Patent ID: 7461912

Claim:
A device manufacturing apparatus comprising: a discharge head for discharging a droplet containing a functional material; a stage for supporting a substrate on which said droplet is discharged, and which is capable of moving relative to said discharge head; a carrier for carrying said substrate; a detector for detecting a discharge condition of said droplet which is discharged from a discharge nozzle formed in said discharge head; a driving device for moving said discharge head with respect to said detector; and a controller for executing a detection operation by said detector during loading and unloading operations of said substrate, said loading and unloading operations being made by replacing a first substrate being the substrate currently supported on the stage with a second substrate being another substrate currently not supported on the stage, wherein said detector and said stage are provided at different locations; said detector includes a light emitter for emitting a detection light, and a receiver for receiving said detection light emitted from said light emitter; said receiver determines whether said liquid droplet is being discharged from said discharge nozzle, based on changes in the intensity of said detection light received by said receiver due to said liquid droplet passing through the optical path of said detection light; and said controller performs calibration of said receiver immediately before execution of a nozzle detection operation so as to consider a current condition of said receiver and current influences on said receiver of circumstances surrounding said receiver, said calibration including resetting of a gain data at present of said receiver.