Imprint Apparatus Mold-Substrate Parallelism Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional imprint techniques fail to maintain parallelism between the mold and substrate during the imprint process due to deformation caused by the pressing force, leading to potential deviations in pattern formation.
Innovation Solution
An imprint apparatus equipped with a tilt unit, detection unit, and control unit that utilizes interference patterns to detect and correct relative tilts between the mold and substrate, ensuring they remain parallel by adjusting the substrate and mold stages during the imprint process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the mold and substrate are brought into contact using only three-dimensional flatness control, then the initial orientation is improved, but deformation under pressing force causes parallelism deviation
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary measurement of the substrate's three-dimensional flatness before the imprint process, and pre-adjusts the substrate stage orientation to compensate for expected deformation under pressing force. This preliminary compensation action ensures that even when deformation occurs during contact, the mold and substrate maintain proper parallelism throughout the imprinting process.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors the relative orientation between mold and substrate during the imprint process using interferometric measurement. The detected orientation information is fed back to the substrate stage in real-time, enabling dynamic adjustment to maintain parallelism despite deformation under pressing force. This closed-loop feedback control ensures manufacturing precision throughout the process.
2Ease of manufacture
If pressing force is applied to bring mold and imprint material into contact, then filling of concave portions is improved, but deformation of mold and substrate causes tilting
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies a counteracting force through active orientation adjustment to compensate for the deformation caused by pressing force. The substrate stage dynamically adjusts the substrate orientation to counterbalance the tilting effect produced when pressing force deforms the mold and substrate, thereby maintaining parallelism while still achieving complete pattern filling in concave portions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from static flatness control to dynamic orientation adjustment during the imprint process. The substrate stage continuously adapts its orientation in response to real-time measurements of mold-substrate relative orientation, enabling the system to maintain parallelism throughout the deformation process caused by pressing force while ensuring complete pattern transfer.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The apparatus effectively reduces relative tilts between the mold and substrate, ensuring accurate pattern transfer and maintaining constant residual layer thickness, thereby improving the quality of the imprinted pattern.
Implementation Method 1
a detection unit configured to detect an interference pattern between light reflected by the mold and light reflected by the substrate
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention provides an imprint apparatus which forms a pattern in an imprint material on a substrate by using a mold, the apparatus including a tilt unit configured to tilt the mold and the substrate relatively, a detection unit configured to detect an interference pattern between light reflected by the mold and light reflected by the substrate, and a control unit configured to control, based on the interference pattern detected by the detection unit in a state in which the mold and the imprint material on the substrate are in contact with each other, the tilt unit to reduce relative tilts between the mold and the substrate in the state.