A exposure apparatus for a semiconductor wafer, a liquid crystal display panel and so on. The exposure apparatus comprises a light source, a holding means and a moving means. The light source exposes a target such as a semiconductor wafer, a liquid crystal display panel and so on. The holding means alternately holds and releases the target. The moving means for moving the holding means includes a table and a shifting means. The table moves in the direction of the light source. The shifting means shifts the holding means toward or against the table.

An exposure method includes disposing a mask and a semiconductor wafer opposed to each other in a close proximity relation with respect to a Z-axis direction and printing a pattern of the mask on each of different shot areas of the semiconductor wafer in a step-and-repeat manner, with a predetermined exposure energy. In this method, the spacing between the mask and the wafer for the paralleling of them is made larger than the spacing therebetween as assumed at the time of mask-to-wafer alignment with respect to X-Y plane or the spacing between the mask and the wafer as assumed at the time of exposure of the wafer to the mask. After the paralleling of the mask and the wafer, the mask and the wafer are moved closer to each other in the Z-axis direction and alignment and exposure is performed. This ensures that the alignment and exposure are effected at an optimum spacing while, on the other hand, contact of the mask and the wafer at the time of paralleling is precluded.

An exposure apparatus includes a gap measuring device for measuring a gap between a mask, having a mask membrane, and a substrate, a gap adjuster for adjusting the gap between the mask and the substrate and a driver for relatively moving the mask and the substrate relative to each other. The gap adjusting device adjusts the gap when the mask and the substrate are placed at a position at which they are opposed to each other in an area smaller than a predetermined area.

An X-ray mask membrane 12 is discussed wherein a cantilever and tip portion such as used on an atomic force or scanning tunneling microscope are fabricated directly as part of the mask. The mask is located over a wafer and the vertical (z) motion of the tip with respect to the wafer is achieved with a piezoelectric device which is mounted on a movable support above the cantilever. Piezoelectric device may be a tube having an electrode divided into quadrants so that the end of the tube could be positioned in three dimensions to allow for alignment of the end of the tube to the cantilever tip. X and Y motion of the tip and the mask membrane relative to the wafer is achieved by mounting the wafer on an x-y stage driven by piezoelectric or other transducers. The wafer includes a raised alignment mask on its upper surface. The wafer, mask membrane, and z piezoelectric tube are held rigidly but adjustably with respect to each other by a mechanical fixture. The z piezoelectric tube is lowered until it touches the cantilever; it is then lowered further by the designed gap spacing, deflecting the cantilever downward. The wafer is then raised until it is detected by the tip on the cantilever, either by sensing a tunneling current (STM) or a force (AFM). The wafer is now at the correct z gap setting, and is scanned back and forth in the x and y directions until the location of the alignment mark is determined by the cantilever tip following the contours of the alignment mark, thus setting the proper alignment between the wafer and the mask in the x, y direction.

A pin chuck holds a wafer during translation by an X-ray lithography machine. The chuck is designed to be the same size as the wafer and includes a plurality of extensions having tops along a common plane. The space between the extensions is evacuated to hold and level the wafer. In order to load or remove a wafer from the pin chuck, three extendable posts are provided which can be extended to permit a robot arm to position a wafer thereon for lowering to the pin chuck or remove a wafer therefrom lifted from the pin chuck. The three posts are triangularly positioned within a space sufficient to hold the wafer which at the same time close enough together to permit the fingers of the robot arm to fit therearound.