Patent ID: 8173201

Claim:
A film-forming method, comprising: a) discharging a liquid including a film material on an object so as to form a liquid film made of the liquid; b) irradiating the liquid film with measurement light and thus detecting reflection light from the liquid film so as to measure distribution of an optical constant, the optical constant being related to a film thickness with respect to the liquid film; and c) drying the liquid film on the object by a plurality of heater units so as to form a thin film by converting the distribution of the optical constant into distribution of a temperature of the liquid film based on converting information that relates to the optical constant of the liquid film to the temperature of the liquid film and thus forming the distribution of the temperature on the liquid film, wherein the plurality of heater units are provided in the vicinity of the liquid film, and temperatures of each of the plurality of heater units are independently controlled based on the distribution of the temperature of the liquid film to supply heat energy to the liquid film so as to dry the liquid film for forming the thin film.