Patent ID: 8052798

Claim:
A method of removing particles from a chamber of a plasma processing apparatus, wherein the chamber is connected to a gas exhaust port and a plasma of a processing gas is generated in the chamber to plasma process a substrate to be processed, the method comprising: positively charging particles generated within the chamber by attracting positive ions toward an ion sheath region formed in a region other than the vicinity of the substrate to be processed; guiding positively charged particles towards the gas exhaust port via the ion sheath region; and discharging the positively charged particles from the chamber through the gas exhaust port, wherein the positively charging particles, the guiding positively charged particles, and the discharging the positively charged particles are performed during plasma processing, wherein during the plasma processing, a negative potential is applied to a surface of an object disposed adjacent to the ion sheath region in order to attract positive ions and the positively charged particles towards the surface of the object, and wherein the object adjacent to the ion sheath region is electrically divided into a plurality of regions depending on a distance from the gas exhaust port, and independent negative potentials are applied to the respective regions.