An exposure apparatus and method exposes a substrate via a projection optical system and a liquid supplied to an immersion region below the projection optical system. First and second holding members move below the projection optical system and each can hold a substrate in a hole of an upper surface thereof. A controller is arranged to control a drive system such that, when one holding member of the first and second holding members is arranged opposite to the projection optical system, the other holding member of the first and second holding members comes close to the one holding member, and such that the close first and second holding members are moved relative to a liquid immersion member so that the other holding member is arranged opposite to the projection optical system in place of the one holding member while the immersion region is substantially maintained below the projection optical system.

The present disclosure relates to a dynamic lithographic exposure method, and an associated apparatus, which exposes a photosensitive material over a plurality of depths of focus respectively spanning a different region of the photosensitive material. By exposing the photosensitive material over a plurality of depths of focus, the exposure of the photosensitive material is improved resulting in a larger lithographic process window. In some embodiments, the dynamic lithographic exposure method is performed by forming a photosensitive material over a substrate. The photosensitive material is exposed to electromagnetic radiation at a plurality of depths of focus that respectively span a different region within the photosensitive material. Exposing the photosensitive material to the electromagnetic radiation modifies a solubility of an exposed region within the photosensitive material. The photosensitive material is then developed to remove the soluble region.

An exposure apparatus and method exposes a substrate via a projection optical system and a liquid supplied to an immersion area below the projection optical system. First and second movable members move below the projection optical system. The first movable member holds a substrate in a hole of an upper surface of the first movable member. The upper surface outside the hole can maintain at least a part of the immersion area outside the substrate held in the hole. A drive system drives the first and second movable members to move the first and second movable members below the projection optical system relative to the liquid immersion region to replace one member positioned below the projection optical system with the other member such that the liquid immersion area is maintained below the projection optical system.

An exposure apparatus and method exposes a substrate via a projection optical system and a liquid supplied to an immersion area below the projection optical system. First and second movable members move below the projection optical system. The first movable member has a mount area that mounts a substrate located in a hole of an upper surface of the first movable member. The upper surface outside the hole can maintain at least a part of the immersion area outside the substrate mounted in the hole. A drive system drives the first and second movable members to move the first and second movable members below the projection optical system relative to the liquid immersion region to replace one member positioned below the projection optical system with the other member such that the liquid immersion area is maintained below the projection optical system.

A laser processing system includes a laser apparatus configured to output pulse laser light; a diffractive optical element configured to divide the pulse laser light into multiple first diffracted luminous fluxes to be radiated to multiple processing points on a workpiece, and multiple second diffracted luminous fluxes to be radiated to multiple non-processing points on the workpiece; a focusing optical system configured to focus each of the first and second diffracted luminous fluxes at the workpiece; an adjustment mechanism configured to adjust pulse energy of the pulse laser light incident on the diffractive optical element; and a processor configured to control the adjustment mechanism based on parameters including a processing threshold Fth of a fluence for processing the workpiece in such a way that a fluence F.sub.OKm of the first diffracted luminous fluxes at a surface of the workpiece is greater than the processing threshold Fth, and a fluence F.sub.NGm of the second diffracted luminous fluxes at the surface of the workpiece is smaller than or equal to the processing threshold Fth.

An exposure process determination method of projecting an image of a pattern of an original onto a substrate and exposing the substrate according to the present invention, includes: a flatness obtaining step of obtaining a flatness in an exposure region of the substrate; an evaluation value deriving step of deriving an evaluation value based on the flatness; and a determining step of determining whether to perform multifocal exposure in which exposure processing is performed a plurality of times at a plurality of focus positions on the exposure region of the substrate based on the evaluation value.