmented elements being oriented in a first direction and formed from a plurality of finely segmented elements, the plurality of finely segmented elements being evenly divided across the entire coarsely segmented elements;
• and
• a second set of working zones positioned crosswise relative to the first set of working zones, the second set of working zones being disposed on a second layer of the state and having at least two working zones diagonally opposed to one another and positioned within the perimeter of the mark, each of the working zones having a periodic Stature of coarsely segmented elements positioned therein, the coarsely segmented elements being oriented in the first direction and formed from a plurality of finely segmented elements the plurality of finely segmented elements being evenly divided across the entire coarsely segmented elements.

An overlay mark for optically determining the a relative shift between two or more separately generated patterns on a single layer of a substrate, the overlay target comprising:

• an optically discernable test region positioned on a first layer of the substrate, the first layer being formed by a first pattern via a first process and a second pattern via a second process;
• a plurality of working zones positioned in the test region, the wading zones being laterally spatially separated relative to one another, the working zones representing the actual areas of the test region that are used to determine the relative shift between the first and second patterns, wherein a first portion of the working zones are formed via the first process and a second portion of the working zones are formed via the second process;
• a periodic structure positioned within each of the working zones, each of the periodic structures including a plurality of coarsely segmented elements, each of the coarsely segmented elements being formed by a plurality of finely segmented elements that are evenly divided across the entire coarsely segmented element.

A multidirectional overlay mark for optically determining the overlay between two separately generated patterns on a single or successive layers of a substrate, the multidirectional mark being separated into four quadrants that are optically discernable, each of the four quadrants including at least two separately generated working zones that are juxtaposed relative to one another and that together substantially fill the quadrant, the upper left quadrant including working zones configured to provide overlay information in a first direction, the upper right quadrant including working zones configured to provide overlay information in a second direction that is different than the first direction, the lower right quadrant including working zones configured to provide overlay information in the first direction, and the lower left quadrant including working zones configured to provide overlay information in the second direction.