The invention discloses an apparatus for
overlay error detection and a measurement and calibration method. The apparatus comprises a
light source, an illuminating
system, an objective lens, a reference mark, a
detector, and a rotatable workpiece table, wherein the
light source is used for generating incident light; the incident light is
scattered light; the illuminating
system is used for dividing the incident light into two beams, wherein one beam is used as measurement light to come into the objective lens while the other beam is used as monitoring light to come into the
detector; the objective lens is used for enabling the measured light to come into an
overlay mark in an inclined manner; the reference mark is used for generating reference light; the
detector is positioned on the
pupil plane of the objective lens and used for detecting
diffraction spectrum of the
overlay mark; and the rotatable workpiece table is used for bearing and rotating the reference mark and / or the overlay mark. The reference light, which passes through the light path that is totally the same as that of the overlay
signal, is adopted for performing measurement
signal normalization, so as to eliminate influence on the overlay
signal from
asymmetry of
transmittance, space distribution non-uniformity of the incident light, space distribution changes, sensitivity non-uniformity of the detector, and the like; and a similar measurement and calibration scheme is never mentioned in the prior art.