Patent ID: 7133122

Claim:
An exposure method comprising: (a) emitting light beams from a light source; (b) irradiating the light beams to a spatial light modulator in which a plurality of pixel portions are arranged whose light modulation states change in correspondence to control signals; (c) in the spatial light modulator, optically modulating the irradiated light beams in correspondence to control signals at each of the plurality of pixel portions, and emitting the light beams; (d) irradiating the light beams that have been optically modulated and emitted from the spatial light modulator to a microlens array in which a plurality of microlenses are arranged at a pitch corresponding to the plurality of pixel portions and which condenses, per microlens, the light beams modulated by the pixel portions; (e) in the microlens array, condensing the light beams that have been modulated at the plurality of pixel portions of the spatial light modulator, per microlens; (f) making the light beams that have been condensed by the plurality of microlenses incident to incident ends of a plurality of optical fibers whose emission ends are tapered and which are arranged at a pitch corresponding to condensing positions of the plurality of microlenses; and (g) exposing a photosensitive material by evanescent light leaking out from the emission ends of the plurality of optical fibers.