Lighting assembly, exposure apparatus and exposure method employing the lighting assembly
First Claim
1. A lighting assembly for projecting an image onto a surface of a substrate, said lighting assembly comprising:
- a light source;
a condensing-reflecting member for condensing light from said light source;
an optical integrator, having a receiving end and an emitting end, for receiving light from said light source, causing the light to attain a homogeneous light intensity distribution, and emitting the homogeneously distributed light from said emitting end;
a projection lens system, having a receiving end and a projecting end, for receiving the homogeneously distributed light emitted by said optical integrator, and projecting the homogeneously distributed light from said projecting end; and
an image transcribing mask disposed adjacent said projecting end of said projection lens system.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides spot-illumination of a specific size having sufficiently homogeneous light intensity distribution, with a small and inexpensive apparatus. A lighting assembly condenses the light from light source 1 with condensing-reflecting member 2. An optical integrator 3 receives at its one end the light via condensing-reflecting member 2 and emits from the other end after making the light intensity distribution homogeneous A projection lens system 4 projects the emitting surface of optical integrator 3 onto an emitted surface. By shifting the relative positioning between the lighting assembly and the substrate 11, and adjusting the distance between the substrate 11 and the mask 12, which stores a pattern to be formed, a specified area of the exposure surface 11a is scanned and exposed to have a mask pattern transcribed on the exposure surface 11a.
13 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A lighting assembly for projecting an image onto a surface of a substrate, said lighting assembly comprising:
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a light source; a condensing-reflecting member for condensing light from said light source; an optical integrator, having a receiving end and an emitting end, for receiving light from said light source, causing the light to attain a homogeneous light intensity distribution, and emitting the homogeneously distributed light from said emitting end; a projection lens system, having a receiving end and a projecting end, for receiving the homogeneously distributed light emitted by said optical integrator, and projecting the homogeneously distributed light from said projecting end; and an image transcribing mask disposed adjacent said projecting end of said projection lens system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An exposure apparatus, for exposing an image onto a surface of a substrate, said exposing apparatus comprising:
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a lighting assembly; a substrate retaining device; a transfer means for adjusting a position of said lighting assembly relative to the substrate retaining device; wherein said lighting assembly comprises a light source;
a condensing-reflecting member for condensing light from said light source;
an optical integrator, having a receiving end and an emitting end, for receiving light from said light source, causing the light to attain a homogeneous light intensity distribution, and emitting the homogeneously distributed light from said emitting end;
a projection lens system, having a receiving end and a projecting end, for receiving the homogeneously distributed light emitted by said optical integrator, and projecting the homogeneously distributed light from said projecting end; and
an image transcribing mask disposed adjacent said projecting end of said projection lens system; andan adjusting means for adjusting a position of the image transcribing mask relative to the substrate retaining device. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. An exposure method, for exposing an image onto a surface of a substrate, said exposure method comprising:
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providing a lighting assembly comprising a light source;
a condensing-reflecting member for condensing light from said light source;
an optical integrator, having a receiving end and an emitting end, for receiving light from said light source, causing the light to attain a homogeneous light intensity distribution, and emitting the homogeneously distributed light from said emitting end;
a projection lens system, having a receiving end and a projecting end, for receiving the homogeneously distributed light emitted by said optical integrator, and projecting the homogeneously distributed light from said projecting end; and
an image transcribing mask disposed adjacent said projecting end of said projection lens system;exposing the surface of the substrate to the homogeneously distributed light projected from said projecting end of said projection lens system via the image transcribing mask; and scanning the surface of the substrate with the homogeneously distributed light by adjusting a position of the lighting assembly relative to the substrate. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21)
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Specification