Exposure apparatus and device manufacturing method
AssigneesNikon Corporation, Nikon Engineering Co., Ltd.
InventorsHiroyuki Nagasaka, Takeshi Okuyama
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An exposure apparatus exposes a substrate by forming a liquid immersion region on the substrate, and projecting a pattern image onto the substrate via a projection optical system and a liquid that forms the liquid immersion region. The exposure apparatus includes a projection optical system having a plurality of optical elements, by which a pattern image is projected onto a substrate via a liquid to expose the substrate and a liquid recovery system that recovers the liquid along with a gas and has a separator that separates the recovered liquid and the recovered gas.
Claims32
An exposure apparatus comprising:
- a projection optical system having a plurality of optical elements, by which a pattern image is projected onto a substrate via a liquid to expose the substrate;
- and
- a liquid recovery system that recovers the liquid along with a gas and has a separator that separates the recovered liquid and the recovered gas.
An exposure apparatus comprising:
- means for projecting a pattern image onto a substrate via a liquid to expose the substrate;
- means for recovering the liquid along with a gas;
- and
- means for separating the recovered liquid and the recovered gas.
An exposure method comprising:
- exposing a substrate by projecting a pattern image onto the substrate via a liquid;
- recovering the liquid along with a gas;
- and
- separating the recovered liquid and the recovered gas.
A device manufacturing method comprising:
- exposing a substrate by projecting a pattern image onto the substrate via a liquid;
- recovering the liquid along with a gas;
- separating the recovered liquid and the recovered gas;
- and
- processing the exposed substrate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.