Patent ID: 8154106

Claim:
A coating and developing system that forms a resist film on a substrate and forms a water-repellent protective film on the resist film, or forms a water-repellent resist film on the substrate, and processes the resist film by a developing process after the resist film has been processed by immersion exposure, said coating and developing system comprising: a cleaning unit cleaning a surface of a substrate coated with a resist film covered with a protective film for forming the water-repellent protective film on the resist film or the water-repellent resist film; a first carrying means taking out the substrate from the cleaning unit with the water-repellant protective film on the resist film or the water-repellent resist film, and carrying the substrate to an exposure system that carries out an immersion exposure process; a timer for measuring a time interval between a wetting time point when the surface of the substrate is wetted with the cleaning liquid by the cleaning unit and a delivery time point when the substrate is delivered to the exposure system; and a controller having a storage memory storing a first program for controlling the first carrying means such that the time interval is equal to a predetermined first set time interval; wherein the first set time interval is determined such that the substrate is subjected to the immersion exposure process after contact angle drop rate at which contact angle between the cleaning liquid and a surface of the substrate drops has dropped from an initial level at the wetting time point when the surface of the substrate is wetted with the cleaning liquid to a level far lower than the initial level and the contact angle has dropped to substantially a fixed level.