Patent ID: 8675177

Claim:
An exposure method for illuminating a pattern with an illumination system to expose a substrate through a projection system, the method comprising: illuminating the pattern with illumination light having a light amount distribution which is set such that an amount of light is larger in each of two first areas than in a third area and an amount of light is larger in each of two second areas than in the third area, the third area being an area other than the two first areas and the two second areas on a pupil plane of the illumination system, the two first areas being in line so that a first straight line interconnecting the two first areas passes through an optical axis and the two first areas are located approximately at the same distance from the optical axis along the first straight line, the two second areas being in line so that a second straight line orthogonal to the first straight line at the optical axis interconnects the two second areas and passes through the optical axis and the two second areas are located approximately at the same distance from the optical axis along the second straight line; and projecting an image of the illuminated pattern onto the substrate by the projection system, wherein the light amount distribution is generated by a formation optical system which is provided on an incident side of the pupil plane in the illumination system, the third area includes the optical axis on the pupil plane, each of the two first areas is surrounded by the third area and each of the two second areas is surrounded by the third area, distances from the two second areas to the optical axis are smaller than distances from the two first areas to the optical axis, an amount of light is smaller in each of the two second areas than in each of the two first areas, and the first straight line passes through only the two first areas and the third area without passing through any of the second areas.