Patent ID: 8780317

Claim:
A film forming method comprising steps of: a first discharge step of: discharging a liquid material in a form of measurement liquid droplets onto a measurement substrate by applying a voltage to a piezo element provided at a discharge head, after impact of the measurement liquid droplets on the measurement substrate and prior to any other step, waiting a predetermined amount of time to allow the measurement liquid droplets to spread out on the measurement substrate, and after the predetermined amount of time has elapsed, measuring a diameter of the measurement liquid droplets; and after the first discharge step, a second discharge step of discharging the liquid material in a form of treatment liquid droplets onto a treatment substrate by applying voltage to the piezo element provided at the discharge head, the treatment liquid droplets impacting the treatment substrate at an impact pitch, the treatment liquid droplets forming a film on the treatment substrate, wherein the impact pitch is controlled to be roughly equal to the diameter of the measurement liquid droplets by changing the voltage applied to the piezo element.