Near-field exposure method
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsNatsuhiko Mizutani, Yasuhisa Inao
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A near-field exposure method includes closely contacting an exposure mask having a light blocking film with small openings, to a photoresist layer formed on a substrate having surface unevenness, and projecting the exposure light of the exposure light source onto the exposure mask so that the photoresist is exposed based on near-field light escaping from the small openings, wherein the near-field exposure is carried out under a condition that a contact region where the light blocking film and the photoresist layer are in contact with each other and a liquid region filled with a liquid between the light blocking film and the photoresist layer coexist between the light blocking film and the photoresist layer.
Claims6
A near-field exposure method, comprising:
- providing an exposure mask having (i) a blocking film with small openings formed on a supporting material and (ii) a photoresist layer, formed on a substrate, having surface unevenness that ranges from 10 nm to 1 μm in height of the substrate;
- supplying a liquid onto the photoresist layer;
- closely contacting the exposure mask to the photoresist layer such that, in a portion of the photoresist layer at its top in height, the liquid is pushed aside and the light blocking film and the photoresist layer directly contact each other;
- and
- projecting exposure light of an exposure light source onto the exposure mask so that the photoresist is exposed, based on near-field light escaping from the small openings,
- wherein the near-field exposure is carried out under a condition that (i) a contact region where the light blocking film and the photoresist layer are in contact with each other and (ii) a liquid region filled with the liquid between the light blocking film and the photoresist layer, coexist, between the light blocking film and the photoresist layer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.