Patent ID: 8709170

Claim:
A supercritical drying method for a semiconductor substrate, comprising: cleaning the semiconductor substrate with a chemical solution; rinsing the semiconductor substrate with pure water to cover a surface of the semiconductor substrate with the pure water after the cleaning; supplying a water soluble organic solvent onto the semiconductor substrate after the rinsing, to replace the pure water covering the surface of the semiconductor substrate with the water soluble organic solvent; introducing the semiconductor substrate into a chamber, the surface of the semiconductor substrate being covered with the water soluble organic solvent; increasing a temperature inside of the chamber up to a critical temperature of the water soluble organic solvent or higher, to turn the water soluble organic solvent into a supercritical state; after turning the water soluble organic solvent into the supercritical state, increasing a temperature inside of the chamber to turn pure water in the chamber into steam while maintaining the water soluble organic solvent in the supercritical state; and decreasing a pressure inside of the chamber while keeping a temperature inside of the chamber at a predetermined value at which the steam is not liquefied, to turn the water soluble organic solvent in the supercritical state into a gaseous state, thus discharging the water soluble organic solvent from the chamber.