Patent ID: 8317924

Claim:
A gas treatment apparatus for treating a target substrate using a treatment gas that is formed by gasifying a liquid raw material, the gas treatment apparatus comprising: a raw material storage container configured to store a liquid raw material; a chamber configured to receive a target substrate and have a treatment gas atmosphere; a container exhaustion mechanism configured to exhaust the raw material storage container including a container exhaustion tube connected to the raw material storage container and a container valve connected to the container exhaustion tube; a chamber exhaustion mechanism configured to exhaust the chamber including chamber exhaustion tube connected to the chamber and a chamber valve connected to the chamber exhaustion tube; a connection tube configured to connect the raw material storage container and the chamber including a connection valve; a container pressure sensor configured to detect an inside pressure of the raw material storage container; a chamber pressure sensor configured to detect an inside pressure of the chamber; and a control mechanism configured to control an overall operation of the container valve, the chamber valve, and the connection valve, to sequentially conduct, a first operation in which the container valve remains open until the container pressure sensor senses a predetermined first pressure, and then the container valve is closed after sensing the predetermined first pressure; a second operation in which the chamber valve remains open until the chamber pressure sensor senses a predetermined second pressure by accommodating a substrate in the chamber and then the chamber valve is closed after sensing the predetermined second pressure; a third operation in which the connection valve is opened; and a fourth operation in which the connection valve is closed when the chamber pressure sensor senses a processing pressure which is higher than the predetermined second pressure but lower than a vapor pressure of the liquid raw material.