Molding system, molding method, and method for manufacturing article

Abstract

To solve a problem that although a pre-inspection for foreign objects on a substrate is conducted in order to avoid damaging a mold before molding processing of a composition on the substrate is performed, there is a possibility that it is difficult to detect foreign objects even when a pre-inspection for the foreign objects is always conducted under the same condition.SOLUTION: During molding processing for molding a composition on a substrate for which a foreign object has been inspected while the mold is brought into contact with the substrate, the position of the foreign object on the substrate is detected, among the detected positions of foreign objects, a substrate foreign object position where a foreign object has existed on the substrate before the molding processing is started is specified, and an inspection condition to be used when a foreign object on the substrate is inspected is updated on the basis of the specified substrate foreign object position. By updating the inspection condition in this manner, a configuration advantageous for detecting foreign objects on the substrate can be provided.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a molding system, a molding method, and a method for manufacturing an article. [Background technology]

[0002] As the demand for miniaturization of semiconductor devices, MEMS, etc. increases, imprinting technology, which can form fine patterns (structures) on the order of a few nanometers on a substrate, is attracting attention in addition to conventional photolithography technology. Imprinting technology is a microfabrication technology in which an uncured imprinting material is supplied (applied) onto a substrate, and the imprinting material is brought into contact with a mold to form a pattern of the imprinting material on the substrate that corresponds to the fine uneven pattern formed on the mold.

[0003] In this type of imprint technology (molding technology), if the imprint material on the mold and substrate is brought into contact with each other while particles (foreign matter) are attached to the substrate or mold, not only will it be impossible to form a structure of the desired shape, but there is also the possibility that the mold and substrate may be damaged. Therefore, there is a demand for a method to detect foreign matter on the substrate or mold before the imprint process, and for the development of technology to minimize damage to the mold caused by foreign matter.

[0004] Patent Document 1 discloses a foreign matter inspection device that inspects a substrate for foreign matters using a plurality of wavelengths in order to prevent damage to the mold or shortening of the mold's lifespan. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0005] [Patent Document 1] Public Relations for Patent Publication No. 2022-29829 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0006] As described above, various measures against foreign matter are being considered, but as miniaturization in product manufacturing advances, the surface condition of the substrate to be inspected will differ depending on the type of product manufactured and its manufacturing process. Therefore, even if pre-inspection of foreign matter on the substrate is always performed under the same inspection conditions, there is a possibility that foreign matter on the substrate will not be detected.

[0007] The present invention has been made in consideration of the above problems, and has an object to provide a configuration that is advantageous for detecting foreign matter on a substrate before a molding process is performed. [Means for solving the problem]

[0008] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the molding system of the present invention is a molding system comprising a foreign matter inspection device that inspects for foreign matters on a substrate undergoing a molding process, and a molding device that performs a molding process in which a mold is brought into contact with the substrate that has been inspected for foreign matters by the foreign matter inspection device to mold a composition on the substrate, wherein the molding device has a detection unit that detects foreign matter positions on the substrate during the molding process, and a control unit that identifies, from the foreign matter positions detected by the detection unit, a substrate foreign matter position where a foreign matter was present on the substrate before the molding process was started by the molding device, and the inspection conditions used when inspecting for foreign matters by the foreign matter inspection device are updated based on the substrate foreign matter position identified by the identification unit. Effect of the Invention

[0009] According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a configuration that is advantageous for detecting foreign matter on a substrate before a molding process is performed. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0010] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of a molding system. [Diagram 2] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of a molding apparatus (imprint apparatus) 100. [Diagram 3] 11 is a flowchart illustrating the flow of a molding process (imprint process). [Figure 4] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a state of foreign matter detection performed during imprint processing. [Diagram 5] FIG. 2 is a data flow diagram of the molding system. [Figure 6] 1A and 1B are diagrams showing how foreign matter on a substrate adheres to a mold. [Figure 7] 1A and 1B are diagrams showing how foreign matter on a substrate adheres to a mold. [Figure 8] 10 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of identifying whether a foreign particle detected by the imprint apparatus 100 is a substrate foreign particle that should be fed back to the foreign particle inspection apparatus 300. [Figure 9] 1A to 1C are diagrams illustrating how a foreign particle detected by the imprint apparatus 100 is identified as a substrate foreign particle that should be fed back to the foreign particle inspection apparatus 300. [Figure 10] FIG. 2 is a data flow diagram of the molding system. [Figure 11] FIG. 2 is a data flow diagram of the molding system. [Figure 12] 1A to 1C are diagrams for explaining a method for manufacturing an article. [Figure 13] FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining a flattening process. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0011] Hereinafter, the embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings. Note that the following embodiments do not limit the invention according to the claims. Although the embodiments describe a number of features, not all of these features are essential to the invention, and the features may be combined in any manner. Furthermore, in the attached drawings, the same reference numbers are used for the same or similar configurations, and duplicated descriptions are omitted.

[0012] In this specification and the accompanying drawings, directions are shown in an XYZ coordinate system in which the direction parallel to the surface of the substrate is the XY plane. The directions parallel to the X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis in the XYZ coordinate system are the X direction, the Y direction, and the Z direction, respectively, and the rotation around the X-axis, the Y axis, and the Z axis are θX, θY, and θZ, respectively. Control and drive (movement) about the X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis respectively mean control or drive (movement) about the direction parallel to the X-axis, the direction parallel to the Y axis, and the direction parallel to the Z axis. In addition, control or drive about the θX-axis, θY-axis, and θZ-axis respectively mean control or drive about the rotation around the axis parallel to the X-axis, the rotation around the axis parallel to the Y axis, and the rotation around the axis parallel to the Z axis.

[0013] First Embodiment A first embodiment according to the present invention will be described. The molding system of the present invention is a system including a molding apparatus 100 for molding a composition on a substrate using a mold, and a foreign matter inspection apparatus 300. Examples of the molding apparatus 100 include an imprinting apparatus and a planarizing apparatus. The imprinting apparatus is an apparatus for forming (transferring) a pattern on a composition on a substrate by contacting a mold having a concave-convex pattern with the composition. The planarizing apparatus is an apparatus for performing a planarizing process for planarizing the surface of the composition by contacting a mold (member, superstrate) having a flat surface with the composition on a substrate. In this embodiment, an imprinting apparatus will be described as an example of a molding apparatus, but the configuration and process described below can also be applied to a planarizing apparatus.

[0014] 1 is a schematic diagram showing the functional configuration of a molding system including an imprint apparatus 100 and a foreign matter inspection apparatus 300 that inspects a substrate to be carried into the imprint apparatus 100 for foreign matter in advance. The imprint apparatus 100 has functions to perform imprint processing (molding processing), foreign matter detection processing, and transport processing. The imprint processing is performed by a control unit 200 that controls an information management unit 503, a mold holding unit 12, a substrate holding unit 2, a driving unit 9, etc., and calculates the drive timing and drive amount of each unit and issues commands.

[0015] Information management unit 503 can manage information on the mold and substrate, foreign object position information 507 described below, and substrate foreign object information 509 by collecting and storing them in a storage means such as a memory, and can also transmit necessary information to control unit 200. Mold holding unit 12 holds mold 11, and substrate holding unit 2 holds substrate 1, and they cooperate with drive unit 9 based on commands from control unit 200 to hold mold 11 and substrate 1, and perform molding processing.

[0016] In the foreign matter inspection process performed in the imprint apparatus 100, the control unit 200 controls the detection unit 25 during the imprint process to detect foreign matters present on the substrate and output foreign matter information. The control unit 200 executes foreign matter detection by sending a command to the detection unit 25 based on parameters set in advance. The output unit 210 can transmit the foreign matter detection result to another system, for example, the foreign matter inspection apparatus 300.

[0017] The transport process is performed by a substrate transport section 22 and a mold transport section 33. The substrate transport section 22 carries in and carries out substrates from the outside, and the mold transport section 33 carries in and carries out molds from the outside.

[0018] Foreign substance inspection of substrates outside the imprint apparatus 100 is performed by a foreign substance inspection apparatus 300. The foreign substance inspection apparatus 300 has the functions of performing foreign substance inspection processing and transport processing. In the foreign substance inspection processing of the foreign substance inspection apparatus 300, a control unit 310 controls an inspection unit 320, which can inspect the substrate for foreign substances before it is carried into the imprint apparatus 100 and output the results. An output unit 330 can transmit the foreign substance detection results to another system, for example, the imprint apparatus 100.

[0019] The transport process is performed by a substrate transport unit 350, which transports the substrate to be inspected from the outside and transports the substrate after the foreign substance inspection is completed.

[0020] 2 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of the imprinting apparatus 100. The imprinting apparatus 100 performs an imprinting process to form a pattern using a mold 11. The imprinting apparatus 100 brings an imprinting material supplied onto a substrate into contact with the mold 11, and applies energy for curing to the imprinting material, thereby forming a pattern of a cured material to which the concave-convex pattern of the mold has been transferred.

[0021] The pattern forming process is an imprint process that aims to repeatedly form a mold pattern on a substrate while changing the substrate position. The processing area formed on the substrate with the mold for one round is hereafter called a field (shot area). In other words, multiple processing fields are provided on the substrate, and these multiple processing fields are processed in sequence.

[0022] The imprint material uses a curable composition (sometimes called an uncured resin) that is cured when curing energy is applied. The curing energy may be electromagnetic waves, heat, or the like. The electromagnetic waves may be, for example, infrared light, visible light, ultraviolet light, or the like, whose wavelength is selected from the range of 10 nm to 1 mm.

[0023] The curable composition is a composition that is cured by irradiation with light or by heating. The photocurable composition that is cured by irradiation with light contains at least a polymerizable compound and a photopolymerization initiator, and may contain a non-polymerizable compound or a solvent, as necessary. The non-polymerizable compound is at least one selected from the group consisting of a sensitizer, a hydrogen donor, an internal mold release agent, a surfactant, an antioxidant, a polymer component, and the like.

[0024] The imprint material may be applied to the substrate in the form of a film. The imprint material may also be applied to the substrate in the form of droplets, or in the form of islands or a film formed by connecting a plurality of droplets. The viscosity of the imprint material (at 25° C.) is, for example, 1 mPa·s or more and 100 mPa·s or less.

[0025] The substrate 1 is carried in from outside the imprint apparatus 100 by a substrate transport unit 22 including a transport hand and the like, and is held by a chuck 2 (substrate holding unit). The substrate stage 3 is placed on a base surface plate 4, and moves while holding the substrate 1. The substrate stage 3 positions the substrate 1 at a predetermined position in the X-axis and Y-axis directions.

[0026] The mold 11 has a pattern to be transferred to the substrate 1 on its surface, and is fixed to a chuck 12 (mold holding portion). The chuck 12 is placed on a mold stage 13. The mold stage 13 has a function of correcting the tilt of the mold 11 around the Z axis. The chuck 12 and the mold stage 13 each have an opening (not shown) that passes light irradiated from the light source 24 via a collimator lens. In addition, a load cell for detecting the pressing force (imprinting pressure) of the mold 11 is disposed on the chuck 12 (or the mold stage 13).

[0027] The guide bar plate 7 has one end fixed to the mold stage 13, and fixes the other end of a guide bar 8 which penetrates the top plate 6. The lifting unit 9 functions as a driving unit, driving the guide bar 8 in the Z-axis direction to bring the mold 11 held by the chuck 12 into contact with (press) the imprint material on the substrate, or to separate it from the imprint material on the substrate. The alignment shelf 14 is suspended from the top plate 6 via the support pillars 10. The guide bar 8 penetrates the alignment shelf 14.

[0028] The TTM (Through-the-Mold) alignment scope 23 for alignment has an optical system and an imaging system for observing a reference mark on the substrate stage and an alignment mark provided on the mold 11. The TTM alignment scope 23 is used for so-called die-by-die alignment, which measures the relative position between the mark on the substrate and the alignment mark provided on the mold 11 for each field and corrects the positional deviation.

[0029] The supply unit 20 includes an outlet (nozzle) that ejects droplets of the imprint material toward the substrate 1, and supplies (applies) the imprint material to each of a plurality of fields on the substrate. The supply unit 20 employs, for example, a piezo jet system or a micro solenoid system, and can supply a minute volume of the imprint material of about 1 pL (picoliter) onto the substrate. The number of outlets in the supply unit 20 is not limited, and may be one (single nozzle) or more than 100 (i.e., a linear nozzle array may be used, or a combination of a plurality of linear nozzle arrays may be used).

[0030] The off-axis alignment (OA) scope 21 is placed on the alignment shelf 14. The OA scope 21 is used for global alignment processing, which measures alignment marks provided in multiple fields on the substrate and determines the positions of each of the multiple fields. The positional relationship between the mold 11 and the substrate stage 3 is obtained by the TTM alignment scope 23, and the positional relationship between the substrate stage 3 and the substrate 1 is obtained by the OA scope 21, thereby enabling relative alignment between the mold 11 and the substrate 1.

[0031] The spread camera 25 is disposed at a position overlooking the mold 11, and can observe the mold 11 in contact with the imprint material on the substrate and the substrate 1 by superimposing them on the same angle of view. The spread camera 25 can observe the state in which the imprint material supplied onto the substrate is pressed and spread by the mold 11, thereby observing the state in which the imprint material is filled into the mold 11. In other words, the spread camera 25 functions as a detection unit 25 that detects foreign objects during the imprint process in the imprint apparatus 100.

[0032] The control unit 200 includes a CPU, a memory, etc., and controls the entire imprint apparatus 100. The control unit 200 controls each part of the imprint apparatus 100 to perform imprint processing (molding processing), foreign object inspection processing, substrate foreign object position identification processing, and transport processing.

[0033] Next, the flow of imprint processing using the molding system of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of Fig. 3. The processing shown in the flowchart of Fig. 3 is realized by reading and executing a control program stored in the control unit 200 and the control unit 310. Note that, although this embodiment will be described using an example in which the control unit 200 of the imprint apparatus 100 and the control unit 310 of the foreign matter inspection apparatus 300 are provided separately, these control units may be shared.

[0034] In S1, the control unit 200 controls the mold transport unit 33 of the imprint apparatus 100 to load the mold 11 and hold it in the chuck 12. Note that it is sufficient that the mold 11 is loaded before the imprint process is performed.

[0035] In S2, the control unit 310 controls the substrate transport unit 350 to transport the substrate 1, which will undergo imprint processing in the imprint apparatus 100, into the foreign matter inspection apparatus 300. Then, in S3, the control unit 310 performs a foreign matter inspection process in which the inspection unit 320 inspects the substrate 1, and if a foreign matter is present, outputs information on the position and size of the foreign matter and stores it in a storage means or the like. In S4, the control unit 310 controls the substrate transport unit 350 to transport the substrate 1 out of the foreign matter inspection apparatus 300, and the control unit 200 controls the substrate transport unit 22 to transport the substrate 1 into the imprint apparatus 100 and hold it in the chuck 2.

[0036] In S5, the control unit 200 receives the result of the foreign matter inspection process of the substrate 1 from the output unit 330 of the foreign matter inspection device 300. Then, in order to prevent the mold 11 from being destroyed by performing imprint processing on a field in which a foreign matter exists, a skip field in which no imprint processing is performed is set for the field in which the foreign matter exists. Specifically, the skip field is identified based on the position of the foreign matter acquired by the foreign matter inspection by the inspection unit 320 and the field position on the substrate 1.

[0037] In S6, the control unit 200 repeatedly performs the imprint process (molding process) on multiple fields other than the field specified as the skip field. During the imprint process, the detection unit 25 in the imprint apparatus 100 detects foreign matter during the imprint process when the composition on the substrate is in contact with the mold 11, and outputs position information of the foreign matter. Specifically, position information of the foreign matter on the substrate 1 can be obtained from an image from the spread camera 25, and the details of the output process based on the foreign matter information performed here will be described later.

[0038] In S7, after the control unit 200 has performed the imprint process on all fields where the imprint process can be performed, it controls the substrate transport unit 22 to unload the substrate from the imprint apparatus 100. Then, in S8, if there is no next substrate to be processed, the control unit 200 controls the mold transport unit 33 to unload the mold from the imprint apparatus 100, thereby completing the process.

[0039] Although not shown, if a large number of foreign objects are found in the foreign object detection in S6, the imprint process may be stopped immediately. Alternatively, if the foreign object size allowable on the mold or substrate, or the number of fields allowable for foreign objects, is specified, the timing of the stop process may be determined according to the purpose, such as continuing the imprint process until the specified number is reached. Furthermore, when multiple substrates are processed consecutively, the next substrate 1 may be loaded into the foreign object inspection apparatus 300 at the same time that the substrate 1 inspected by the foreign object inspection apparatus 300 is loaded into the imprint apparatus 100.

[0040] Next, an example of a method for foreign matter inspection performed by the imprint apparatus 100 in S6 will be specifically described. Fig. 4 shows images of a field during imprint processing captured by the spread camera 25, Fig. 4(a) is an image of a field without foreign matter acquired before the foreign matter inspection processing, and Fig. 4(b) is an image of a field containing a foreign matter 50 acquired during the foreign matter inspection processing. In the foreign matter inspection processing, the presence or absence of a foreign matter can be determined by comparing a reference image with an image acquired at the same timing in the imprint processing.

[0041] 4(b), if a foreign object 50 exists between the mold 11 and the substrate 1 during the imprint process, a region 51 will be generated that is concentric with the foreign object and in which the mold 11 cannot contact the substrate 1. Since such a region 51 can be identified in the image from the spread camera 25, the presence or absence of a foreign object and the position of the foreign object can be determined by comparing the reference image with the processed image.

[0042] On the other hand, the inspection unit 320 used in the foreign matter inspection of the foreign matter inspection device 300 performed in S3 can be composed of, for example, an irradiation unit and a light receiving unit, and can be configured so that the state of the substrate surface can be evaluated by configuring the light irradiated by the irradiation unit to be received by the light receiving unit, and the position, size, etc. of the foreign matter on the substrate can be detected. In addition, a method of grasping the substrate shape using a non-contact sensor, acquiring an image of the substrate and comparing it with a reference image without a foreign matter to determine the presence or absence of the foreign matter can be considered. Note that, although the method of foreign matter inspection has been described with examples, it is not limited to the above method as long as it is possible to identify the presence or absence of the foreign matter and the position of the foreign matter.

[0043] Next, a flow of feeding back foreign matter information detected by the imprint apparatus 100 to the foreign matter inspection apparatus 300 will be described with reference to the data flow diagram of Fig. 5. Fig. 5 is a diagram showing the generation process of foreign matter information in the foreign matter inspection apparatus 300 and the imprint apparatus 100 and its flow.

[0044] An inspection unit 320 of the foreign matter inspection apparatus 300 performs a substrate inspection 501 on the substrate before it is carried into the imprint apparatus 100. Foreign matter position information 502 is output by an output unit 330 to an information management unit 503 of the imprint apparatus 100 and added as management information.

[0045] The information management unit 503 stores various information related to position, such as the size of the mold required for imprint processing and the imprint position on the substrate, as well as the processing order of the fields in which the imprint processing is performed, the implementation status of the imprint processing, etc. By combining the position information related to the imprint processing with the position information of the substrate, it is possible to specify fields in which the imprint processing is not performed (S5), and generates and outputs skip field information 504 that specifies fields in which the imprint processing is not performed because there is a possibility that the mold 1 will be damaged.

[0046] Using the skip field information 504, imprint processing 505 is performed on fields other than the skip field (S6). During the imprint processing, foreign object detection processing is performed using the detection unit 25 of the imprint apparatus 100, and if a foreign object is detected, foreign object position information 507 is output from the output unit 210 to the memory.

[0047] Then, based on the output foreign object position information 507 and the processing order of the molding processes and the implementation status of the imprint managed by the information management unit 503 of the imprint apparatus 100, foreign object identification 508 is performed and substrate foreign object information 509 to be output to the foreign object inspection apparatus 300 is identified. That is, the control unit 200 functions as a foreign object identifying unit to identify the substrate foreign object information 509. Although details of foreign object identification 508 will be described later, substrate foreign object information 509 narrowed down to substrate foreign object positions that were present on the substrate before the start of the imprint process on the substrate is identified as the substrate foreign object information 509 to be output to the foreign object inspection apparatus 300.

[0048] If a foreign substance is detected by the foreign substance inspection apparatus 300, it is set as a skip field, but the fact that it is detected by the detection unit 25 of the imprint apparatus 100 means that the foreign substance has been overlooked by the foreign substance inspection apparatus 300. In other words, only information about foreign substances overlooked by the foreign substance inspection apparatus 300 is specified as substrate foreign substance information 509 to be output to the foreign substance inspection apparatus 300. The foreign substance inspection apparatus 300 then performs control feedback of inspection conditions, etc., based on the detection result data of the substrate foreign substance information 509 received from the imprint apparatus 100, so that foreign substances overlooked during a prior substrate inspection can be detected.

[0049] The feedback method differs depending on the type of system of the inspection unit 320 of the foreign matter inspection apparatus 300, but if the inspection unit 320 is a system that detects foreign matter on a substrate using a non-contact sensor, a threshold parameter for determining the presence or absence of foreign matter is changed. Also, if the inspection unit 320 is a system that uses image processing, the parameters of the image processing filter being used are changed. In other words, based on the foreign matter information acquired by the foreign matter inspection apparatus 300 and the foreign matter information acquired by the imprint apparatus 100, feedback to the inspection control parameters (inspection conditions) of the inspection unit 320 of the foreign matter inspection apparatus 300 is possible.

[0050] Next, foreign substance identification 508 in Fig. 5 will be described in detail with reference to Fig. 6 to Fig. 9. Foreign substance identification 508 is a process performed to identify only information about foreign substances overlooked by the foreign substance inspection apparatus 300. In other words, only information about foreign substances overlooked by foreign substance determination 508 is extracted and output to the foreign substance inspection apparatus 300 as substrate foreign substance information 509. Note that, although an example of such foreign substance identification processing will be described in which it is performed within the imprint apparatus 100, it may also be performed on the foreign substance inspection apparatus 300 side.

[0051] 6(a) to (d) and 7(a) to (d) sequentially show how a foreign substance 50 on a substrate 1 moves to and adheres to a mold 11 during imprint processing of four fields performed on the substrate 1 using the mold 11. In this case, in the imprint apparatus 100, no foreign substance is detected in the first field 61 and the second field 62. Then, in the third field 63 and the fourth field 64, the detection unit 25 of the imprint apparatus 100 detects that a foreign substance exists on the field during imprint processing. However, since the foreign substance in the fourth field 64 is caused by the foreign substance in the third field 63, the position of the foreign substance to be fed back to the foreign substance inspection apparatus 300 needs to be information only for the third field 63, with the information for the fourth field 64 deleted. In other words, for foreign substances that occur consecutively at the same position in a field, it is necessary to specify only the position of the first foreign substance as the position where the foreign substance existed before the imprint processing in the imprint apparatus was started, and output it as the substrate position information 509.

[0052] In addition, since multiple substrates 1 in the same lot are generally imprinted using a common mold 11, the same thing may happen when the substrate 1 is switched, in addition to this example. That is, it is possible that a foreign object exists in the final field where the imprint process is performed last on the first substrate, and the foreign object 50 moves to the mold 11 due to the imprint process at that position. If the imprint process is performed on the second substrate without replacing the mold 11, the detection unit 25 of the imprint apparatus 100 will detect that a foreign object exists on the field during the imprint process, due to the same foreign object 50 being present on the second substrate. That is, for foreign objects that occur consecutively at the same position in the field even on different substrates, it is necessary to identify only the position of the first foreign object and output it as substrate position information 509.

[0053] The flow of the foreign matter identification process 508, which identifies whether the foreign matter detected by the detection unit 25 of the imprint apparatus 100 is substrate foreign matter information 509 to be output to the foreign matter inspection apparatus 300 for feedback, will be described with reference to the flowchart of Fig. 8. The process shown in the flowchart of Fig. 8 is realized by the control unit 200 reading out and executing a stored control program. The following process is performed when a foreign matter is detected by the detection unit 25.

[0054] In S11, when a foreign object is detected by the detection unit 25, the control unit 200 judges whether the field is the first field to be imprinted on the substrate 1. If it is judged in S11 that the field is not the first field but the second or subsequent field to be imprinted, there is no possibility that the foreign object is a foreign object carried over from the previous substrate, so the process proceeds to S12, and if the field is the first field, the process proceeds to S13.

[0055] In S13, the control unit 200 judges whether the previous substrate has been subjected to imprint processing with the same mold 11. If it is judged in S13 that the imprint processing has not been performed with the same substrate 1, it can be said that a foreign object was present in the field where the processing was performed. Therefore, in S16, the substrate is identified as the field where a foreign object was present.

[0056] If it is determined in S13 that imprint processing has been performed on the same substrate 1, the process proceeds to S14, where it is determined whether or not a foreign object was present at the same position in the field where imprint processing was last performed on the previous substrate. If a foreign object was present at the same position in the field where imprint processing was last performed on the previous substrate in S14 (if a foreign object was detected by detection unit 25), it is highly likely that the foreign object has been carried over, and therefore it is determined in S16 that the foreign object is not a substrate foreign object. In other words, it is determined that the foreign object detection occurred as a result of a foreign object that was present on the substrate before the imprint processing on the field moving to the mold, and it is determined that this is not foreign object information that should be output as substrate foreign object information 509.

[0057] On the other hand, if no foreign object is present at the same position in the field where the last imprint process was performed on the previous substrate in S14, it can be said that a foreign object was present in the field where the process was performed, and therefore, in S16, the field is identified as the field in which the substrate foreign object was present.

[0058] Furthermore, in S12, the control unit 200 judges whether a foreign object exists at the same position in the previous field. If it is judged in S12 that a foreign object exists at the same position, it is highly likely that the foreign object has been carried over, and therefore it is determined in S15 that the foreign object is not a substrate foreign object. In other words, it is judged that the foreign object detection occurred as a result of a foreign object that existed on the substrate before the imprint processing of the field moving to the mold, and it is determined that the foreign object information is not to be output as substrate foreign object information 509.

[0059] On the other hand, if no foreign object was found at the same position in the previous field in S12, it can be said that a foreign object was present in the field in which processing was performed, and therefore, in S16, the field is identified as one in which a substrate foreign object was present.

[0060] Through the above-described processing, information on particles detected by the detection unit 25 of the imprint apparatus 100 that are identified as substrate foreign particles is output to the foreign particle inspection apparatus 300 as substrate foreign particle information 509.

[0061] 8, it is assumed that no foreign matter is present on the replaced mold 11 from the beginning. This is because, before the mold is used in the imprint apparatus 100, a cleaning process is performed to remove foreign matter, and furthermore, an imprint process to check the surface condition of the mold is typically performed using a different substrate for several fields, so that it can be said that no foreign matter is present. In this way, by making the possibility of foreign matter adhering to the mold in the first field after replacement as low as possible, a more accurate judgment can be made.

[0062] Fig. 9 is a diagram specifically showing how a decision is made based on the flowchart of Fig. 8. As shown in Fig. 9(a), the processing order for a substrate starts from the top left field of the substrate and proceeds to the right. When the rightmost field is reached, processing proceeds from right to left in the row below. Then, when the leftmost field is reached, processing proceeds from left to right in the row below. In this processing order, the rightmost field in the bottom row is the final field. For the next substrate, processing is again carried out in the same order, starting from the top left field.

[0063] Fig. 9(b) shows the state in which three substrates (Nth, N+1th, and N+2th) are imprinted in the processing order shown in Fig. 9(a). In addition, two types of molds (A and B) are used in the imprint processing of the three substrates, with mold A being used for the Nth substrate, mold B being used for the (N+1)th substrate, and mold B continuing to be used for the (N+2)th substrate.

[0064] 9B, foreign objects detected by the imprint apparatus 100 are indicated by crosses. For ease of explanation, it is assumed that foreign objects are detected only in two locations, the top and bottom of the field. Since an actual foreign object may occur anywhere within the field, a foreign object position determination distance using the center position of the foreign object may be set in order to determine whether the foreign objects are the same object, and these distances may be used to determine whether the foreign objects are the same object.

[0065] In Fig. 9(b), there are 12 fields in which it has been determined that there are foreign objects in the foreign object detection during the imprint process on the Nth substrate, 6 fields on the (N+1)th substrate, and 6 fields on the (N+2)th substrate. When information to be output to the foreign object inspection apparatus 300 as substrate foreign object information 509 is identified from these foreign object positions in the foreign object identification process 508 shown in the flowchart of Fig. 8, the result is as shown in Fig. 9(c). That is, the number of foreign objects identified as substrate foreign objects is 4 on the Nth substrate, 4 on the (N+1)th substrate, and 1 on the (N+2)th substrate.

[0066] In this way, a process is performed to delete foreign matter information caused by foreign matter that has moved from the substrate to the mold from the foreign matter information detected by the imprint apparatus 100 during the imprint process, and the result (substrate position information) is transmitted to the foreign matter inspection apparatus 300. Using such a result, feedback is provided to the inspection conditions when the foreign matter inspection apparatus 300 performs substrate inspection 501, making it possible to improve the foreign matter detection accuracy of the foreign matter inspection apparatus 300.

[0067] <Second embodiment> A second embodiment of the present invention will be described. This embodiment basically follows the first embodiment, and can follow the first embodiment except for the matters mentioned below. Figure 10 shows a data flow of the molding system in this embodiment. In the second embodiment, information on the type of the substrate is also taken into account.

[0068] In the manufacture of articles, the treatment applied to the substrate before the imprint process may differ depending on the purpose. For example, the material used for the treatment may be different, or the thickness may be different. In such a case, the inspection control parameters for the foreign matter must also be optimized according to the treatment applied to the substrate. For example, when measuring foreign matters on the substrate using a non-contact sensor, if the wavelength and output of the sensor used are not optimized according to the material and thickness, noise may be generated during foreign matter detection, resulting in false detection, or the foreign matter may not be detected.

[0069] Therefore, the information management unit 503 of this embodiment generates and outputs skip field information 504, and also outputs information to be applied to the board and similar molding information 1001 that enables the board type to be determined.

[0070] Then, the molding information 1001 is transmitted to the foreign matter inspection system together with the substrate foreign matter information 509 identified in the same manner as in the first embodiment, and the control information 1002 to 1004 for the substrate inspection is stored for each substrate type information, i.e., each molding information. In this manner, by updating the inspection conditions (control parameters) each time a substrate is processed, it becomes possible to perform substrate inspection 501 by switching the inspection conditions for each substrate. In other words, feedback is provided to the inspection conditions when substrate inspection 501 is performed, and the foreign matter detection accuracy of the foreign matter inspection device 300 can be improved.

[0071] <Third embodiment> A third embodiment of the present invention will be described. This embodiment basically follows the first embodiment, and can follow the first embodiment except for the matters mentioned below. Fig. 11 shows a data flow of the molding system in this embodiment. In the third embodiment, machine learning is used to update the inspection control parameters of the foreign matter inspection device 300.

[0072] In this embodiment, by combining foreign matter position information 502 inspected by the foreign matter inspection device 300 with substrate foreign matter information 509 identified from the foreign matter position detected during the imprint process, machine learning is performed using the answers to the foreign matter inspection results performed by the foreign matter inspection device 300.

[0073] First, the data storage unit 101 collects and stores foreign object position information 502 inspected by the foreign object inspection device 300 and substrate foreign object information 509 identified from the foreign object position detected during the imprint process. Then, using these data stored in the data storage unit 101, supervised learning 1102 is performed assuming that a foreign object could not be detected. Then, a trained model 1103 of the foreign object inspection device 300 is constructed, and the inspection control parameters used for the substrate inspection 501 are updated based on this. In other words, the detection conditions are updated so that the foreign object position information 502 that could not be detected by the foreign object inspection device 300 can be detected.

[0074] This is because, in a factory that processes a large number of substrates per day, it is expected that the amount of data will become enormous if the foreign matter information of each substrate is fed back each time to the inspection conditions of the foreign matter inspection device 300. Therefore, instead of feeding back all of that huge amount of data each time, by using a method that uses machine learning to output only the optimal conditions for optimal control, it is possible to increase the amount of processed data even when there are many types of foreign matter mixed in and the feedback is not simple, and it is possible to improve the foreign matter detection performance of the foreign matter inspection device 300.

[0075] Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and various modifications and changes are possible within the scope of the gist of the present invention.

[0076] In the above embodiment, the molding system has been described using an example in which the foreign matter inspection apparatus 300 and the imprint apparatus 100 exist in the same system, but they do not necessarily need to exist in the same system as long as they are able to share information about each other's foreign matter inspections.

[0077] <Embodiments of the method for manufacturing an article> The method for manufacturing an article according to an embodiment of the present invention is suitable for manufacturing an article such as a microdevice such as a semiconductor device or an element having a fine structure. The method for manufacturing an article according to this embodiment includes a molding step of molding a composition on a substrate using the above-mentioned molding apparatus (imprinting apparatus, flattening apparatus), a processing step of processing the substrate on which the composition has been molded in the molding step, and a manufacturing step of manufacturing an article from the substrate processed in the processing step. Furthermore, this manufacturing method includes other well-known steps (oxidation, film formation, deposition, doping, flattening, etching, resist stripping, dicing, bonding, packaging, etc.). The method for manufacturing an article according to this embodiment is advantageous in at least one of the performance, quality, productivity, and production cost of the article compared to conventional methods.

[0078] The pattern of the cured product molded using the above molding device is used permanently as at least a part of various articles, or temporarily when manufacturing various articles. The articles are electric circuit elements, optical elements, MEMS, recording elements, sensors, or molds. Examples of the electric circuit elements include volatile or non-volatile semiconductor memories such as DRAM, SRAM, flash memory, and MRAM, and semiconductor elements such as LSI, CCD, image sensors, and FPGA. Examples of the molds include molds for imprinting.

[0079] The pattern of the cured product is used as it is as at least a part of a component of the article, or is used temporarily as a resist mask, which is removed after etching or ion implantation in a substrate processing step.

[0080] Next, a specific method for manufacturing an article using an imprinting apparatus as a molding apparatus will be described. As shown in Fig. 12(a), a substrate 1z such as a silicon wafer having a workpiece 2z such as an insulator formed on its surface is prepared, and then an imprinting material 3z is applied to the surface of the workpiece 2z by an inkjet method or the like. Here, a state in which multiple droplets of the imprinting material 3z are applied onto the substrate is shown.

[0081] As shown in Fig. 12(b), the mold 4z for imprinting is placed with the side on which the concave-convex pattern is formed facing the imprint material 3z on the substrate. As shown in Fig. 12(c), the substrate 1z to which the imprint material 3z has been applied is brought into contact with the mold 4z, and pressure is applied. The imprint material 3z fills the gap between the mold 4z and the workpiece 2z. When light is irradiated through the mold 4z in this state as energy for curing, the imprint material 3z is cured.

[0082] 12(d), after the imprint material 3z is cured, the mold 4z and the substrate 1z are separated, and a pattern of the cured product of the imprint material 3z is formed on the substrate 1z. In this cured product pattern, the recesses of the mold correspond to the protrusions of the cured product, and the protrusions of the mold correspond to the recesses of the cured product, i.e., the recessed and protruding pattern of the mold 4z is transferred to the imprint material 3z.

[0083] As shown in Fig. 12(e), when etching is performed using the pattern of the cured material as an etching-resistant mask, the portion of the surface of the workpiece 2z where there is no cured material or where only a thin layer remains is removed, forming a groove 5z. As shown in Fig. 12(f), when the pattern of the cured material is removed, an article having grooves 5z formed on the surface of the workpiece 2z can be obtained. Here, the pattern of the cured material is removed, but it may be used as an interlayer insulating film included in a semiconductor element or the like, that is, a component of an article, without being removed after processing.

[0084] <Embodiments of Planarization Treatment> In the above embodiment, the mold is described as a mold for transferring a circuit pattern on which a concave-convex pattern is formed, but the mold may be a mold (flat template) having a flat surface on which no concave-convex pattern is formed as a contact surface. The flat template is used in a flattening device (molding device) that performs a flattening process (molding process) to mold a composition on a substrate so as to be flattened by the flat surface. The flattening process includes a step of curing the curable composition by irradiating light or by heating in a state in which the flat surface (contact surface) of the flat template is brought into contact with the curable composition supplied onto the substrate. In this way, the present embodiment can be applied to a molding device that molds a composition on a substrate using a flat template.

[0085] The base pattern on the substrate has an unevenness profile caused by the pattern formed in the previous process, and in particular, with the recent trend toward multi-layered structures of memory elements, the substrate (process wafer) may have a step of about 100 nm. The step caused by the gentle waviness of the entire substrate can be corrected by the focus tracking function of the exposure device (scanner) used in the photolithography process. However, the fine pitch unevenness that fits within the exposure slit area of ​​the exposure device consumes the depth of focus (DOF) of the exposure device as it is. As a conventional technology for flattening the base pattern of the substrate, a technology for forming a flattening layer such as SOC (Spin On Carbon) or CMP (Chemical Mechanical Polishing) is used. However, in the conventional technology, as shown in FIG. 13(a), only a 40% to 70% unevenness suppression rate is obtained at the boundary between the isolated pattern region A and the repeated dense (dense line & space pattern) pattern region B, and sufficient flattening performance cannot be obtained. Moreover, in the future, the unevenness of the underlying pattern will tend to further increase due to the increasing number of layers.

[0086] As a solution to this problem, U.S. Patent No. 9,415,418 proposes a technology to form a continuous film by applying the resist that will become the planarization layer with an inkjet dispenser and imprinting it with a flat template. Also, U.S. Patent No. 8,394,282 proposes a technology to reflect the topography measurement results on the substrate side in the shading information for each position instructed to be applied by an inkjet dispenser. The imprint apparatus IMP can be used particularly as a flat processing (planarization) apparatus that presses a flat template as a mold against previously applied uncured resist to locally planarize the substrate surface.

[0087] Figure 13(a) shows the substrate before flattening. In isolated pattern region A, the area of ​​the pattern convex parts is small. In repeated dense pattern region B, the area occupied by the pattern convex parts and the area occupied by the pattern concave parts are 1:1. The average height of isolated pattern region A and repeated dense pattern region B differs depending on the proportion of the pattern convex parts.

[0088] Fig. 13(b) shows a state in which a resist that forms a planarization layer is applied to a substrate. Fig. 13(b) shows a state in which the resist is applied by an inkjet dispenser based on the technology proposed in U.S. Patent No. 9,415,418, but a spin coater may also be used to apply the resist. In other words, the imprint apparatus IMP is applicable as long as it includes a step of pressing a planar template against uncured resist that has been applied in advance to planarize it.

[0089] As shown in Fig. 13(c), the flat template is made of glass or quartz that transmits ultraviolet light, and the resist is hardened by irradiation with ultraviolet light from a light source. The flat template follows the profile of the substrate surface for gentle unevenness across the entire substrate. After the resist is hardened, the flat template is separated from the resist as shown in Fig. 13(d).

[0090] <Summary of the embodiment> The disclosure herein includes the following control methods, molding apparatus, and methods for manufacturing articles.

[0091] (Item 1) A molding system comprising: a foreign matter inspection device that inspects a substrate for foreign matters on which a molding process is to be performed; and a molding device that performs a molding process in which a mold is brought into contact with the substrate that has been inspected for foreign matters by the foreign matter inspection device to mold a composition on the substrate, The molding device includes: a detection unit for detecting a location of a foreign object on the substrate during a molding process; a control unit that identifies a substrate foreign object position where a foreign object was present on the substrate before the molding process was started in the molding device, among the foreign object positions detected by the detection unit; A molding system, characterized in that inspection conditions used when inspecting for foreign objects by the foreign object inspection device are updated based on the substrate foreign object position identified by the identifying unit.

[0092] (Item 2) The molding system described in item 1, characterized in that the control unit identifies the substrate foreign object position where the foreign object was initially present on the substrate among the foreign object positions detected by the detection unit, using the position of the field in which the molding process is being performed and the type of mold being used.

[0093] (Item 3) 3. The molding system according to item 2, wherein the control unit, when identifying the position of the foreign object on the substrate, further identifies the position by using the state of the field before the molding process is performed.

[0094] (Item 4) 4. The molding system according to any one of items 1 to 3, wherein the control unit controls so that a molding process is not performed on a field in which a foreign object is found by the foreign object inspection device.

[0095] (Item 5) 5. The molding system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the detection unit inspects for foreign matter while the composition on the substrate and the mold are in contact with each other.

[0096] (Item 6) The molding system according to any one of items 1 to 5, characterized in that the detection unit detects the position of a foreign object on the substrate by comparing a reference image in which no foreign object is present with an acquired image acquired during the molding process.

[0097] (Item 7) 7. The molding system according to any one of items 1 to 6, wherein the molding system is an imprinting apparatus that performs an imprinting process by contacting a mold having a concave-convex pattern with a composition on a substrate.

[0098] (Item 8) 7. The molding system according to any one of items 1 to 6, wherein the molding system is a planarization device that performs a planarization process by contacting a mold having a flat surface with a composition on a substrate.

[0099] (Item 9) A molding method for molding a composition on a substrate by contacting a mold, comprising the steps of: an inspection step of inspecting the substrate for foreign objects; a molding step of performing a molding process in which a mold is brought into contact with the substrate inspected in the inspection step to mold the composition on the substrate; a detection step of detecting a foreign object position on the substrate during the molding step; a step of identifying a substrate foreign object position where a foreign object was present on the substrate before the start of the forming step, among the foreign object positions detected in the detection step; an updating step of updating the inspection conditions used when inspecting for foreign substances in the inspection step, based on the substrate foreign substance position identified in the identifying step; A molding method comprising the steps of:

[0100] (Item 10) A molding step of molding a composition on a substrate using the molding apparatus according to any one of items 1 to 8; A processing step of processing the substrate on which the composition has been molded in the molding step, A method for manufacturing an article, comprising manufacturing an article from the substrate processed in the processing step.

Claims

1. A molding system comprising: a foreign matter inspection device that inspects a substrate for foreign matters on which a molding process is to be performed; and a molding device that performs a molding process in which a mold is brought into contact with the substrate that has been inspected for foreign matters by the foreign matter inspection device to mold a composition on the substrate, The molding device includes: a detection unit for detecting a location of a foreign object on the substrate during a molding process; a control unit that identifies a substrate foreign object position where a foreign object was present on the substrate before the molding process was started in the molding device, among the foreign object positions detected by the detection unit; A molding system, characterized in that inspection conditions used when inspecting for foreign objects by the foreign object inspection device are updated based on the position of the foreign object on the substrate identified by the control unit.

2. The molding system according to claim 1, characterized in that the control unit identifies the substrate foreign object position where the foreign object was first present on the substrate, among the foreign object positions detected by the detection unit, using the position of the field in which the molding process is being performed and the type of mold being used.

3. 3. The molding system according to claim 2, wherein the control unit, when identifying the position of the foreign object on the substrate, further identifies the position by using a state of the field before the molding process is performed.

4. 2. The molding system according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls so that a molding process is not performed on a field in which a foreign substance is found by the foreign substance inspection device.

5. The molding system according to claim 1 , wherein the detection unit inspects for foreign matter while the composition on the substrate and the mold are in contact with each other.

6. The molding system according to claim 1, characterized in that the detection unit detects the position of a foreign object on the substrate by comparing a reference image in which no foreign object is present with an acquired image acquired during the molding process.

7. The molding system according to claim 1 , wherein the molding system is an imprinting apparatus that performs an imprinting process by bringing a mold having a concave-convex pattern into contact with a composition on a substrate.

8. The molding system according to claim 1 , wherein the molding system is a planarization device that performs a planarization process by contacting a mold having a flat surface with the composition on the substrate.

9. A molding method for molding a composition on a substrate by contacting a mold, comprising the steps of: an inspection step of inspecting the substrate for foreign objects; a molding step of performing a molding process in which a mold is brought into contact with the substrate inspected in the inspection step to mold the composition on the substrate; a detection step of detecting a foreign object position on the substrate during the molding step; a step of identifying a substrate foreign object position where a foreign object was present on the substrate before the start of the molding step, among the foreign object positions detected in the detection step; an updating step of updating inspection conditions used when inspecting for foreign substances in the inspection step, based on the substrate foreign substance position identified in the identifying step; A molding method comprising the steps of:

10. A molding step of molding a composition on a substrate using the molding apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8; A processing step of processing the substrate on which the composition has been molded in the molding step, A method for manufacturing an article, comprising manufacturing an article from the substrate processed in the processing step.

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