Patent ID: 7817241

Claim:
A lithographic apparatus comprising: an illumination system configured to condition a radiation beam; a patterning device support constructed to hold a patterning device, the patterning device being capable of imparting the radiation beam with a pattern in its cross-section to form a patterned radiation beam; a substrate support constructed to hold a substrate; a projection system configured to project the patterned radiation beam onto a target portion of the substrate; a utility substrate storage device configured to hold a utility substrate, the utility substrate storage device being integrated with the lithographic apparatus and separate from a substrate track associated with the lithographic apparatus; a utility substrate scheduling unit configured to schedule the loading of a utility substrate in a flow of substrates in the lithographic apparatus; and a substrate handler configured to transfer a utility substrate from the utility substrate storage device to the substrate support and/or from the substrate support to the utility substrate storage device, wherein, in use, transfer of the utility substrate from the substrate support to the utility substrate storage device and/or from the utility substrate storage device to the substrate support is effected without loading the utility substrate to or unloading the utility substrate from the substrate track.