Patent ID: 7611581

Claim:
A coating-film forming apparatus comprising: a substrate loader/unloader portion; a coating portion for coating a surface of a substrate with a coating liquid; a substrate heating portion; a cleaning portion for at least one of a rear surface and an end surface of a substrate; and a robot for transferring a substrate to and from each said portion, wherein the coating portion comprises: a rotatable tray having a recessed portion for accommodating a substrate and rotatable together with the substrate; a nozzle for supplying a coating liquid; and an applicator for spreading the coating liquid, wherein the recessed portion has a depth which is substantially the same as a thickness of the substrate so that an upper surface of a substrate and an upper surface of the tray will be in the same plane when the substrate is accommodated into the recessed portion and the recessed portion has a similar shape to the substrate, the nozzle for supplying a coating liquid is positioned above a non-recessed portion of the tray and supplies a coating liquid onto a non-recessed portion of the upper surface of the tray to form a coating liquid pool, and the applicator is relatively movable in a horizontal direction in a state of maintaining a certain distance with respect to the upper surface of the substrate accommodated into the recessed portion and spreads the coating liquid of the coating liquid pool from the non-recessed portion of the upper surface of the tray onto the upper surface of the substrate.