Film exposure apparatus and method of exposure using the same

A film exposure apparatus in which a plurality of frames arranged in a longitudinal direction of a belt-shaped film are exposed sequentially to light for formation of an image onto each of the frames, the film exposure apparatus comprising:

• an illumination system;
• a photomask disposed at a location to which light from the illumination system is applied;
• a photomask position adjusting mechanism;
• a projection lens for projecting an image of the photomask formed by said light;
• and
• a film feed mechanism for step-feeding the film one frame by one frame, said film feed mechanism step-feeding one frame of the film, wherein;
• said belt-shaped film is provided with at least two film-side alignment marks on each frame, said film-side alignment marks being formed by at least one of a hole and a transparent portion formed in the film;
• said photomask is provided with a circuit pattern, whose image is to be projected and transferred onto the film, and with photomask-side alignment marks to be projected in correspondence to the film-side alignment marks;
• and
• the photomask position adjusting mechanism is driven to align the photomask, so that the image of each of the photomask-side alignment marks is projected to the position of a corresponding one of the film-side alignment marks on the one frame stopped after the step-feeding, said apparatus further comprising exposure means for effecting an exposure.

A film exposure apparatus in which a plurality of frames arranged in a longitudinal direction of a belt-shaped film are exposed sequentially to light for formation of an image onto each of the frames, the film exposure apparatus comprising:

• an illumination system;
• a photomask disposed at a location to which light from the illumination system is applied;
• a photomask position adjusting mechanism;
• a projection leans for projecting an image of the photomask formed by said light;
• and
• a film feed mechanism for step-feeding the film one frame by one frame, said film feed mechanism step-feeding one frame of the film, wherein:
• said belt-shaped film is provided with at least two film-side alignment marks on each frame, said film-side alignment marks being formed by at least one f a hole and a transparent portion formed in the film;
• said photomask is provided with a circuit pattern, whose image is to be projected and transferred onto the film, and with photomask-side alignment marks to be projected in correspondence to the film-side alignment marks;
• and
• the photomask position adjusting mechanism is driven to align the photomask, so that the image of each of the photomask-side alignment marks is projected to the position of a corresponding one of the film-side alignment marks on the one frame stopped after the step-feeding, said apparatus further comprising:
• exposure mean for effecting an exposure;
• an optical system for projecting a secondary projection image of a primary projection image of at least one of the photomask-side alignment marks to a position of projection of the alignment mark image by the projection lens;
• and
• a detector adapted to receive the secondary projection image provided by said optical system.