Imprint apparatus, imprint method, and method of manufacturing article

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10120276-B2
Application number	US-201514674244-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 31, 2015
Priority date	Mar 31, 2015
Publication date	Nov 6, 2018
Grant date	Nov 6, 2018

Abstract

The present invention provides an imprint apparatus which forms a pattern on a substrate by molding an imprint material on the substrate using a mold, comprising a supply unit configured to supply droplets of the imprint material onto the substrate; and a processing unit configured to acquire arrangement patterns of the droplets on the substrate, wherein based on the arrangement pattern corresponding to a first portion of the mold and the arrangement pattern corresponding to a second portion of the mold, the processing unit acquires the arrangement pattern corresponding to a boundary portion between the first portion and the second portion.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An imprint apparatus which forms a pattern of an imprint material on a shot region of a substrate by using a mold including a first portion and a second portion that are adjacent to each other and have different pattern configurations from each other, comprising:
a supplier configured to supply the imprint material onto the shot region; and
a processor configured to determine information on an arrangement pattern of the imprint material to be supplied as droplets on the shot region by the supplier, and control the supplier based on the information,
wherein the processor is configured to:
obtain a pattern configuration of the first portion of the mold and a pattern configuration of the second portion of the mold;
obtain a first arrangement pattern of the imprint material generated based on the pattern configuration of the first portion of the mold, and a second arrangement pattern of the imprint material generated based on the pattern configuration of the second portion of the mold,
specify a boundary portion of the mold where a thickness of the pattern of the imprint material to be formed by the mold cannot be within an allowable range in a case of respectively adopting the first arrangement pattern to the first portion of the mold and the second arrangement pattern to the second portion of the mold, the boundary portion of the mold including a part of the first portion of the mold and a part of the second portion of the mold,
generate a third arrangement pattern of the imprint material to be
adopted to the boundary portion of the mold, such that the thickness of the pattern of the imprint material to be formed by the boundary portion of the mold falls within the allowable range, by combining the first arrangement pattern and the second arrangement pattern, and
determine the information on the arrangement pattern of the imprint material to be supplied as droplets on the shot region by the supplier based on the first arrangement pattern, the second arrangement pattern, and the third arrangement pattern, wherein the pattern configuration of the first portion of the mold includes concave portions extending in a predetermined direction, and the pattern configuration of the second portion of the mold includes no three-dimensional pattern.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the the processor is configured to:
generate the first arrangement pattern of the imprint material based on the pattern configuration in the first portion of the mold, such that a thickness of the pattern of the imprint material to be formed by the first portion of the mold falls within the allowable range, and
generate the second arrangement pattern of the imprint material based on the pattern configuration in the second portion of the mold, such that a thickness of the pattern of the imprint material to be formed by the second portion of the mold falls within the allowable range.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the processor is configured to respectively generate the first arrangement pattern and the second arrangement pattern based on design information on the pattern configuration of the first portion of the mold and the pattern configuration of the second portion of the mold.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to generate the third arrangement pattern by combining a first intermediate pattern and a second intermediate pattern, the first intermediate pattern being determined by changing an interval in a first direction and an interval in a second direction while maintaining a ratio between the interval in the first direction and the interval in the second direction with respect to arrangement positions of the imprint material in the first arrangement pattern, the second intermediate pattern being determined by changing an interval in the first direction and an interval in the second direction while maintaining a ratio between the interval in the first direction and the interval in the second direction with respect to arrangement positions of the imprint material in the second arrangement pattern, and the second direction being perpendicular to the first direction.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the processor is configured to generate the third arrangement pattern such that a density of the imprint material to be supplied onto the substrate in accordance with the third arrangement pattern becomes equal to a target density.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein in at least one of the first arrangement pattern and the second arrangement pattern, an interval of arrangement positions of the imprint material in a first direction is different from an interval of arrangement positions of the imprint material in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein in at least one of the first arrangement pattern and the second arrangement pattern, the interval in the first direction and the interval in the second direction are different from each other according to anisotropy of a pattern of the mold.

8. The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the processor is configured to generate the first arrangement pattern and the second arrangement pattern based on a volume of concave portions of the mold and a target residual film thickness of a pattern of the imprint material to be formed on the substrate.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to generate the third arrangement pattern based on information obtained by enlarging an interval of arrangement positions of the imprint material in the first arrangement pattern and the second arrangement pattern.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to generate the third arrangement pattern based on information obtained by enlarging an interval of arrangement positions of the imprint material in the first arrangement pattern by a first magnification, and information obtained by enlarging an interval of arrangement positions of the imprint material in the second arrangement pattern by a second magnification, the first magnification and the second magnification being different from each other.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to generate the third arrangement pattern, such that a residual layer thickness of the pattern of the imprint material formed on the substrate by using the mold is uniform.

12. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to control the supplier such that the first arrangement pattern is adopted to a portion except for the boundary portion in the first portion of the mold, the second arrangement pattern is adopted to a portion except for the boundary portion in the second portion of the mold, and the third arrangement pattern is adopted to the boundary portion of the mold.

13. The apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the processor is configured to:
partition the specified boundary portion of the mold into a plurality of partial portions,
generate the third arrangement pattern for each of the plurality of partial portions, such that the thickness of the pattern of the imprint material to be formed by each of the plurality of partial portions falls within the allowable range.

14. The apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the first direction and the second direction are parallel to a surface of the substrate onto which the imprint material is supplied by the supplier.

15. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the pattern configuration of the first portion of the mold is co

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Schumaker Philip D
• Srinivasan Yeshwanth
• Tamura Masahiro
• Yamazaki Takuro

Classifications

• G03F7/0002 Primary

  Lithographic processes using patterning methods other than those involving the exposure to radiation, e.g. by stamping · CPC title

• G03F7/0017 Primary

  for the production of embossing, cutting or similar devices; for the production of casting means · CPC title

• G03F9/7073

  Alignment marks and their environment (marks specific to masks G03F1/42; marks specific to molds or stamps G03F7/0002; overlay marks G03F7/70633; marks applied to semiconductor devices H10W46/00) · CPC title

• G03F9/7042

  Alignment for lithographic apparatus using patterning methods other than those involving the exposure to radiation, e.g. by stamping or imprinting (non-exposure lithographic processes per se G03F7/0002) · CPC title

• G03F7/70483

  Information management; Active and passive control; Testing; Wafer monitoring, e.g. pattern monitoring · CPC title