Patent ID: 7790227

Claim:
A coating film forming method comprising: holding a substrate to be processed in an approximately horizontal posture; adjusting positions of an airflow control member of an approximate ring shape and the substrate, relative to each other, in such a manner that the airflow control member is arranged close to a periphery of the substrate to be processed and surrounds the periphery of the substrate to be processed, the airflow control member having a vertical cross section which gradually becomes thicker upward from an inside toward an outside; and forming a coating film on the substrate to be processed by supplying a predetermined coating liquid to a top surface of the substrate to be processed and rotating the substrate to be processed so as to spread the coating liquid over the entire substrate to be processed, wherein the airflow control member in use has a cross section of an approximately rectangular shape defined by an upper ring portion having a vertical cross section of an approximately triangular shape and protruding upward, and a lower ring portion having a vertical cross section of an approximately triangular shape and protruding downward, at the step of adjusting the positions of the substrate to be processed and the airflow control member, the substrate to be processed and the airflow control member are accommodated in a process container having an outer circumferential wall which surrounds an outside of the substrate to be processed and capable of exhausting from a bottom thereof, and at the step of forming the coating film by rotating the substrate to be processed, an atmosphere over the substrate coat is taken in the process container from between the airflow control member and the outer circumferential wall.