Patent ID: 6968531

Claim:
An exposure method which processes an optical proximity correction to exposure pattern data and exposes a substrate in accordance with bitmapped pattern data, the method comprising: an optional first step of correcting the exposure pattern data, and converting the corrected exposure pattern data into plural divided exposure pattern data; an optional second step of converting the exposure pattern data into minus objective pattern data and minus pattern data, wherein an area corresponding to the minus pattern data is included in an area corresponding to the minus objective pattern data, wherein if a number of the divided exposure pattern data is expected to be less than that of the minus objective pattern data and the minus pattern data, said optional first step is processed, and wherein if a number of the minus objective pattern data and the minus pattern data is expected to be less than that of the divided exposure pattern data, said optional second step is processed; a bitmap processing step of generating the bitmapped pattern data by deleting the minus pattern data from a combination of the divided exposure pattern data and the minus objective pattern data; and an exposure step of exposing the substrate in accordance with the bitmapped pattern data.