Patent ID: 8196594

Claim:
An, apparatus for removing a foreign material from a substrate, comprising: a resin sheet, the resin sheet having a Knoop hardness of 20 Hk to 200 Hk and not having an adhesive surface; an electrostatic chuck forming a substrate chucking surface to which the substrate is attracted; means for supplying the resin sheet to the substrate chucking surface; means for collecting the resin sheet; and means for transferring the substrate, wherein: the substrate supplied to the electrostatic chuck by the means for transferring the substrate is attracted to the substrate chucking surface through the resin sheet supplied by the means for supplying a resin sheet; the substrate contacts the resin sheet face-to-face and between a flat plane of the substrate and a flat plane of the resin sheet; foreign material deposited on a side of the substrate facing the substrate chucking surface is transferred to the resin sheet and removed; and the resin sheet to which the foreign material is transferred is collected by the means for collecting the resin sheet.