Exposure apparatus

Abstract

An exposure apparatus which irradiates, with an exposure beam through a projection optical system, a photosensitive agent applied to a substrate to form a latent image pattern on the photosensitive agent is disclosed. The exposure apparatus includes a substrate stage which drives the substrate, a focus measurement unit which obliquely irradiates the substrate with measurement light to measure the position of the substrate in the direction of the axis of the exposure beam on the basis of the light reflected by the substrate, and a controller which executes calibration for correcting, on the basis of the measurement result obtained by the focus measurement unit, the track plane of the substrate stage with reference to the reference plane of the focus measurement unit so as to set the reference plane parallel to the track plane. The substrate stage includes a reference plate and the controller controls, when measurement for correcting the track plane of the substrate stage is to be executed by the focus measurement unit, the position of the substrate stage so as to irradiate the reference plate with the measurement light.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.