Patent ID: 7572335

Claim:
A crystallization apparatus comprising: a phase-shift mask having at least two phase-shift sections; an illumination system which emits a light beam of a given wavelength range to illuminate the phase-shift mask; and an image-forming optical system arranged in an optical path between the phase-shift mask and a subject to be processed, the phase-shift mask converting an intensity pattern of the light beam emitted from the illumination system so as to have a light intensity distribution having inverted peak pattern portions having a smallest peak value of light intensity in portions corresponding to the phase-shift section, and applying the light beam to the subject to crystallize the substrate, wherein the phase-shift mask and the subject are arranged in a conjugate position of the image-forming optical system, and the image-forming optical system has an aberration corresponding to the given wavelength range to form a light intensity distribution of waveform patterns with no swell of intensity in a middle portion between the inverted peak pattern portions on the subject, wherein the aberration corresponding to the given wavelength range is a chromatic aberration that represents that optical components of different wavelengths vary in image-forming positions almost in a direction of an optical axis.