Patent ID: 7315354

Claim:
A near-field exposure method wherein a pressure difference is applied between a front face and a rear face of an elastically deformable exposure mask to cause deformation of the exposure mask in accordance with a substrate to be exposed and to cause the exposure mask surface to follow a surface irregularity state of the substrate so that these surfaces are closely contacted to each other, for exposure based on near field light, said method comprising: setting the pressure difference applied between the front and rear faces of the exposure mask at a predetermined pressure difference corresponding to a surface roughness of the substrate to be exposed, wherein the predetermined pressure difference is set at a pressure difference larger than a minimum pressure P, which is determined to satisfy equation (1) below, in relation to a maximum surface roughness w at a measurement length a of the substrate to be exposed: P = P m + E ⁢ 16 ⁢ hw ⁡ ( 4 ⁢ h 2 + ( 7 - v ) ⁢ w 2 ) 3 ⁢ a 4 ⁡ ( 1 - v ) ( 1 ) wherein h is a thickness of a thin-film mask base material, E is Young's modulus, v is Poisson's ratio, and P m is a pressure difference for roughly contacting a first substrate and a second substrate with each other.