Aberration measuring method for projection optical system with a variable numerical aperture in an exposure apparatus

Abstract

A method disclosed in this specification is an aberration measuring method in which a light flux converged by a condensing optical system is made incident on a optical system to be measured, the light flux that has passed through the optical system to be measured is reflected by a reflecting optical system having a center of curvature at a light convergence point on a light emergence side of the optical system to be measured is made incident on the optical system to be measure again, and wavefront aberration of the optical system to be measured is detected as interference fringes using the light flux that has passed through the optical system to be measured again. Measurement is carried out while changing the numerical aperture of the optical system to be measured to a numerical aperture larger than a numerical aperture in the actual use, thereby realizing highly precise measurement of the wavefront aberration all over the effective numerical aperture of the optical system to be measured.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.