Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. An exposure apparatus for exposing a substrate to a pattern, said apparatus comprising:a chamber in which a vacuum ambience is to be formed;a stage disposed in said chamber and configured to hold the substrate and to move;a static-pressure bearing disposed in said chamber and configured to guide movement of said stage;a supply-system piping configured to supply a gas to said static-pressure bearing from an outside of said chamber;an exhaust-system piping configured to discharge a gas, supplied to said static-pressure bearing from said supply-system piping, to an outside of said chamber to prevent the gas from leaking into said chamber; andA check valve configured to allow a gas to flow from an inside of said chamber to an outside of said chamber. 2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said apparatus is configured to expose the substrate to one of an X-ray beam, EUV light and an electron beam. 3. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said static-pressure bearing is configured to be supplied with one of a nitrogen gas, a helium gas and an inactive gas. 4. A method of manufacturing a device, said method comprising steps of:exposing a substrate to a pattern using an exposure apparatus as defined in claim 1;developing the exposed substrate; andprocessing the developed substrate to manufacture the device. 5. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said check valve is configured to open when pressure of an ambience inside said chamber is higher than pressure of an ambience outside said chamber. 6. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said check valve is configured to open when pressure of an ambience inside said chamber is higher than pressure of an ambience outside said chamber by a predetermined amount.