ELECTRICAL CONTACT AUTO-ALIGNMENT STRATEGY FOR HIGHLY PARALLEL PEN ARRAYS IN CANTILEVER FREE SCANNING PROBE LITHOGRAPHY
First Claim
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1. A lithography instrument comprising:
- a probe array;
a controller that controls positioning of the probe array or a substrate relative to each other, wherein a plurality of components are to be manufactured on the substrate by lithography; and
means to align the probe array or the substrate parallel to each other on an automated basis for subsequent manufacturing lithography.
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Abstract
Disclosed embodiments provide an electrical contact alignment strategy for leveling an array of probes, pens, tips, etc., in relationship to a substrate, for example, wherein a plurality of independent electrical circuits are formed by configuring regions of the array and substrate regions to be partially conductive and connected to opposite electrodes or vice versa.
7 Citations
33 Claims
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1. A lithography instrument comprising:
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a probe array; a controller that controls positioning of the probe array or a substrate relative to each other, wherein a plurality of components are to be manufactured on the substrate by lithography; and means to align the probe array or the substrate parallel to each other on an automated basis for subsequent manufacturing lithography. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. An electrical contact auto-alignment method for lithography, the method comprising:
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providing a probe array; positioning the probe array or a substrate relative to each another, wherein a plurality of components are to be manufactured on the substrate by lithography; and aligning the probe array or the substrate parallel to each other on an automated basis for subsequent manufacturing lithography. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A method of manufacturing a plurality of components on a substrate using lithography, the method comprising:
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providing a probe array; positioning the probe array or a substrate relative to each another, wherein a plurality of components are to be manufactured on the substrate by lithography; and aligning the probe array or the substrate parallel to each other on an automated basis; and performing lithography using the probe array to produce uniform feature sizes on the substrate.
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33. A lithography instrument comprising:
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a probe array; a controller that controls positioning of the probe array or a substrate relative to each other, wherein a plurality of components are to be manufactured on the substrate by lithography; and a motorized tip/tilt stage coupled to the controller and either the probe array or the substrate that enables tilting of the probe array or the substrate relative to each other in two orthogonal planes under the control of the controller, wherein the controller controls iterative movement of the motorized tip/tilt stage to align the probe array and the substrate in parallel on an automated basis in response to iterative measurement of electric current between a plurality of regions of the probe array and the substrate for subsequent manufacturing lithography.
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Specification