Exposure apparatus and method

An exposure method of projecting a plurality of patterns of a photomask, which are elongated to at least two different directions, onto a substrate through the photomask, comprising the steps of:

• illuminating the photomask by using a polarized light source;
• causing a slit filter, arranged at a position wherein polarized light source is focused and having a slit through which polarized light is transmitted and a longitudinal direction of the slit is at a first angle with respect to a polarization direction of the polarized light, to transit polarized light passing through the photomask;
• changing the polarization direction of the polarized light;
• and
• changing the longitudinal direction of said slit in said slit filter in synchronism with a change in the polarization direction, and illuminating the photomask with the polarized light wherein a longitudinal direction of the pattern is at a second angle with respect to the polarization direction of the polarized light, thereby exposing a pattern of the photomask onto said substrate.

An exposure apparatus for illuminating a photomask having first and second patterns respectively elongated in X-axis and Y-axis directions of an X-Y orthogonal coordinate system in a plane perpendicular to an optical axis having the optical axis as an origin, and exposing the patterns onto a substrate by using a projection optical system, comprising:

• a light-shielding plate arranged within a plane of an illumination optical system which corresponds to a conjugate plane of a pupil plane of said projection optical system, said light-shielding plate having at least one opening portion;
• first polarizing means for defining a polarization plane direction of light incident on the opening portion as polarized light which direction coincides with the X-axis or Y-axis direction;
• and
• polarizing members for transmitting only polarized light which has a direction which coincides with the X-axis direction incident on the first pattern, and transmitting only polarized light which has a direction which coincides with the Y-axis direction incident on the second pattern.

An exposure method for illuminating a photomask having first and second patterns respectively elongated in X-axis and Y-axis directions of an X-Y orthogonal coordinate system in a plane perpendicular to an optical axis having the optical axis as an origin, and exposing the patterns onto a substrate by using a projection optical system, comprising the steps of:

• causing a light-shielding plate arranged within a plane of an illumination optical system which corresponds to a conjugate plane of a pupil plane of said projection optical system to transmit a light from a light source, said light-shielding plate having at least one opening portion;
• defining a polarization direction of light incident on the opening portion as polarized light which direction coincides with the X-axis or Y-axis direction;
• and
• transmitting only polarized light which has a direction which coincides with the X-axis direction incident on the first pattern, and transmitting only polarized light which has a direction which coincides with the Y-axis direction incident on the second pattern.