Patent ID: 8889337

Claim:
A film forming method for forming, on a substrate, a film used for immersion exposure processing of applying exposure processing through a liquid, comprising the steps of: forming an anti-reflection film on a surface of said substrate; forming a photoresist film on a surface of said anti-reflection film; removing excess photoresist on a circumferential periphery of the photoresist film surface; rotating the substrate with the anti-reflection film thereon, at a predetermined speed to perform a hardening process using ultraviolet rays that exposes a circumferential periphery of the anti-reflection film on the substrate to the ultraviolet rays so as to allow the anti-reflection film to be substantially uniformly hardened only at the circumferential periphery of said anti-reflection film; heating the substrate to harden a surface film, the surface film including each of said anti-reflection film and said photoresist film; supplying an edge cap peripheral film forming material, configured of a resist material having a photosensitive base removed therefrom, in a liquid state to the rotating substrate, the material, excluding a portion thereof located at an edge of the substrate, is removed using a solvent, to form an edge cap peripheral film only on a circumferential periphery of the surface film and on a boundary portion of the substrate located between a periphery of said substrate and the periphery of the surface film; and hardening said edge cap peripheral film.