Patent ID: 7377053

Claim:
A method for drying substrates which dries a surface of each of the substrates, comprising: housing substrates within a processing vessel containing a cleaning fluid; lowering a fluid face of the cleaning fluid within the processing vessel with respect to the substrates; introducing a drying fluid under a liquid condition within the processing vessel using a nozzle with the nozzle forming individual liquid drops of the drying fluid and supplying the liquid drops onto the fluid face of the cleaning fluid such that a liquid layer of the drying fluid on the cleaning fluid is continuously maintained; supplying inert gas into the processing vessel during exhausting of the cleaning fluid from the processing vessel; controlling the lowering a fluid face, the introducing a drying fluid and the supplying inert gas with a control section; and determining an introduction direction of the drying fluid into the processing vessel and determining an introduction initial speed of the drying fluid so as to expand the drying fluid up to an entire width of the substrates on the fluid face of the cleaning fluid.