Patent ID: 11915930
Assignee: SCREEN HOLDINGS CO., LTD.
Field: Semiconductors (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 1:
2. A substrate processing method of removing a resist that has a hardened layer from a front surface of a substrate, the substrate processing method comprising:
a hardened-layer removing step of removing the hardened layer by generating an oxygen radical near the front surface of the substrate, the hardened-layer removing step including a heating step of heating the substrate to 150° C. or more and an ozone-gas supplying step of supplying an ozone gas to the front surface of the substrate being heated by the heating step; and
a wet processing step of removing the resist from the front surface of the substrate by supplying a processing liquid including a sulfuric acid to the front surface of the substrate after the hardened-layer removing step, wherein
the heating step is performed by placing the substrate on a hot plate disposed in a thermal processing chamber, and
the ozone-gas supplying step is performed by introducing the ozone gas into the thermal processing chamber,
the substrate processing method further comprising a high-temperature inert gas supplying step of introducing an inert gas having a temperature of 150° C. or more into the thermal processing chamber after finishing the hardened-layer removing step by stopping the ozone-gas supplying step, wherein the thermal processing chamber is sealed in the high-temperature inert gas supplying step so as to retain the ozone gas and the inert gas in the thermal processing chamber, and the retained ozone gas is thermally decomposed and rendered harmless.