US-20260126728-A1 - APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING SPREAD OF PLURALITY OF DROPLETS OF PHOTO-CURING COMPOSITION

Abstract

An information processing method for generating control information for controlling spread of a plurality of droplets of a photo-curing composition arranged between a substrate and a mold, includes generating, as a part of the control information, control data that controls an irradiation condition of light to be irradiated to each of the plurality of droplets such that a shape change of each of the plurality of droplets before droplets adjacent to each other among the plurality of droplets are connected to each other satisfies a target condition.

Inventors

• Tomohiro Harayama
• Kiyohito Yamamoto

Assignees

• CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA

Dates

Publication Date

20260507

Application Date

20251219

Priority Date

20230131

Claims (6)

1. 1 . A film forming apparatus that forms a cured film by bringing a plurality of droplets of a photo-curing composition arranged on a substrate into contact with a mold and curing a liquid film formed by connection of the plurality of droplets, comprising: an optical modulation device configured to control a spatial illuminance distribution of light to be irradiated to the plurality of droplets; and a controller configured to control the optical modulation device, wherein the controller controls the optical modulation device such that a shape change of each of the plurality of droplets before droplets adjacent to each other among the plurality of droplets are connected to each other satisfies a target condition.
2. 2 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein a plurality of pixels among all pixels of the optical modulation device are assigned to regions in which the plurality of droplets spread.
3. 3 . The apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the plurality of pixels are at least nine pixels.
4. 4 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the controller has a function of generating control information for controlling the optical modulation device.
5. 5 . The apparatus according to claim 4 , further comprising a camera configured to capture a space between the substrate and the mold, wherein the controller generates the control information using an image captured by the camera.
6. 6 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the film forming apparatus is formed as an imprint apparatus.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for controlling spread of a plurality of droplets of photo-curing composition. Description of the Related Art There is a film forming apparatus that arranges a plurality of droplets of a curable composition on a substrate, forms a film of the curable composition by bringing the plurality of droplets and a mold into contact with each other, and cures the film, thereby forming a cured film. An apparatus that forms a pattern as a cured film can be called an imprint apparatus, and an apparatus that forms a planarized film as a cured film can be called a planarization apparatus. It could be said that, to form a cured film having desired quality, emphasis has conventionally been placed on optimizing the arrangement of a plurality of droplets (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2020-205413). However, a long time is needed to decide or optimize the arrangement of a plurality of droplets to obtain a cured film having desired quality. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a technique advantageous in more easily obtaining a cured film of desired quality. One of aspects of the present invention provides an information processing method for generating control information for controlling spread of a plurality of droplets of a photo-curing composition arranged between a substrate and a mold, comprising: generating, as a part of the control information, control data that controls an irradiation condition of light to be irradiated to each of the plurality of droplets such that a shape change of each of the plurality of droplets before droplets adjacent to each other among the plurality of droplets are connected to each other satisfies a target condition. Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a view schematically and exemplarily showing the configuration of a film forming apparatus according to an embodiment; FIG. 2 is a view exemplarily showing an image obtained by capturing, by a camera, a plurality of droplets of a curable composition arranged on a substrate; FIG. 3 is a view showing an image obtained by capturing, by the camera, the plurality of droplets in a process of spreading between the substrate and a mold after the mold is brought into contact with the plurality of droplets on the substrate; FIG. 4 is a view showing an image obtained by capturing, by the camera, the plurality of droplets in a process of spreading between the substrate and a mold after the mold is brought into contact with the plurality of droplets on the substrate; FIG. 5 is a view exemplarily showing the relationship between DMD sections and a plurality of droplets; FIG. 6 is a view showing a state in which each droplet spreads while maintaining a circular shape; FIG. 7 is a view showing a state in which each droplet spreads while maintaining a circular shape; FIG. 8 is a view exemplarily showing the target shape of a droplet at the center at a certain timing before droplets adjacent to each other are connected to each other; FIG. 9 is a view exemplarily showing the shapes of the plurality of droplets at a certain timing before droplets adjacent to each other are connected to each other; FIG. 10 is a view exemplarily showing a state in which DMD sections located at points relatively close to the target shape are irradiated with light based on the target shape and the shapes of the droplets at the timing shown in FIG. 9; FIG. 11 is a view exemplarily showing a state in which each droplet has reached a target final shape without confining bubbles; FIGS. 12A to 12F are views exemplarily showing the shape change of a plurality of droplets in a case where the target final shape is rhombic; FIGS. 13A to 13E are views exemplarily showing the shape change of a plurality of droplets in a case where the target final shape is rectangular; FIG. 14 is a flowchart exemplarily showing the procedure of an information processing method for generating control information for controlling spread of a plurality of droplets of a photo-curing composition arranged between a substrate and a mold; FIG. 15 is a view exemplarily showing the arrangement of a plurality of droplets on a substrate; FIG. 16 is a view showing a state in which a plurality of droplets and a droplet D0, which are associated with the target shape, are connected by solid lines; FIG. 17 is a view showing the perpendicular bisectors (lines indicated by dotted lines) of the plurality of lines indicated by the solid lines explained in FIG. 16; FIG. 18 is a view exemplarily showing a target final shape; FIG. 19 is a view showing the numbers of pixels (DMD sections) that affect the spread behavior of the droplet D0 when spreading; FIG. 20 is a view showing eight directions (the droplet shape at time 0) used for shape cont