Work stage of exposing apparatus, exposing method and method of manufacturing a structure

A work stage of an exposing apparatus, comprising:

• a supporting portion for supporting a peripheral portion of a thin plate-shaped work of which both front and rear surfaces are subjected to work;
• a hollow portion formed under the thin plate-shaped work at inside of the supporting portion;
• a vacuum sucking device for sucking the peripheral portion of the thin plate-shaped workpiece to the supporting portion at a time of the alignment operation;
• and
• a deflection correcting device for correcting a deflection caused at a central portion of the thin plate-shaped work by introducing a fluid into the hollow portion, the deflection correcting device comprising at least two fluid introducing systems each introducing the fluid having a different pressure to each other into the hollow portion, and opening/closing devices provided to the respective fluid introducing systems;
• the fluid introducing systems being configured such that i) a fluid pressure at a time of an alignment operation in which a position of a photomask are adjusted;
• and ii) a fluid is then blasted to a peripheral surface of the work from the supporting portion side to thereby separate the work from the supporting portion and closely contact the peripheral portion of the work to the photomask;
• and iii) a fluid pressure, at a time of an exposing operation in which the central portion of the thin plate-shaped work is closely contacted to the photomask, is set to be changeable by switching the opening/closing devices provided to the respective fluid introducing systems.