Lithographic printing system with placement corrections
AssigneeMicronic Laser Systems AB
InventorTorbjörn Sandström
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The technology disclosed relates to methods and devices that compensate for displacements in a pattern or deformations of a workpiece. In particular, this relates to using timing to compensate for displacements along a first axis along the scanning direction while using resampling, interpolation or a similar method to compensate for displacements along a second axis that is substantially orthogonal to the first axis. The scanning direction may be an actual direction of movement of the scanning head or it may be a direction perpendicular to an orientation of an image projected onto a workpiece.
Claims20
A method of correcting for deformations from an ideal rasterized pattern when projecting an image onto a deformed workpiece, the method including:
- rasterizing pattern data to an ideal grid;
- representing displacements across an area of the workpiece that correct deformations from the ideal grid as displacement vectors;
- and
- delivering data to a modulator having numerous pixels oriented along at least a transverse direction, using timing of the data delivery to compensate for the displacements in a scan direction and calculating pixel data values that compensate for the displacements in the transverse direction.
A method of compensating for distortion of a workpiece while printing rasterized pattern data using a modulator having numerous pixels along at least a length of the modulator, the method including:
- accessing local displacement vectors stored in memory that map compensation for distortion of the workpiece;
- calculating data values along the length of a modulator to compensate for the distortion in a first direction;
- and
- adjusting timing of data feed to the modulator to compensate for the distortion in a second direction, substantially orthogonal to the first direction.
A deformation correction device that corrects for deformations from an ideal rasterized pattern when projecting an image onto a deformed workpiece, the device including:
- a memory;
- at least one processor coupled to the memory;
- a first module running on the processor that rasterizes pattern data to an ideal grid;
- an alignment displacement map stored in the memory that represents deformations across a workpiece from the ideal grid in a scan direction and a transverse direction as displacement vectors;
- a modulator having numerous pixels oriented along the least the transverse direction, the modulator coupled to the processor;
- and
- a second module running on the processor that delivers data to the modulator using timing of the data delivery to compensate for the displacements in the scan direction and calculating pixel data values that compensate for the displacements in the transverse direction.
A device that compensates for distortion of a workpiece in rasterized pattern data adapted for use by a modulator having numerous pixels along at least a length of the modulator, the device including:
- a memory;
- at least one processor coupled to the memory;
- displacement vectors stored in the memory that map compensation for distortion in a first direction and in a second direction, substantially orthogonal to the first direction;
- a first module running on the processor, accessing the displacement vectors and calculating data values of pixels along the length of a modulator to compensate in data for the distortion in the first direction;
- and
- a second module running on the processor, that adjusts timing of data feed to the modulator to compensate for the distortion in the second direction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.