Patent ID: 8012418

Claim:
A method of processing a substrate subjected to an exposure process in a substrate processing apparatus, said method comprising the steps of: applying a chemically amplified resist onto a substrate; performing an exposure process to said substrate by an exposure apparatus and forming an acid by a photochemical reaction in an exposed portion of a resist film; determining a specified time, said specified time being a time interval between an instant at which said substrate processing apparatus receives said substrate from said exposure apparatus and an instant at which a heating process of said substrate starts in a heating processing part; the substrate processing apparatus receiving the substrate from said exposure apparatus to transport the substrate to said heating processing part; calculating a waiting time, said waiting time being obtained by subtracting a transport time required for said transport comprising the time from the substrate processing apparatus receiving the substrate from the exposure apparatus to arrival of the substrate at the heating processing part, from said specified time; and starting the heating process of said substrate in said heating processing part after a lapse of said waiting time since the arrival of said substrate at said heating processing part, to cause a reaction of a resist resin to proceed by using a product formed by said photochemical reaction as an acid catalyst.