Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. Proximity exposure method in which alignment of a workpiece and a mask and irradiation of the workpiece are performed with obliquely angled exposure light, comprising the following process steps: positioning a workpiece in vertical alignment with a mask on which a mask pattern is formed with light directed toward the workpiece and mask vertically from above;  arranging the workpiece spaced from the mask with a gap of a predetermined size therebetween  moving the workpiece out of said vertical alignment for aligning the workpiece relative to the mask based on an angle of incidence and an irradiation angle of the obliquely angled exposure light with respect to the mask and based on the size of said gap; and  irradiating the workpiece with obliquely angled exposure light via the mask and exposing the mask pattern onto the workpiece. 2. Proximity exposure method as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein an amount of deviation between a projection site of the mask pattern on the workpiece in vertical irradiation of the mask with light and a projection site of the mask pattern on the workpiece with oblique irradiation of the mask with light is computed, and based on this computed amount of deviation the aligning is performed. claim 1 3. Proximity exposure method as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein said aligning comprises the following steps: claim 1 X=Xn+xcex94Xxe2x88x92G xc2x7tan xcex4xc2x7cos "PHgr" Y=Yn+xcex94Yxe2x88x92G xc2x7tan xcex4xc2x7sin "PHgr" measuring the gap between the mask and the workpiece with a gap measuring device;  determining locations of mask alignment marks and workpiece alignment marks by an alignment microscope viewed from a position perpendicular to the mask;  moving the workpiece alignment marks by moving a workpiece carrier in X-Y-"THgr" directions, from first position coordinates to second position coordinates, the second position coordinates being (X, Y) determined by the formulas:  where, for any X-Y coordinates, (Xn, Yn) are the position coordinates of the determined locations of the workpiece alignment marks, (Xn+xcex94X, Yn+xcex94Y) are the position coordinates of the workpiece alignment marks of the workpiece which has been re-positioned relative to the mask alignment marks by moving the workpiece carrier in the X-Y-"THgr" directions, G is the size of the gap between the mask and the workpiece, xcex4 is angle of incidence of the obliquely angled light into the mask, and "PHgr" is the irradiation angle of the irradiation light which is incident in the X-direction of the mask pattern.