Abstract: According to one of the aspects of the present invention there is provided a substrate carrier arranged to hold a substrate in position using a vacuum, the vacuum being established in a sealed space created between the substrate carrier and the substrate.

Abstract: A method of pre-aligning a substrate in a lithographic apparatus is described. The substrate has at least one alignment mark provided on a side of the substrate. The method includes determining a relationship between a position of the at least one alignment mark, at least part of an edge of the substrate, and a center of the substrate. A substrate support is provided to support a substrate, the substrate support having at least one optical view window at a predetermined location to view a part of the side of the substrate. The substrate is placed on the substrate support on the basis of the relationship to position the at least one alignment mark in the at least one optical view window.

Abstract: A lithographic apparatus has a plurality of patterning arrays (e.g., 2, 4, etc.), which are spaced apart in an object plane. A combined, overlapped image of the patterning arrays is projected onto the substrate. Because the image is formed from radiation produced from spaced apart patterning arrays, the image arrives from different angles and has a higher effective numerical aperture (NA).

Abstract: A lithographic projection apparatus is provided with an optical system built into the wafer table for producing an image of a wafer mark that is provided on the back side of the wafer. The image is located at the plane of the front side of the wafer and can be viewed by an alignment system from the front side of the wafer. Simultaneous alignment between marks on the back and front of the wafer and a mask can be performed using a pre-existing alignment system.