Patent ID: 6949319

Claim:
A method for determining depth of focus in a process for forming a resist pattern, the process for forming the resist pattern including forming a resist layer on a substrate surface, the resist layer including a plurality of subpatterns, each of which has one of a plurality of values of depth of focus and has a common value of exposure amount; exposing the resist layer with a reticle mask by reduction-projection; and developing the resist layer, the method for determining depth of focus comprising: measuring, for the plurality of values of the depth of focus, at least one of a top dimension and an edge dimension of a specific section of a specific pattern of a resist pattern; determining, for each of the plurality of values of the depth of focus, a value Y expressed by the following Formula (1): Y=f ( F ) Formula (1) in which F represents the depth of focus and f(F) represents a function of the depth of focus F, which includes said at least one of a top dimension and an edge dimension; and finding an upper limit value of the depth of focus at a time of exposing the reticle mask, which upper limit value is a positive value F max at which the value Y exhibits one of a maximum and a minimum.