Patent ID: 7037560

Claim:
A method of modifying a metal oxide film formed on a surface of a target process object, the method comprising: loading the target process object including the metal oxide film formed thereon into a process vessel; feeding oxygen gas into an ozone generator connected to the process vessel, and generating a process gas containing ozone in the ozone generator; supplying the process gas from the ozone generator into the process vessel, wherein the process gas is supplied from a showerhead disposed above the target process object in the process vessel, and the showerhead comprises gas injection pipes arrayed to form a grid and having gas injection holes formed in the gas injection pipes and directed into the process vessel toward the target process object; exciting the process gas in the process vessel by a gas exciting system provided on the process vessel, thereby generating active oxygen atoms from the process gas; and exposing the metal oxide film to the active oxygen atoms to modify the metal oxide film, wherein the gas exciting system comprises a UV radiating system configured to irradiate the process gas with UV rays, the showerhead is disposed between the UV radiating system and the target process object, and the gas injection pipes are arrayed to form a grid of the showerhead where a projection area from the pipes which is projected on the target process object is smaller than 20% of opposed surface area of the target process object.