Patent ID: 7802536

Claim:
An apparatus that drops on a substrate a liquid to be applied thereon and rotates said substrate to cause a force to disperse said liquid in a form of a film to form a film applied on an upper surface of said substrate, comprising: means for holding and rotating said substrate substantially horizontally; means for feeding and dropping said liquid to be applied onto said upper surface of said substrate; a processing cup including an opening opened upward to allow said substrate to be loaded and unloaded, an exhaust port for exhausting an unnecessary atmosphere produced in forming said film applied on said substrate, and an aspiration port for aspirating external air; and means for aspirating said unnecessary atmosphere through said exhaust port, wherein when said substrate is accommodated in said opening of said processing cup, said substrate has a perimeter spaced from said opening by a predetermined gap and substantially separates a processing space located above said substrate and a space located below said substrate, and below said substrate accommodated in said processing cup there is formed an exhaust flow path extending from said aspiration port to said exhaust port, with said predetermined gap and said exhaust flow path communicating with each other, wherein said processing cup includes an outer peripheral member surrounding an outer side of said substrate, an air stream controlling member disposed within said outer peripheral member, said air stream controlling member being under and adjacent to said substrate and surrounding said means for substantially horizontally holding and thus rotating said substrate, and an internal cup disposed within said outer peripheral member and below said air stream controlling member, wherein said outer peripheral member includes a first vertical wall in the form of a cylinder and an inner peripheral portion defining said opening, wherein said air stream controlling member includes a wall that forms said exhaust flow path, wherein said internal cup includes a second vertical wall corresponding with said first vertical wall of the outer peripheral member to define said aspiration port, and a bottom portion disposed at a lower end of an inside of said second vertical wall, said bottom portion being proximate to said exhaust port.