Fluid handling structure, a lithographic apparatus and a device manufacturing method

A fluid handling structure to confine immersion liquid in a space between a projection system and a facing surface of a substrate, of a table to support the substrate, or both, the fluid handling structure comprising a transducer to control a bubble in the immersion liquid under the transducer so that it avoids entering an optical path of a projection beam from the projection system, the transducer being located in an undersurface of the fluid handling structure radially inward of an extraction opening formed in the undersurface, wherein a side-to-side dimension of the transducer is greater than or equal to a side-to-side dimension of an imaging slit through which the projection beam passes for exposure of the substrate.

A device manufacturing method comprising:

• projecting, onto a substrate, a patterned beam of radiation along an optical path through an immersion liquid confined by a fluid handling structure to a space between a projection system and the substrate;
• and
• using sonic waves emitted by a transducer to dissolve at least some of a gas in a bubble in the immersion liquid under the transducer and/or to prevent a bubble in the immersion liquid under the transducer from entering the optical path, wherein a side-to-side dimension of the transducer is greater than or equal to a side-to-side dimension of an imaging slit through which the projected beam passes for exposure of the substrate.