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US 7,486,385 B2Granted
Exposure apparatus, and device manufacturing method
AssigneeNikon Corporation
InventorAkimitsu Ebihara
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An immersion liquid is supplied to a space between a projection system and a substrate, and a patterned beam of radiation is projected through the liquid onto a target portion of the substrate using the projection system. The projection system is maintained in contract with the immersion liquid after the substrate has been moved away from under the projection system.
Claims26
An exposure apparatus that illuminates a pattern with an energy beam and transfers said pattern onto a substrate via a projection optical system, said exposure apparatus comprising:
- a table on which a substrate is mounted that can move two-dimensionally while holding said substrate;
- and
- a hydrostatic bearing unit arranged on an image plane side of said projection optical system, said unit including at least one hydrostatic bearing that supplies liquid in a space between a bearing surface facing said substrate mounted on said table and said substrate so as to maintain the distance between said bearing surface and the surface of said substrate by static pressure of said liquid.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.