Patents Assigned to ASML Netherland B.V.
  • Publication number: 20250218720
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for grounding a wafer in a charged particle beam apparatus. The systems and methods include providing an exclusion area in a backside film on the wafer of sufficient size to allow an electrical connection between the wafer and an electrical contact of the charged particle beam apparatus. The systems and methods include contacting a pin body to a surface of the wafer, the wafer having a coating on the surface, and the pin body comprising a first tip and a second tip each extending from the pin body; wherein the contacting takes place at a first exclusion area of the coating by any one of the first tip, the second tip, or any combination thereof.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 16, 2023
    Publication date: July 3, 2025
    Applicant: ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Yinglong LI, Niels Johannes, Maria BOSCH, Jef GOOSSENS, Aimin WU, Humad ASGHAR, Tianming CHEN, Peter Paul HEMPENIUS, Xiang KE, Joan SANS MERCADER, Zhi ZHANG, Jan-Gerard Cornelis VAN DER TOORN
  • Patent number: 12347643
    Abstract: Systems and methods of reducing the Coulomb interaction effects in a charged particle beam apparatus are disclosed. The charged particle beam apparatus may comprise a charged particle source and a source conversion unit comprising an aperture-lens forming electrode plate configured to be at a first voltage, an aperture lens plate configured to be at a second voltage that is different from the first voltage for generating a first electric field, which enables the aperture-lens forming electrode plate and the aperture lens plate to form aperture lenses of an aperture lens array to respectively focus a plurality of beamlets of the charged particle beam, and an imaging lens configured to focus the plurality of beamlets on an image plane. The charged particle beam apparatus may comprise an objective lens configured to focus the plurality of beamlets onto a surface of the sample and form a plurality of probe spots thereon.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2025
    Assignee: ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Weiming Ren, Xuedong Liu, Xuerang Hu, Zhong-wei Chen
  • Patent number: 12346031
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method for focus measurement of a lithographic process. The method comprises receiving a substrate on which a metrology pattern has been printed with a lithographic apparatus with an illumination pupil, illuminating the metrology pattern with a metrology tool to measure a signal based on radiation scattered by the metrology pattern, and determining or monitoring a focus of the lithographic process based on the measured signal. Position of at least part of the metrology pattern is focus dependent. At least part of the metrology pattern has been printed by the lithography apparatus with an angular asymmetric illumination pupil.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2025
    Assignee: ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Fei Liu, Jin Lian, Zhuangxiong Huang, Laurentius Cornelius De Winter, Frank Staals
  • Publication number: 20250208522
    Abstract: Disclosed is an illumination module for a metrology device. The illumination module comprises a configurable illumination module operable to provide measurement illumination over a configurable range of illumination angles, a grating light valve module for controllably configuring a spectral configuration of the measurement illumination; and a controller operable to control the configurable illumination module and the grating light valve module such that the spectral configuration of the measurement illumination is varied in dependence with illumination angle within the range of illumination angles so as to obtain a desired detection condition for detection of diffracted radiation from a diffractive structure resultant from a measurement of the diffractive structure using the measurement illumination.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 19, 2024
    Publication date: June 26, 2025
    Applicant: ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Patrick WARNAAR, Changsik YOON, Zili ZHOU
  • Publication number: 20250208520
    Abstract: A method for determining a vertical position of a structure on a substrate with respect to a nominal vertical position is disclosed. The method comprises obtaining complex field data relating to scattered radiation from said structure, for a plurality of different wavelengths, determining variation in a phase parameter with wavelength from said complex field data; and determining said vertical position with respect to a nominal vertical position from the determined variation in phase with wavelength.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 22, 2023
    Publication date: June 26, 2025
    Applicant: ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Arie Jeffrey DEN BOEF, Theodorus Thomas Marinus VAN SCHAIJK, Robin Daniel BUIJS, Johannes Fitzgerald DE BOER, Christos MESSINIS
  • Patent number: 12339588
    Abstract: A micromirror array comprises a substrate, a plurality of mirrors for reflecting incident light and, for each mirror of the plurality of mirrors, at least one multilayer piezoelectric actuator for displacing the mirror, wherein the at least one multilayer piezoelectric actuator is connected to the substrate, and wherein the at least one multilayer piezoelectric actuator comprises a plurality of piezoelectric layers of piezoelectric material interleaved with a plurality of electrode layers to form a stack of layers. Also disclosed is a method of forming such a micromirror array. The micromirror array may be used in a programmable illuminator. The programmable illuminator may be used in a lithographic apparatus and/or in an inspection and/or metrology apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2025
    Assignee: ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Luc Roger Simonne Haspeslagh, Nitesh Pandey, Ties Wouter Van Der Woord, Halil Gökay Yeǧen, Guilherme Brondani Torri, Sebastianus Adrianus Goorden, Alexander Ludwig Klein, Jim Vincent Overkamp, Edgar Alberto Osorio Oliveros
  • Patent number: 12339214
    Abstract: An apparatus for monitoring a stream of droplets of target material for generating a radiation beam in a radiation source, wherein the apparatus comprises: a target material emitter for creating the stream of droplets of target material, wherein the target material emitter comprises a chamber configured for the target material to pass through before forming the stream of droplets; a first transducer configured to generate acoustic pressures in the chamber, and a second transducer configured to sense the acoustic pressures in the chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2025
    Assignee: ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventor: Joshua Mark Lukens
  • Patent number: 12339592
    Abstract: The invention provides a method for thermo-mechanical control of a heat sensitive element (MI) subject to a heat load, comprising: —providing a non-linear thermo-mechanical model of the heat sensitive element describing a dynamical relationship between characteristics of the heat load and deformation of the heat sensitive element; —calculating a control signal on the basis of an optimization calculation of the non-linear model, —providing an actuation signal to a heater (HE), wherein the actuation signal is at least partially based on the control signal, —heating the heat sensitive element by the heater on the basis of the actuation signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2025
    Assignee: ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Victor Sebastiaan Dolk, Koos Van Berkel, Mauritius Gerardus Elisabeth Schneiders
  • Patent number: 12339594
    Abstract: A lithographic apparatus is disclosed. The lithographic apparatus comprises a substrate table configured to support a substrate; actuators configurable to move the substrate table in a plane substantially parallel to the surface of the substrate; a projection system configured to pattern the substrate with fields aligned in a scanning exposure direction; a level sensor configured to sense a height of the substrate using a plurality of measurement spots; and a controller configured to control the actuators to generate strokes of relative movement between the substrate and the level sensor for mapping the height of the substrate, said strokes being at an angle of less than 20 degrees relative to the scanning exposure direction. Also disclosed is an associated method of mapping the height of a substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2025
    Assignee: ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Martin Jules Marie-Emile De Nivelle, Jori Selen, Marcel Bontekoe, Doru Cristian Torumba
  • Publication number: 20250199418
    Abstract: A method can include directing radiation toward at least two targets using an optical scanning system so as to generate first and second portions of scattered radiation. A first target can include a plurality of first grating line structures including features having a first bias value. A second target can include a plurality of second grating line structures including features having a second bias value. The method can include detecting the first and second portions of scattered radiation, generating a first measurement signal indicative of a first target position based on the first bias features, and generating a second measurement signal indicative of a second target position based on the second bias features. The method can include analyzing an effect of the first and second bias values on the first and second positions to determine at least one property of the set of targets.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 15, 2023
    Publication date: June 19, 2025
    Applicants: ASML Netherlands B.V., IMEC v.z.w.
    Inventors: Edouard André Marie Louis DURIAU, Cyrus Emil TABERY, Timothy Allan BRUNNER, Christopher P. AUSSCHNITT, Vincent Patrick Thomas TRUFFERT
  • Publication number: 20250199421
    Abstract: A substrate warpage determination system comprises at least three first supporting devices and at least three second supporting devices, forming first and second substrate support areas configured to carry a substrate, an actuator configured to move the at least three second supporting devices in a vertical direction, and a controller to drive the actuator. The controller is configured to determine a force exerted by the actuator, compare the determined force exerted by the actuator at the position in a vertical direction of the second substrate support area relative to the first substrate support area to a predetermined force at a predetermined position in the vertical direction of the second substrate support area relative to the first substrate support area, and determine a warpage of the substrate from the comparison.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 17, 2023
    Publication date: June 19, 2025
    Applicant: ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Efthymios STRATIS, Oleksiy Sergiyovich GALAKTIONOV, Thomas POIESZ, Ilya MALAKHOVSKY
  • Publication number: 20250200719
    Abstract: Systems and methods for reducing charging artifacts in an inspection image include obtaining a set of inspection images, in which each of the set of inspection images includes a charging artifact; and training a machine learning model using the set of inspection images as input, in which the machine learning model outputs a set of decoupled features of the set of inspection images.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 8, 2023
    Publication date: June 19, 2025
    Applicant: ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Jasper Frans Mathijs VAN RENS, Gijs SMIT, Antoine Gaston Marie KIERS, Vlado MENKOVSKI
  • Patent number: 12332573
    Abstract: Described herein is a method of training a model configured to predict whether a feature associated with an imaged substrate will be defective after etching of the imaged substrate and determining etch conditions based on the trained model. The method includes obtaining, via a metrology tool, (i) an after development image of the imaged substrate at a given location, the after development image including a plurality of features, and (ii) an after etch image of the imaged substrate at the given location; and training, using the after development image and the after etch image, the model configured to determine defectiveness of a given feature of the plurality of features in the after development image. In an embodiment, the determining of defectiveness is based on comparing the given feature in the after development image with a corresponding etch feature in the after etch image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2025
    Assignee: ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Marleen Kooiman, Maxim Pisarenco, Abraham Slachter, Mark John Maslow, Bernardo Andres Oyarzun Rivera, Wim Tjibbo Tel, Ruben Cornelis Maas
  • Patent number: 12332570
    Abstract: An apparatus comprising: a radiation receiving apparatus provided with an opening operable to receive radiation from a radiation source through the opening; wherein the radiation receiving apparatus comprises a deflection apparatus arranged to change a trajectory of a particle through the opening arriving at the radiation receiving apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2025
    Assignees: ASML Holding N.V., ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Ronald Peter Albright, Kursat Bal, Vadim Yevgenyevich Joseph Banine, Richard Joseph Bruls, Sjoerd Frans De Vries, Olav Waldemar Vladimir Frijns, Yang-Shan Huang, Zhuangxiong Huang, Johannes Henricus Wilhelmus Jacobs, Johannes Hubertus Josephina Moors, Georgi Nenchev Nenchev, Andrey Nikipelov, Thomas Maarten Raasveld, Manish Ranjan, Edwin Te Sligte, Karl Robert Umstadter, Eray Uzgören, Marcus Adrianus Van De Kerkhof, Parham Yaghoobi
  • Publication number: 20250189904
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method of correcting a measured spectrum for the effects of a source spectrum resulting from an illumination source. The method comprises obtaining a measured spectrum in terms of a measurement parameter, the measured spectrum being obtained from captured diffracted radiation from a periodic structure following illumination of said periodic structure using source radiation from said illumination source, the periodic structure being the spectrometer grating and an object being measured; determining an estimate of the source spectrum from the measured spectrum; and correcting the measured spectrum using the estimate of the source spectrum.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 22, 2023
    Publication date: June 12, 2025
    Applicant: ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Han-Kwang NIENHUYS, Lorenzo TRIPODI, Hugo Augustinus Joseph CRAMER, Stephen EDWARD
  • Publication number: 20250191875
    Abstract: A vacuum chamber system comprises a supporting structure configured to support an object to be thermally stabilized, a plate, having a first surface facing the object, positioned such that the first surface is located within a predetermined distance from the object when the object is placed on the supporting structure, the plate being thermally coupled to a heat conduction source, and a chamber enclosing the supporting structure and the plate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 10, 2023
    Publication date: June 12, 2025
    Applicant: ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Dongchi YU, Jun-li LIN, Shao-Wei FU, Yi-Chen LIN, Hongbo FAN
  • Patent number: 12326669
    Abstract: Disclosed is an illumination arrangement for spectrally shaping a broadband illumination beam to obtain a spectrally shaped illumination beam. The illumination arrangement comprises a beam dispersing element for dispersing the broadband illumination beam and a spatial light modulator for spatially modulating the broadband illumination beam subsequent to being dispersed. The illumination arrangement further comprises at least one of a beam expanding element for expanding said broadband illumination beam in at least one direction, located between an input of the illumination arrangement and the spatial light modulator; and a lens array, each lens of which for directing a respective wavelength band of the broadband illumination beam subsequent to being dispersed onto a respective region of the spatial light modulator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2023
    Date of Patent: June 10, 2025
    Assignee: ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Simon Reinald Huisman, Arjan Johannes Anton Beukman, Arie Jeffrey Den Boef, Sebastianus Adrianus Goorden, Nitish Kumar, Jin Lian, Zili Zhou
  • Patent number: 12322569
    Abstract: A method of creating electronic devices such as semiconductor chips using a maskless lithographic exposure system such as a charged particle multi-beamlet lithography system (301A-301D). The maskless lithographic exposure system comprises a lithography subsystem (316) including a maskless pattern writer such as a charged particle multi-beamlet lithography machine (1) or ebeam machine. The method comprises introducing unique chip design data (430) or information related thereto into pattern data comprising common chip design data before streaming the pattern data to the maskless pattern writer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 3, 2025
    Assignee: ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Marcel Nicolaas Jacobus van Kervinck, Vincent Sylvester Kuiper
  • Publication number: 20250172878
    Abstract: An apparatus for measuring a parameter of a structure related to a semiconductor manufacturing process. The apparatus comprises a source assembly configured to provide measurement radiation having one or more first wavelengths for irradiating the structure on a substrate. The apparatus further comprises a filter arranged to receive scattered measurement radiation that has scattered from the structure, wherein the filter is configured to transmit the scattered measurement radiation at the one or more first wavelengths and filter out radiation at one or more second wavelengths. The filter comprises a film with a curvature in at least one direction. The apparatus further comprises a plurality of detectors, located downstream of the filter, configured to detect the filtered scattered radiation configured to measure the parameter of the structure.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 6, 2023
    Publication date: May 29, 2025
    Applicant: ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Johan REININK, Sjoerd Nicolaas Lambertus DONDERS, Christina Lynn PORTER, Teis Johan COENEN, Jos Henders Bastiaan DEURLOO
  • Publication number: 20250155820
    Abstract: A radiation source for an EUV lithography apparatus is disclosed. The radiation source comprises a chamber comprising a plasma formation region, a radiation collector arranged in the chamber and configured to collect radiation emitted at the plasma formation region and to direct the collected radiation towards an intermediate focus region, and a radiation conduit disposed between the radiation collector and the intermediate focus region. The radiation conduit comprises at least one outlet on an inner surface of a wall of the radiation conduit for directing a protective gas flow, and at least one guide portion extending from the inner surface of the wall of the radiation conduit and configured to redirect the protective gas flow. Also disclosed is a method of reducing debris and/or vapor deposition in the radiation conduit by providing a protective gas flow to the at least one outlet of the radiation conduit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 14, 2025
    Publication date: May 15, 2025
    Applicant: ASML Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Remco Johannes Elisa HEIJMANS, Gerrit VAN DER STRAATEN, Ivo VANDERHALLEN, Jan Steven Christiaan WESTERLAKEN