Patent ID: 7473518

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a device, said method comprising the steps of: (i) providing a near-field photomask comprising a light shield film for constituting a light shield portion and openings formed in the light shield film, wherein the openings comprise two or more parallel first slit openings lengthening in a first direction and a second slit opening lengthening in a second direction that is perpendicular to the first direction, wherein the second slit opening interlinks the first slit openings; (ii) forming a photoresist layer on a substrate; (iii) exposing the photoresist layer to near-field light through the near-field photomask using polarized exposure light having an electrical field component parallel to the first direction to form a latent image in the photoresist only in discrete regions at which the second slit opening crosses the light shield portion; (iv) forming a pattern of the photoresist layer based on the latent image; and (v) etching a surface of the substrate based on the pattern.