BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an imprint apparatus and an article manufacturing method.

Description of the Related Art

An imprint apparatus forms a pattern on a substrate by curing an imprint material on the substrate while a mold on which a pattern is formed is in contact with the imprint material and releasing the mold from the cured imprint material. In general, the imprint apparatus includes a position correcting unit that corrects the positional shift between a mold and a substrate and a shape correcting unit that corrects the shape difference between the mold (its pattern) and the substrate (its shot region). The position correcting unit includes, for example, a moving mechanism that relatively moves (drives) a mold and a substrate. The shape correcting unit includes, for example, a force deformation mechanism that deforms a mold or substrate by pushing and pulling it from its periphery or a thermal deformation mechanism that thermally deforms a mold or substrate by applying heat to it.

Positional shift correction and shape difference correction between a mold and a substrate are performed in the same time zone from the instant the mold is brought into contact with the imprint material on the substrate to the instant the mold is released from the cured imprint material on the substrate in order to improve the productivity of the imprint apparatus. In this case, the shape difference correction between the mold and the substrate sometimes affects the positional shift between the mold and the substrate. Accordingly, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2019-12821 has proposed a technique of correcting a target position set in a moving mechanism that relatively moves a mold and a substrate based on the influence of the shape difference correction between the mold and the substrate on the positional shift between the mold and the substrate as time series data.

However, since the shape difference correction between a mold and a substrate affects not only the positional shift between the mold and the substrate but also a magnification shift, the conventional technique can lead to an increase in the time required for the correction of the magnification shift and a deterioration in overlay accuracy. In addition, in the force deformation mechanism, hysteresis occurs due to pushing and pulling directions, and hence the influence of the thermal deformation mechanism can cause the force deformation mechanism to effect correction on the mold or substrate in an unintentional direction, thus leading to a deterioration in overlay accuracy.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides an imprint apparatus advantageous in implementing accurate overlay between a mold and a substrate in a short period of time.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an imprint apparatus that forms a pattern of an imprint material on a substrate by using a mold, the apparatus including an obtaining unit configured to obtain difference data indicating a shape difference between a pattern region of the mold and a shot region on the substrate, a mold deformation unit configured to deform the pattern region of the mold by applying a force to the mold, a substrate deformation unit configured to deform the shot region on the substrate by applying heat to the substrate, and a control unit configured to control the mold deformation unit and the substrate deformation unit by making the mold deformation unit perform shape control on the pattern region and making the substrate deformation unit perform shape control on the shot region so as to make the shape difference fall within an allowable range, wherein the control unit feedback-controls the mold deformation unit based on difference data obtained by the obtaining unit, target data indicating a relative target deformation amount between the pattern region of the mold and the shot region on the substrate, and time series data indicating a relative deformation amount between the pattern region of the mold and the shot region on the substrate which changes at each time while the substrate deformation unit performs shape control on the shot region.

Further aspects of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.

