Exposure apparatus for photolithography.

摘要

The invention relates to an illuminating system in an exposure apparatus used in the fabrication of semiconductor devices to transfer patterns on a reticle to a substrate or wafer. The illuminating system includes a diaphragm (20) in which an aperture is formed to suitably shape a beam of illuminating light. According to the invention a liquid crystal display panel (22) is used as the principal part of the diaphragm, and the display panel is driven by a control unit (32) so as to display a black-and-white pattern having a white region (26) that is transparent to illuminating light and serves as a beam shaping aperture. According to the particulars of the reticle patterns a selection can be made from several different aperture patterns registered in the control unit. Therefore, when the reticle is changed the diaphragm does not need to be replaced by another. <IMAGE>