Patent ID: 7964042

Claim:
A substrate processing method comprising: a) a wet processing step of performing a wet processing to a surface of a substrate using a processing liquid while rotating the substrate in a substantially horizontal state at a first speed; b) a puddle forming step of forming a puddle liquid film of the processing liquid on the substrate by reducing a rotation speed of the substrate to a second speed slower than the first speed; c) a replaced-region forming step of forming a replaced region only in a central part of the liquid film formed on the substrate, by supplying a low surface-tension solvent whose surface tension is lower than that of the processing liquid only to the central part of the liquid film formed on the substrate while maintaining the rotation speed of the substrate at a third rotation speed not more than the second speed, the replaced region being formed by replacing the processing liquid with the low surface-tension solvent; d) a replacing step of replacing the liquid film of the entire substrate surface with the low surface-tension solvent by continuing to supply the low surface-tension solvent to the central part of the substrate surface, while rotating the substrate at a rotation speed faster than the third rotation speed, to expand the replaced region in a radial direction of the substrate; and e) a drying step of drying the substrate surface by removing the low surface-tension solvent from the substrate surface after the replacing step.