JPH11242340A - Pattern transfer method for large-sized substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To lessen the labor required for exposure work of patterns in a pattern transfer method for a large-sized substrate. SOLUTION: An exposure pattern consists) of regular patterns 1 and an outer frame pattern 2 of a rectangular shape. The exposure pattern is divided to end patterns 3, 4 and an inner pattern 5 on the inner side thereof. The inner pattern 5 is bisected in the long side direction of a rectangular shape constituting the outer frame pattern 2 to form divided patterns 51. The divided patterns 51 are formed at the center of the mask 6 and the both end patterns 3, 4 are formed at both ends thereof by reversing the arrangement in the long side direction from the arrangement on the exposure pattern. The divided patterns 51 of the mask 6 are transferred twice in juxtaposition to the prescribed position on the substrate 8 and thereafter, the end patterns 3, 4 are transferred. At the time of the exposure of the end patterns 3, 4, the divided patterns 51 of the mask 6 do not overlap on the substrate 8 and, therefore, there is no need for shielding the mask 6.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a regular pattern in which a large number of patterns are regularly arranged on a large area substrate such as a shadow mask, a liquid crystal substrate, a color filter, and the like. The present invention relates to a large substrate pattern transfer method for exposing and transferring an exposure pattern composed of a rectangular outer frame pattern surrounding the outside of a substrate and a photosensitive resin layer on a substrate surface by a division sequential exposure method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, shadow masks, liquid crystal substrates,
In a color filter or the like, a pattern is formed on the entire surface of the substrate using a photolithography technique. This pattern includes, for example, a regular pattern 1 in which a large number of patterns are regularly arranged as shown in FIG. 9, and a rectangular outer frame pattern 2 surrounding the outside of the regular pattern 1.

When such a pattern is formed, the entire pattern cannot be exposed by a single exposure with a normal exposure apparatus on a large substrate. For example, the entire pattern is divided into four parts as shown in FIG. And each section 11-14
A divided sequential exposure method in which exposure is performed using a different mask every time is employed. In this case, a division sequential exposure method by projection exposure is usually employed.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned prior art, a different mask is required for each of the divided sections, and it is difficult to align the joints of the respective sections. There is a problem that it takes.

The present invention has been made in view of the problems of the prior art described above. An exposure pattern consisting of a regular pattern and a rectangular outer frame pattern surrounding the regular pattern is formed by a sequential exposure method. An object of the present invention is to reduce the labor required for pattern exposure in a large-sized substrate pattern transfer method including an exposure step.

[0006]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a regular pattern in which a large number of patterns are regularly arranged, and a rectangular outer frame pattern surrounding the outside of the regular pattern. In the pattern transfer method for a large substrate, which transfers an exposure pattern consisting of, to a photosensitive resin layer on a substrate surface by a divided sequential exposure method, the exposure pattern includes an end pattern forming both ends of the rectangle in a long side direction. The inner pattern is divided into inner patterns excluding both end patterns, the inner pattern is equally divided in the long side direction, and the divided one divided pattern and the arrangement in the long side direction on both sides are opposite. A pattern transfer method for a large-sized substrate, characterized in that a divisional and sequential exposure is performed by using one mask having both end patterns arranged as described above.

According to this method, for example, the division pattern is transferred a plurality of times by exposing the mask so as to block both end patterns, and after the transfer of the inner pattern is completed, the transfer of each end pattern is performed. Do. Here, since the end patterns are arranged on the mask with the arrangement in the long side direction being reversed, the division pattern of the mask does not overlap with the substrate when exposing each end pattern. Therefore, exposure of the end pattern can be performed without shielding the mask.

The exposure pattern to be transferred to the photosensitive resin layer on the substrate surface by the divided sequential exposure method includes a regular pattern in which a large number of patterns are regularly arranged, and a rectangular pattern surrounding the regular pattern. When configured with an outer frame pattern, if the regular pattern has a random shape within the range of allowable positional deviation, the positional deviation of the joint portion can be made non-linear, Even if there is a misalignment, it will not be noticeable.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an example of an exposure pattern to be transferred to a substrate, and FIG.
FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a mask used to transfer this exposure pattern by a sequential exposure method. The exposure pattern shown in FIG. 1 can be formed by divided sequential exposure using one mask shown in FIG.

The exposure pattern includes a regular pattern 1 in which a large number of rectangular patterns are regularly arranged, a rectangular outer frame pattern 2 surrounding the outside of the regular pattern 1,
It is composed of In this embodiment, this exposure pattern is divided into end patterns 3 and 4 at both ends in the long side direction of the rectangle forming the outer frame pattern 2 and an inner pattern 5 inside the both end patterns 3 and 4. The pattern 5 was divided into two equal parts in the long side direction to obtain a divided pattern 51.

A divided pattern 51 is formed at the center of the mask 6, and both end patterns 3 and 4 are formed on both sides thereof with the arrangement in the long side direction being opposite to that on the exposure pattern. That is, on the exposure pattern of FIG. 1, the end pattern 3 forming the left end is disposed on the right side on the mask 6, and the end pattern 4 forming the right end on the exposure pattern is disposed on the left side on the mask 6. ing. Further, a gap is provided between the divided pattern 51 and both end patterns 3 and 4.

Using this mask 6, first, as shown in FIG. 3, proximity exposure is performed in a state in which both end patterns 3 and 4 of the mask 6 are shielded by shielding plates 7.
The division pattern 51 is transferred to a predetermined position on the substrate 8. Next, the substrate 8 or the mask 6 is horizontally moved to a predetermined position, and the same exposure as described above is performed, and a new divided pattern 51b is transferred next to the already transferred divided pattern 51a.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4, the proximity exposure is performed with the mask 6 placed on the substrate 8 so that the end pattern 4 on the left side of the mask 6 matches the right end of the substrate 8. Is performed, the end pattern 4 is transferred to the right end of the substrate 8. At this time, since the divided pattern 51 of the mask 6 does not overlap with the substrate 8, the exposure of the end pattern 4 can be performed without blocking the mask 6.

Next, the mask 6 is placed on the substrate 8 so that the end pattern 3 on the right side of the mask 6 matches the left end of the substrate 8.
By performing the same exposure as described above in the state of being placed on the substrate 8, the end pattern 3 is transferred to the left end of the substrate 8. At this time, since the divided pattern 51 of the mask 6 does not overlap with the substrate 8, the exposure of the end pattern 3 can be performed without blocking the mask 6. Thereby, exposure of the end pattern 3 can be performed in a short time.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 5, a mask in which both end patterns 3 and 4 are arranged on both sides of the divided pattern 51 in the same manner in the long side direction as on the exposure pattern. 6, as shown in FIG. 6, when exposing the end patterns 3 and 4, the entire mask 60 overlaps with the substrate 8. Therefore, the exposure is performed in a state where a portion other than the transfer pattern of the mask 60 is shielded by the shielding plate 71. Need to do.

Since a square is a special case of a rectangle, the present invention is naturally applied to the case where the outer frame pattern 2 is a square. In this case, the "long side direction of the rectangle" is "one of the squares". Direction along the side of The divided pattern 51 of the mask 6 in FIG. 2 is obtained by dividing the inner pattern 5 into two equal parts in the long side direction, but may be divided into three or more equal parts.

In the case where proximity exposure is performed by dividing the exposure pattern as shown in FIG. 1 into a plurality of portions, as shown in FIG. If the shape is random within the range of the shift, the position shift of the joint portion can be made non-linear, so that even if there is a position shift at the time of exposure, it becomes inconspicuous. In order to obtain such an effect, it is more preferable that the regular pattern 5 has a random shape within the range of allowable positional deviation over the entire area.
Some effect can be expected even if the regular pattern 5 only in the vicinity of the joint portion is formed in such a shape.

On the other hand, if the alignment is not performed accurately in the above-described four-division exposure, for example, as shown in FIG. 10, the positional deviation is linearly distributed, so that it can be visually recognized clearly.

In order to form the regular pattern 5 in a random shape within the allowable range of positional deviation, when forming the pattern on the mask by a known method such as a laser drawing method or a projection exposure method, for example, And a method of changing one or both of the reference position and the reference dimension of each pattern.

The reference position (x, y) and reference dimensions (a, b) of each pattern are set, for example, as shown in FIG. Then, the allowable displacement is X direction and Y position.
If both directions are Δ and both the reference position (x, y) and the reference dimension (a, b) are changed, X, Y,
A and B are set as in the following equations, respectively, and R1 to R4
Is randomly changed within a range of −1 to +1. R
As 1 to R4, an output result or the like obtained by a function for generating a predetermined random number can be used.

X = x + (Δ / 2) · R1 ‥‥ (1) Y = y + (Δ / 2) · R2 ‥‥ (2) A = a + (Δ / 2) · R3 ‥‥ (3) B = b + (Δ / 2) · R4 ‥‥ (4) The positioning error δ when forming a pattern on the mask
Is not so large as to be negligible compared to the allowable positional deviation amount Δ, taking into account this positioning error δ, X,
It is necessary to set Y, A, and B as follows.

X = x + ((Δ / 2) − (δ / 2)) · R1 ‥‥ (5) Y = y + ((Δ / 2) − (δ / 2)) · R2 ‥‥ (6) A = A + ((Δ / 2)-(δ / 2)) · R3 ‥‥ (7) B = b + ((Δ / 2)-(δ / 2)) · R4 ‥‥ (8) The displacement is Δ in both the X and Y directions, and the reference position (x, y) and the reference dimension (a,
When changing any of b), X and Y or A
For either of B and B, (Δ / 2) in each of the above equations is represented by Δ
And (δ / 2) may be set in accordance with the equation where δ is set. In addition, any other method may be used as long as the sum of the positional deviations of each pattern is within Δ in both the X direction and the Y direction.

The divided pattern 51 of the mask 6 shown in FIG.
Only the both ends (the end patterns 3 and 4 sides) of the regular pattern, more preferably the entire regular pattern, may be formed in a random shape within the range of the allowable positional deviation as described above. In this case, as described above, the exposure of the end patterns 3 and 4 can be performed without being shielded by one mask 6, and the displacement of the joint portion becomes non-linear, so that the transfer during the transfer is not possible. Both effects can be obtained, which are inconspicuous even if there is a misalignment.

[0024]

As described above, according to the method of the present invention, an exposure step of exposing an exposure pattern composed of a regular pattern and a rectangular outer frame pattern surrounding the regular pattern by a sequential exposure method is included. In the pattern transfer method for a large substrate, the end pattern can be exposed without shielding the mask, so that the labor required for the pattern exposure operation can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an example of an exposure pattern transferred to a substrate in one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a mask used to transfer an exposure pattern by a divided sequential exposure method in one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a method of exposing a divided pattern using the mask of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a method for exposing an end pattern using the mask of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing an example of a mask including an end pattern and a division pattern, which does not correspond to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing a method of exposing an end pattern using the mask of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing an example of a regular pattern having a random shape within a range of an allowable displacement.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a method of forming a regular pattern having a random shape within a range of an allowable positional shift on a mask.

FIG. 9 is a plan view showing a conventional exposure pattern dividing method.

FIG. 10 is a plan view showing a state of displacement of an exposure pattern according to a conventional method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Regular pattern 2 Outer frame pattern 3 End pattern 4 End pattern 5 Inner pattern 51 Divided pattern 6 Mask 8 Substrate

Claims (1)

[Claims] An exposure pattern comprising a regular pattern in which a large number of patterns are regularly arranged and a rectangular outer frame pattern surrounding the outside of the regular pattern is formed on a substrate surface by a division sequential exposure method. In the pattern transfer method for a large substrate to be transferred to a photosensitive resin layer, the exposure pattern is divided into an end pattern forming both ends in the long side direction of the rectangle and an inner pattern excluding both end patterns, and the inner pattern is formed. Is divided equally in the long side direction, and one divided pattern is used, and one mask having both end patterns arranged on both sides thereof with the arrangement in the long side direction reversed. A pattern transfer method for a large-sized substrate, wherein the pattern is sequentially exposed by light exposure.