| 摘要 |
An exposure apparatus for irradiating a photosensitive substrate arranged on a wafer stage with exposure light through a projection optical system includes a cover which extends from a wafer-side end of the projection optical system toward a vicinity of the wafer stage to surround an exposure optical path, a supply port through which purge gas formed of inert gas blows out to inside the cover, and a recovery port through which the purge gas supplied through the supply port is drawn by suction. The purge gas blows out through the supply port and is recovered through the recovery port, to form a purge gas flow inside the cover. At this time, control operation is performed such that the flow rate of the purge gas recovered through the recovery port is smaller than the flow rate of the purge gas supplied through the supply port.
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