Alignment measurement of two-dimensional zero-reference marks

Alignment with submicron or even nanometer scale resolution is of vital importance in precision engineering. By superimposing a pair of specially coded two-dimensional gratings, the correct alignment position of the two gratings can be obtained by detecting the maximum output of the sharp intensity peak. In this paper, design and fabrication of such two-dimensional zero-reference gratings are introduced. The arrangement of the experiment system is presented in detail. The alignment measurement of the reference marks is tested, and the results are compared with those obtained by autocorrelation method and diffraction analysis. It is found that experimental results are in good agreement with theoretical analysis.