Patent ID: 8792086

Claim:
A pattern formation method in which a pattern is formed on an object held by a movable body moving substantially along a two-dimensional plane, the method comprising: a drive process in which while positional information of the movable body in a direction orthogonal to the two-dimensional plane and a tilt direction with respect to the two-dimensional plane is detected using (i) a first detection device that detects the positional information of the movable body related to the direction orthogonal to the two-dimensional plane and the tilt direction with respect to the two-dimensional plane from measurement results using a measurement beam irradiated along the two-dimensional plane between an outside of an operating area of the movable body and the movable body and (ii) a second detection device that has a plurality of detection positions and detects positional information of the movable body related to the direction orthogonal to the two-dimensional plane at each detection position, the movable body is driven in at least one of the direction orthogonal to the two-dimensional plane and the tilt direction with respect to the two-dimensional plane based on the positional information detected by the first detection device; and a calibration process in which a predetermined calibration processing is performed using the detection information of the second detection device to improve alignment precision of a pattern with the object in at least one of the direction orthogonal to the two-dimensional plane and the tilt direction with respect to the two-dimensional plane.