Patent ID: 9329060
Filing Date: 2016-05-03
CPC Classification: G01D,G03F

Claim Text:
1. An exposure apparatus that exposes a substrate with illumination light via a projection optical system and a liquid, the apparatus comprising: a frame member that supports the projection optical system; a base member placed below the projection optical system; a local liquid immersion device that has a nozzle unit arranged surrounding an optical element of the projection optical system and forms a liquid immersion area under the projection optical system with a liquid supplied via the nozzle unit, the optical element contacting the liquid; a stage system having a stage and a motor to drive the stage, that can move the substrate in directions of six degrees of freedom including a first direction and a second direction orthogonal to each other within a predetermined plane perpendicular to an optical axis of the projection optical system and a third direction orthogonal to the predetermined plane, the stage being placed on the base member and holding the substrate by a holder provided in a depressed part on an upper surface of the stage; a first measurement system that has a plurality of sensors each irradiating a measurement beam to a grating member having a reflective grating periodic in a direction parallel to the predetermined plane, and that measures positional information of the stage in the third direction; a second measurement system that is supported by the frame member, distanced from the projection optical system, and measures positional information in the third direction of a substrate held by the stage; and a controller that, in an exposure operation of the substrate, controls the stage system based on the positional information measured by the first measurement system and the positional information measured by the second measurement system, to adjust a positional relation between a pattern image and the substrate, the pattern image being formed via the projection optical system and the liquid, wherein a measurement operation of the substrate by the second measurement system is performed before the exposure operation, and in each of the exposure operation and the measurement operation, positional information of the stage is measured by the first measurement system.