JP2002231618A - Liquid crystal matrix projection aligner - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate directional dependence of the forming mode of a pattern, caused by polarized light by eliminating the projecting and constricted parts of a transferred pattern, caused by the connections of liquid crystal cells or opaque sections in the cells, in a liquid crystal matrix projection aligner. SOLUTION: The projection alignment is performed, after the brightness and darkness distribution designated on a liquid crystal panel is converted into an optical image, in which the connecting boundaries of the liquid crystal cells or the opaque sections of TFTs, etc., in the cells become inconspicuous via a fiber-optic tapered conduit, optical fiber plate, or microlens array. At the converting of the brightness and darkness distribution into an optical image, the emitted exposure light ray is prevented from having directional properties, by randomly rotating the plane of polarization, while the exposure light ray passes through optical fibers which constitute the fiber-optic tapered conduit or optical fiber plate or the elemental lenses constituting the microlens array.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for transferring an arbitrary pattern specified on a liquid crystal panel onto a substrate to be exposed when forming a fine pattern such as a semiconductor integrated circuit, an optoelectronic element, a micromachine part, or the like. It is.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a projection exposure apparatus and a projection exposure method have been used to form fine patterns such as semiconductor integrated circuits, optoelectronic devices, and micromachine parts on various substrates such as semiconductor wafers, metal substrates, and glass substrates. It is heavily used.

In this conventional projection exposure apparatus and projection exposure method, a reticle, a thin metal plate, a silicon wafer, or the like in which an original pattern is formed on a light transmitting substrate such as synthetic quartz or glass with a light-shielding body such as chrome is used. A stencil mask having a pattern-shaped hole serving as an original drawing is used as an original drawing substrate.

Then, the pattern on the original drawing substrate is irradiated with illumination light on the original drawing substrate, and the pattern on the original drawing substrate is changed by using a projection optical system such as a projection lens, a projection mirror optical system, or an optical system appropriately combining a lens and a mirror. Is projected on a substrate to be transferred and formed.

A photosensitive material such as a resist is previously applied onto the substrate to be exposed, for example, a semiconductor wafer, a metal substrate, a glass substrate, or the like by coating or spraying. Then, the exposure target substrate provided with the photosensitive material is projected and exposed by the illuminating light beam applied to the original substrate, and the photosensitive material on the exposure substrate is exposed to a pattern corresponding to the shape of the transmission portion on the original substrate. I do.

Therefore, if the photosensitive material is developed after the exposure, the photosensitive material in the photosensitive portion or the unexposed portion is removed depending on whether the photosensitive material is positive or negative, and the pattern on the original substrate is covered with the photosensitive material. It is transferred to a photosensitive material on an exposure substrate.

As described above, since the conventional projection exposure apparatus and projection exposure method are an apparatus and a method for transferring a pattern on an original drawing substrate to a photosensitive material on a substrate to be exposed, first, a pattern corresponding to a desired pattern is obtained. The original substrate having the above was indispensable.

[0008] In the original substrate, if there is any mistake or defect in the formed fine pattern, all the products using the transferred pattern become defective, so that the inspection,
Confirmation is important and very expensive. The pattern is not only a shape but also a line width, a size of a hole, and various kinds of precisions such as a position thereof. Therefore, a fine pattern is particularly expensive.

On the other hand, with the diversification of social consumption trends, products tend to be produced in various types and in small quantities. For example, in semiconductor integrated circuit products, while ICs for specific applications are growing,
Examples of producing the same product in a very large amount are limited to only a small part such as a memory.

[0010] In particular, micromachine parts and the like, for which a large number of general-purpose products have not yet been available, are usually produced in orders of magnitude smaller than semiconductor integrated circuit products from the beginning.

However, as long as the projection exposure is performed, the original substrate having the original pattern is required irrespective of the amount of production, so that the price of the original substrate greatly affects the product price for small-volume products. Become.

Also, changing or correcting the pattern on the original substrate is almost impossible except for a special case, and it is necessary to recreate the original substrate for each product and every time the pattern is changed.

For this reason, recently, instead of recreating a conventional original substrate for each product or pattern change, each cell of the liquid crystal panel is used as a matrix switch for controlling the amount of transmitted light, and is replaced with the original substrate. The usefulness of an apparatus that performs projection exposure by designating a transmissive part and a non-transmissive part in a predetermined arrangement is 7th in the 45th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society of Applied Physics.
42 pages, Japanese Journal of
Applied Physics Vol. 38,
pp. 324-329, and the 69th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society of Applied Physics, pp. 691 of the proceedings.

According to the above-described liquid crystal matrix projection exposure apparatus and liquid crystal matrix projection exposure method, transmission and non-transmission of each cell of the liquid crystal panel can be easily designated from the outside by a keyboard operation or the like. Therefore, an original substrate having a fixed and invariable pattern such as a conventional reticle or stencil mask is not required, and the pattern can be easily changed or corrected.

Further, since it is easy to automatically convert the design data into a control command for each cell of the liquid crystal panel by a computer, the transmission of each cell of the liquid crystal panel,
It is also possible to automatically control the opacity.

Further, since it is easy to automatically compare the design data with the light / dark control data of each cell of the liquid crystal panel by a computer, it is possible to inspect the pattern using the design data, and to check the pattern for errors or defects. It can be significantly reduced.

Further, since the transmission and non-transmission are determined in a binary manner by the transmission and non-transmission of each cell of the liquid crystal panel, dust may adhere when manufacturing the original drawing substrate, and a pinhole of the photosensitive material may be formed. There is also an advantage that a defect at the time of production caused by the presence of the hard disk is difficult to occur.

[0018]

However, the disclosed liquid crystal matrix projection exposure apparatus has the following problems.

The first problem is that there is a boundary between the cells of the liquid crystal panel, and the boundary line is always opaque irrespective of whether the cell is transparent or opaque.

For this reason, even if an attempt is made to form a linear photosensitive portion by arranging continuous transmission cells, the pattern is constricted or protruded because the amount of exposure corresponding to the boundary line is small. For example, FIG. 8 shows an optical microscope photograph of the pattern when projection exposure is performed using a positive resist as a photosensitive material to leave the resist in a pattern shape, and when the remaining pattern is formed. Although a pattern left on a straight line is required, a projection 14 is formed corresponding to the boundary between cells. When projection exposure is performed using a negative resist as a photosensitive material to leave the resist in a pattern shape and to form a residual pattern, conversely, the pattern is constricted at a portion corresponding to a boundary between cells.

The second problem is that, in the case of the simple matrix type liquid crystal panel, there is no obstacle in each cell, but in the case of the active matrix type liquid crystal panel, there is no obstacle in each cell. Driving thin film transistor (T
FT) is formed, and the TFT portion is always opaque in addition to the boundary.

Most of recent liquid crystal panels are TFTs because of their high response speed and good transmission / non-transmission contrast.
Is used. Since the TFTs are generally arranged at the corners in the cell, the shape of the transparent portion of the cell is not rectangular or square, so that when the continuous transparent portion is to be formed, the TFT is connected to the boundary portion. There is a problem in that a large opaque portion is formed, and projections and constrictions of the pattern are further deteriorated.

For this reason, measures have been taken to minimize the protrusions and constrictions of the formed pattern by making the boundaries between the cells as thin as possible and making the dimensions of the TFTs as small as possible.

However, a boundary line and a TFT in an active matrix type liquid crystal panel are indispensable, and cannot be completely eliminated. Further, since there is a limit even if the size is reduced as much as possible, it is difficult to form a projection or a projection of a formed pattern. It was difficult to make the constriction sufficiently small.

In the liquid crystal matrix projection exposure apparatus and the liquid crystal matrix projection exposure method, the minimum size of a pattern that can be transferred is approximately the size of one cell multiplied by the projection magnification. Therefore, in order to transfer a fine pattern, the smaller the cell size, the better. However,
Even if the size of the cell is reduced, it is difficult to reduce the size of the boundary line and the size of the TFT in proportion to the size of the cell. Therefore, as the size of the cell is reduced, the problem of pattern protrusion and constriction generated in the transfer pattern is reduced. It was difficult to solve. Depending on how the LCD panel is made, cells may be staggered,
In addition, there were cases where a portion where light was always impermeable was formed.

Further, as a third problem, since the light that passes through the liquid crystal panel and exits is polarized light, the projections and constrictions differ in the vertical and horizontal directions, and the resolution increases. There was a problem that the sexes were different, though slightly.

[0027]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a liquid crystal panel, an illumination optical system for illuminating the liquid crystal panel, and a pattern shape specified for the liquid crystal panel. An optical fiber taper conduit or an optical fiber plate or a microlens array arranged so that the transmitted light of the illumination light transmitted through the liquid crystal panel is incident on the optical fiber taper conduit or the optical fiber plate. A projection optical system for projecting onto the surface of the substrate to be exposed, wherein the substrate is projected and exposed in a shape corresponding to the pattern shape specified on the liquid crystal panel.

[0028]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As described above, the present invention illuminates a liquid crystal panel with an illumination optical system and projects and exposes a pattern shape specified on the liquid crystal panel onto a substrate to be exposed.
Rather than directly using the light intensity distribution on the emission side of the liquid crystal panel as the light-dark distribution of light transmitted through the original drawing substrate, the light is once passed through an optical fiber taper conduit, an optical fiber plate, or a microlens array, and projection light is emitted using the emitted light. Do.

[0029]

1 is a block diagram of a liquid crystal matrix projection exposure apparatus according to the present invention. The greatest difference from the above-described conventional device is that the optical fiber tapered conduit 2 is provided in close contact with or close to the exit surface or the entrance surface of the liquid crystal panel 1. Optical fiber taper conduit 2
As shown in FIG. 2, a large number of optical fibers 11 are bundled in close contact and heated, and one end is tapered to make the entire end thinner. Normally, both end faces are cut and polished perpendicular to the axis of the optical fiber 11. In FIG. 2, the thickness of the optical fiber 11 is exaggerated and drawn large.

The external shape of the optical fiber tapered conduit 2 and the cross-sectional shape of the optical fiber 11 can be arbitrarily determined. The configuration is as follows. Furthermore, the optical fiber 11
, That is, the diameter of the cross section or the distance between the opposite sides is increased depending on the thickness of the cell boundary line of the liquid crystal panel 1 or the size of the TFT.

The liquid crystal panel 1 is illuminated by the illumination optical system 3, and the illumination light 4 forms a bright / dark pattern on the liquid crystal panel 1 at the entrance of the optical fiber tapered conduit 2. The exit has the pattern of the entrance. Is designed to emit a light-dark pattern shape reduced according to the taper of the optical fiber taper conduit 2. The illumination optical system 3 may be any as long as it has a light source in the exposure wavelength band, such as various lamps and lasers.

Even if a part of the entrance of the optical fiber tapered conduit 2 is covered by a light-shielding portion between the cells of the liquid crystal panel 1 or the TFT, incident light is totally reflected by the side wall of the optical fiber strand 11 constituting the optical fiber tapered conduit 2. Since the light beam advances while changing the direction, the light is emitted from the exit of each optical fiber 11 with substantially uniform light intensity in the optical fiber 11.

In this state, an optical image at the exit of the optical fiber taper conduit 2 is projected onto a substrate 6 through a projection optical system 5 such as a projection lens. When the projection exposure is performed in this manner, the photosensitive material provided on the substrate 6 to be exposed is replaced with a pattern designated on the liquid crystal panel 1 by a connection boundary or a TFT.
Can be exposed to a smoothed pattern shape so that the presence of is not conspicuous. Therefore, projections and constrictions conventionally formed on the transfer pattern do not appear.

Further, since the direction of vibration of the light changes due to total reflection on the side wall of the optical fiber 11 of the optical fiber tapered conduit 2 and the direction is unspecified, the light immediately after passing through the liquid crystal panel 1 is polarized. However, at the exit of the optical fiber tapered conduit 2, light having no azimuth on the light oscillation plane is emitted. Since the vibration plane of the exposure light beam has no azimuth, patterns of the same quality are formed in the vertical and horizontal directions.

Numeral 7 denotes a liquid crystal panel stage, and numeral 8 denotes a substrate stage to be exposed. Pattern transfer is possible even when these stages are fixed, but they can be moved in x, y, z directions and / or x, y, z shown in the figure. It is more preferable that the rotation angles α, β, and θ around the z-axis can be adjusted. If the rotation angles α, β, and θ can be adjusted, projection exposure is sequentially performed on a plurality of positions on the substrate 6 to be exposed, or a pattern set on the liquid crystal panel 1 is set. Can be connected or synthesized.

The size of the pattern projected and exposed on the substrate to be exposed 5 is obtained by multiplying the pattern size on the liquid crystal panel 1 by the magnification of the tapered cross section of the optical fiber tapered conduit 2 and the projection magnification of the projection optical system 4. Dimensions.

The minimum size of the cell of the liquid crystal panel 1 which can be easily obtained has a side length of about 250 to 50 μm. In order to obtain a fine pattern, the projection magnification must be reduced. However, when the projection magnification of the projection optical system 5 is reduced, that is, when the projection optical system 5 can be reduced at a high reduction ratio, a high numerical aperture is generally required, and the depth of focus becomes shallow.

However, reduction using the optical fiber tapered conduit 2 can be performed without changing the numerical aperture. Therefore, the projection optical system 5 having a low reduction ratio and a low numerical aperture by an amount reduced by the optical fiber taper conduit 2.
Can be used, and a pattern having the same reduction ratio can be formed at a deeper depth of focus than when the reduction projection is performed only by the projection optical system 5.

FIG. 3 is an optical microscope photograph of a pattern obtained by using the liquid crystal matrix projection exposure apparatus of the present invention shown in FIG. A bright / dark pattern drawn on a liquid crystal panel 1 having a square cell with a cell boundary width of 24 μm in a cell arrangement of 264 μm pitch is illuminated by an illumination optical system using a metal halide lamp used as an illumination optical system 3, and a reduction ratio of 1 /
Using an optical fiber taper conduit 2 of 6.9, projection exposure was performed through a projection exposure lens having a reduction ratio of 1/24 and a numerical aperture of 0.2 as the projection optical system 5. A silicon wafer is used as the substrate 6 to be exposed, and the photosensitive material is about 1 μm thick.
Of positive type THMRiP3300 (manufactured by Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co., Ltd.). Further, the development is performed using a dedicated developer N
This was performed using MD-W.

As is clear from FIG. 3, no projections of the conventional pattern as shown in FIG. 9 are recognized at all, and no difference in the pattern formation in the vertical and horizontal directions is recognized at all. Also, the pattern in the oblique direction is formed with the same smoothness as in the vertical and horizontal directions.

The total reduction projection magnification is (1 / 6.9) × (1
/ 24) = 1/166, and the depth of focus is substantially determined only by the numerical aperture of the projection exposure lens, even though the reduction ratio is considerably high. did it.

FIG. 4 is another configuration diagram of the liquid crystal matrix projection exposure apparatus of the present invention. The feature of this device is the liquid crystal panel 1.
The optical fiber plate 9 is provided in close contact with or close to the exit surface or the entrance surface. As shown in FIG. 5, the optical fiber plate 9 is a plate component in which a large number of optical fiber wires 12 are arranged in close contact, cut so that a cross section perpendicular to the fiber wire axis becomes a plate surface, and then polished. .

In this case as well, the outer shape of the optical fiber plate 9 and the cross-sectional shape of the optical fiber 12 can be arbitrarily set, but the gap between the optical fiber 12 should be as small as possible. It is configured to be thin. In addition, the optical fiber 12
, Ie, the diameter of the cross section or the distance between opposite sides, is set to be larger than the thickness of the cell boundary line of the liquid crystal panel 1 or the size of the TFT.

The liquid crystal panel 1 is illuminated by the illumination optical system 3, and a light / dark pattern on the liquid crystal panel 1 is formed at the entrance of the optical fiber plate 9 by the illumination light. 12
The light having the average light intensity at the entrance of the optical fiber is emitted with substantially uniform light intensity within the optical fiber 12. The illumination optical system 3 may be any as long as it has a light source in the exposure wavelength band, such as various lamps and lasers.

Even if a part of the entrance of the optical fiber 12 of the optical fiber plate 9 is covered by a light-shielding portion between the cells of the liquid crystal panel 1 or the TFT, the incident light can be applied to the side wall of the optical fiber 12 constituting the optical fiber plate 9. The optical fiber 12 emits light with almost uniform light intensity at the exit of the optical fiber 12 since the light travels while changing the direction while totally reflecting the light.

In this state, the light / dark distribution of the exit of the optical fiber plate 9 is projected onto the substrate 6 through the projection optical system 4 such as a projection lens. When the projection exposure is performed in this manner, the photosensitive material applied on the substrate 6 to be exposed is exposed to a pattern shape obtained by smoothing the pattern specified for the liquid crystal panel 1 so that connection boundaries and TFTs are not conspicuous. Can be done. Therefore, projections and constrictions conventionally formed on the transfer pattern do not appear.

Although the light immediately after passing through the liquid crystal panel 1 is polarized light, it travels while changing its direction while being totally reflected by the side walls of the element fibers, so that the direction of the light oscillating surface becomes unspecified.
Light having no azimuth is emitted to the vibration plane of the light. Since the vibration plane of the exposure light beam has no azimuth, patterns of the same quality are formed in the vertical and horizontal directions.

Further, the oblique line pattern can be formed more smoothly than before.

As in the case of FIG. 1, reference numeral 7 denotes a liquid crystal panel stage, and reference numeral 8 denotes a substrate stage to be exposed. Pattern transfer is possible even when these stages are fixed.
It is better if the movement in the y and z directions and / or the rotation angles α, β and θ about the x, y and z axes can be adjusted.
If the adjustment is possible, projection exposure can be performed sequentially at a plurality of positions on the substrate 5 to be exposed, or patterns set on the liquid crystal panel 1 can be connected or combined.

The size of the pattern projected and exposed on the substrate 6 is a size obtained by multiplying the pattern size on the liquid crystal panel 1 by the projection magnification of the projection optical system 5. In the optical fiber plate 9, the magnification of the pattern does not change before and after the passage.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing still another configuration of the liquid crystal matrix projection exposure apparatus of the present invention. The feature of this device is that the microlens array 10 is placed at a position separated from the emission surface of the liquid crystal panel 1 by a predetermined distance. Micro lens array 1
“0” means that a number of minute-diameter element lenses 13 are arranged in close contact as shown in FIG. 7, and the optical axis of the lens is arranged perpendicular to the liquid crystal panel 1.

In this case as well, the external shape of the microlens array 10 and the shape of the lens array element lenses 13 may be arbitrarily set, but the configuration is such that there is as little gap between the element lenses 13 as possible. In addition, the thickness of the element lens 13, that is, the diameter of the cross section or the distance between opposite sides is made larger depending on the thickness of the cell boundary line of the liquid crystal panel 1 and the size of the TFT. The imaging performance is set so that the size of the cell of the liquid crystal panel 1 is resolved, and the thickness of the cell boundary line and the size of the TFT of the liquid crystal panel 1 are not sufficiently resolved.

The liquid crystal panel 1 is illuminated by the illumination optical system 3 to form a bright and dark pattern on the light exit side of the liquid crystal panel 1 with the illuminating light, and the light exit surface of the liquid crystal panel 1 is used as an object plane. An optical image is formed by the micro lens array 10. The illumination optical system 3 may be any as long as it has a light source in the exposure wavelength band, such as various lamps and lasers.

On the image plane of the microlens array 10, a pattern-shaped bright and dark image of the liquid crystal panel 1 is formed.
Of the liquid crystal panel 1 and the size of the cell boundary line and the size of the TFT of the liquid crystal panel 1 are not sufficiently resolved. Even if there is a light-shielding portion and a TFT, the pattern image on the image plane of the microlens array 10 has a shape smoothed so that the connection boundary of the pattern designated on the liquid crystal panel 1 and the existence of the TFT are not conspicuous. Becomes

Therefore, when the light image is projected onto the substrate to be exposed 5 via the projection optical system 5 such as a projection lens, the photosensitive material applied on the substrate to be exposed 6 Can be exposed to a smoothed pattern shape so that the connection boundary and the existence of the TFT are not conspicuous. Therefore, projections and constrictions conventionally formed on the transfer pattern do not appear.

Although the light immediately after passing through the liquid crystal panel 1 is polarized light, the light travels while changing the vibration direction while skewing through each element lens of the microlens array 10, so that the direction of the vibration surface of the light is The light is unspecified, and light having no azimuth on the vibration plane of light is emitted. Vertical and horizontal patterns of the same quality are formed.

Further, the oblique line pattern can be formed more smoothly than before.

The size of the pattern projected and exposed on the substrate 6 is a size obtained by multiplying the pattern size on the liquid crystal panel 1 by the projection magnification of the projection optical system 5. In the microlens array 10, the magnification of the pattern does not change before and after the passage.

If the sharpness of the image to be formed is adjusted by adjusting the installation position of the microlens array 10, the size of the image of each element lens 13 at the image formation position can be adjusted. By optimizing the amount of overlap of the images, a transfer pattern connected more smoothly can be obtained.

Also in this case, similarly to the case of FIG. 1, 7 is a liquid crystal panel stage, 8 is a substrate stage to be exposed, and although these stages are fixed, pattern transfer is possible.
Movement in x, y, z directions and / or x, y,
It is better if the rotation angles α, β, and θ around the z-axis can be adjusted. If the rotation angles can be adjusted, projection exposure is sequentially performed on a plurality of positions on the substrate 5 to be exposed, or a pattern set on the liquid crystal panel 1 is used. Can be connected or synthesized.

Also, as shown in FIG.
In the case where is used, unlike the case where the optical fiber tapered conduit 2 or the optical fiber plate 9 is used, there is an advantage that there is no component that comes close to or in contact with the liquid crystal panel 1. Since a component that is close to or in contact with the light transmitting portion is not used, the possibility of permanent scratches or defects in the liquid crystal panel 1 due to contact or dust is reduced.

[0062]

As described above, according to the present invention, the light-shielding portion such as the cell boundary line or the driving TFT in the liquid crystal panel is not projected and exposed as it is, and the light intensity distribution of the pattern is smoothed. Be transformed into Therefore, projections and constrictions conventionally formed on the transfer pattern do not appear.

Further, since the light whose direction of the vibrating surface of the light is unspecified is emitted, the directionality of the pattern formation is lost, and the same quality pattern can be formed in the vertical and horizontal directions.

Furthermore, patterns oblique to the cell arrangement of the liquid crystal panel 1 can be formed by connecting them more smoothly than in the past.

Therefore, the degree of freedom of the liquid crystal matrix projection exposure is increased, and the pattern accuracy is also improved, so that components such as micromachines, which are finer and have higher precision than before, can be easily formed without a reticle.

Since a reticle is not required, if it is used for forming a fine pattern of many kinds in a small quantity, the product price can be greatly reduced and the production period can be greatly shortened. In addition, since the pattern can be changed or corrected arbitrarily and immediately, a variety of patterns can be formed.

Since the pattern data on the liquid crystal panel 1 is the same binary data as the design data, the design data can also be automatically converted immediately by a computer into a control command for each cell of the liquid crystal panel.

Further, since the pattern can be inspected by directly comparing it with the design data, errors and defects can be greatly reduced, and the pattern can be changed or corrected extremely easily.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a liquid crystal matrix projection exposure apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of an optical fiber tapered conduit.

FIG. 3 is an optical micrograph of a pattern transferred according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is another configuration diagram of the liquid crystal matrix projection exposure apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of an optical fiber plate.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing still another configuration of the liquid crystal matrix projection exposure apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of a micro lens array.

FIG. 8 is an optical micrograph of a pattern transferred by a conventional apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 liquid crystal panel 2 optical fiber taper conduit 3 illumination optical system 5 projection optical system 6 substrate to be exposed 7 liquid crystal panel stage 8 substrate stage to be exposed 9 optical fiber plate 10 micro lens array

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H01L 21/30 515F

Claims (3)

[Claims] A liquid crystal panel, an illumination optical system for illuminating the liquid crystal panel, and the liquid crystal so that the illumination light transmitted through the liquid crystal panel corresponding to a pattern shape specified to the liquid crystal panel is incident. An optical fiber taper conduit disposed in close contact with or close to the panel, and a projection optical system for projecting an emission surface of the optical fiber taper conduit onto a substrate surface to be exposed, to a shape corresponding to a pattern shape specified for the liquid crystal panel. A liquid crystal matrix projection exposure apparatus, which projects and exposes the substrate to be exposed. 2. A liquid crystal panel, an illumination optical system for illuminating the liquid crystal panel, and the liquid crystal such that the illumination light transmitted through the liquid crystal panel corresponding to a pattern shape specified to the liquid crystal panel is incident. An optical fiber plate disposed in close contact with or in close proximity to the panel; and a projection optical system for projecting an emission surface of the optical fiber plate onto a substrate surface to be exposed, wherein the optical fiber plate has a shape corresponding to a pattern shape specified for the liquid crystal panel. Liquid crystal matrix projection exposure apparatus characterized by projecting and exposing an exposure substrate 3. A liquid crystal panel, an illumination optical system for illuminating the liquid crystal panel, a microlens array for projecting an illumination light exit surface of the liquid crystal panel, and light of the liquid crystal panel exit surface projected by the microlens array. A projection optical system for projecting an image on the surface of the substrate to be exposed, and a liquid crystal matrix projection exposure apparatus for projecting and exposing the substrate to be exposed in a shape corresponding to a pattern shape specified on the liquid crystal panel.