Exposure control method and method of manufacturing a semiconductor device

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, comprising:

• preparing a projection exposure apparatus;
• preparing a photomask which includes:
• a transparent substrate and a light shield film, the light shield film being arranged in patterns on the transparent substrate, the patterns to be transferred to a resist film formed on a wafer by the projection exposure apparatus, the patterns including:
• a circuit mask pattern for a circuit pattern to form a latent image of a predetermined circuit pattern on a resist film;
• and
• first and second mark mask patterns for forming an exposure monitor mark, the exposure monitor mark having dimensions which change in accordance with exposure of the resist film,
• the first mark mask pattern for the exposure monitor mark being formed in a manner wherein first blocks having a predetermined width p, which are not resolved by the projection exposure apparatus, are intermittently or continuously arrayed along one direction, and a first light shield and first light transmission portions are arrayed along one direction in each of the first blocks, the first blocks being arrayed so that a dimension ratio of the first light shield and the first light transmission portions of the first blocks simply changes and a phase difference of exposure light passing through adjacent first light transmission portions is approximately 180°,
• the second mark mask pattern for the exposure monitor mark being formed in a manner wherein second blocks having a predetermined width p, which are not resolved by the projection exposure apparatus, are intermittently or continuously arrayed along one direction, and a second light shield and second light transmission portions are arrayed along one direction in each of the second blocks, the second blocks being arrayed so that a dimension ratio of the second light shield and the second light transmission portions of the second blocks simply changes and a phase difference of exposure light passing through adjacent second light transmission portions is approximately 0°;
• transferring the first and second mark mask patterns for the exposure monitor mark to the resist film using the projection exposure apparatus by forming each latent image of the first and second exposure monitor marks on the resist film;
• measuring dimensions of the first and second exposure monitor marks obtained by developing the latent image of the first and second exposure monitor marks on the resist film;
• calculating a first effective exposure based on the measured dimension of the first exposure monitor mark;
• calculating a second effective exposure based on the measured dimension of the second exposure monitor mark;
• comparing a variation of the calculated first effective exposure and a variation of the calculated second effective exposure to determine whether or not the variation of the calculated first effective exposure is equal to the variation of the calculated second effective exposure;
• and
• changing at least one of a deposit condition of a front-end film formed under the resist film or a resist film coating condition, if, as a result of the comparison, it is determined that the variation of the calculated first effective exposure is different from the variation of the calculated second effective exposure.