Patent ID: 8593780

Claim:
A substrate removing method comprising: providing a substrate processing apparatus including an electrostatic chuck made of a dielectric material enclosing an electrostatic electrode plate to which DC voltage is applied, and a chamber having a ground potential and housing the electrostatic chuck on which a substrate is placed to be electrostatically adsorbed by the electrostatic chuck, and a plasma process is performed on the substrate; maintaining a potential of the electrostatic electrode plate after the plasma process at a predetermined potential which is the same as the potential of the electrostatic electrode plate during the plasma process; when an absolute value of a potential generated at the substrate is |A| after a DC discharge is generated between the substrate and the chamber, changing the potential of the electrostatic electrode plate from the predetermined potential to a first value such that the absolute value of the potential of a placing surface of the electrostatic chuck on which the substrate is placed becomes |A|, the polarity of the potential of the placing surface after the change and the polarity of the potential of the substrate become the same as each other, and the absolute value of the potential difference between the substrate and the chamber becomes |A| or more, thereby generating the DC discharge between the substrate and the chamber; and removing the substrate from the electrostatic chuck in a state where the potential difference between the placing surface and the substrate is being eliminated substantially.