Patent ID: 7262828

Claim:
A near-field photomask comprising: a light shield film and openings formed in said light shield film, wherein the openings generate near-field light in response to receiving light incident thereon, wherein the generated near-field light is usable to expose an exposure target with the near-field light, wherein the openings formed in said light shield film comprise two or more parallel rows of first slit openings each having a width smaller than 100 nm, and two or more parallel rows of second slit openings having a width smaller than 100 nm, which extend perpendicularly to two or more parallel rows of first slit openings, and interlinking at least two of said rows of first slit openings, comprising means for forming a plurality of discrete, spaced apart latent-dot-image formed areas, spaced apart from each other along two perpendicular directions on an exposure target in response to each of the first and second slit openings receiving polarized light having an electric field component parallel to the two or more parallel rows of first slit openings.