Patent ID: 7456929

Claim:
An exposure apparatus that exposes a substrate via a projection optical system, comprising: a first stage and a second stage that are movable, on an image plane side of the projection optical system, independently of each other in a two-dimensional plane substantially parallel to the image plane, a driving system that moves the first stage and the second stage together within a predetermined region including a position directly beneath the projection optical system with the first stage and the second stage being close to or in contact with each other, a liquid immersion system that forms a liquid immersion region of a liquid on an upper surface of at least one of the stages of the first and second stages, a controller that, by moving the first and second stages together, moves the liquid immersion region between the upper surface of the first stage and the upper surface of the second stage with the liquid being retained between the projection optical system and the upper surface of the at least one of the stages, and a detecting device that detects the liquid having leaked from between the first and second stages when the liquid immersion region is moved from the upper surface of one of the stages of the first and second stages to the upper surface of the other stage of the first and second stages.