Patent ID: 8384881

Claim:
A lithographic apparatus comprising: an illumination system configured to condition a radiation beam; a support constructed to support 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 table constructed to hold a substrate, the substrate to be arranged on a surface of the substrate table; a projection system configured to project the patterned radiation beam onto a target portion of the substrate, a chuck constructed to hold the substrate table, the substrate table arranged on a surface of the chuck; a positioning device for, in use, displacing the chuck; a control unit configured to control the positioning device, wherein the control unit is arranged to drive the positioning device to excite the chuck by a substantially dynamic force to enable deformation of the chuck, prior to aligning the patterning device, said dynamic force adapted to mitigate a residual deformation of the chuck caused by a previous acceleration of the chuck, said residual deformation being characterized by an hysteresis and wherein the positioning device is adapted to excite the chuck to reduce said hysteresis.