Patent ID: 7446858

Claim:
An exposure method, comprising: illuminating a mask with an optical beam from an illumination system; and exposing a substrate with the optical beam through the mask and a projection system, wherein a light amount distribution of the optical beam on a predetermined plane in the illumination system, which is conjugated with a pupil plane of the projection system, is set such that an amount of light is set larger in three areas than in an area other than the three areas, the three areas including a first area and two second areas, a gravity center of amount of light of the first area being approximately coincident with an optical axis of the illumination system, the first area comprising a plurality of areas different from each other, and the two second areas being nearly symmetrically arranged with respect to the optical axis, centers of the plurality of areas are out of the optical axis and distances from the centers of the plurality of areas to the optical axis are approximately identical, optical beams generated from the two second areas are respectively linearly polarized, and directions of polarization of optical beams distributed in the second areas are respectively substantially coincident with a tangent direction.