Resist pattern forming method

A method for forming a resist pattern by exposing, to continual gate patterns inside and outside an active area, a resist film formed on a wafer having said active area pattern on a major surface using a projection exposure apparatus, comprising:

• resizing a pattern equivalent to an active area on said wafer;
• inverting said resized pattern;
• obtaining a logical product of said resized pattern and a gate pattern to be exposed;
• forming a first mask using said inverted pattern as a light shielding film and a pattern acquired by obtaining said logical product as a half-tone phase shifter;
• forming a second mask using said resized pattern as a light shielding film and said gate pattern to be exposed as a half-tone phase shifter;
• exposing said resist film on said wafer using said first mask under a condition that said projection exposure apparatus has a first numerical aperture;
• and
• exposing said resist film on said wafer using said second mask under a condition that said projection exposure apparatus has a second numerical aperture larger than the first numerical aperture.

A method for forming a resist pattern by exposing, to continual gate patterns inside and outside an active area, a resist film formed on a wafer having said active area pattern on a major surface using a projection exposure apparatus, comprising:

• resizing a pattern equivalent to an active area on said wafer;
• inverting said resized pattern;
• obtaining a logical product of said resized pattern and a gate pattern to be exposed;
• forming a first mask using said inverted pattern as a light shielding film and a pattern acquired by obtaining said logical product as a half-tone phase shifter;
• forming a second mask using said resized pattern as a light shielding film and said gate pattern to be exposed as a half-tone phase shifter;
• exposing said resist film on said wafer using said first mask under a condition that said projection exposure apparatus has a first numerical aperture;
• and
• exposing said resist film on said wafer using said second mask under a condition that said projection exposure apparatus has a second numerical aperture larger than the first numerical aperture,
• wherein when a plurality of gate patterns are present in a same active area, proximity effect correction is performed on adjoining gate patterns, and
• wherein a resizing amount of said pattern equivalent to said active area is set to a sum of an amount of misalignment between exposure using said first mask and exposure using said second mask and a distance over which a proximity effect extends.