Substrate processing method

A substrate processing method comprising:

• a processing liquid supplying step of supplying a processing liquid to a patterned surface of a substrate, the patterned surface having projections and recesses;
• a processing film forming step of solidifying or curing the processing liquid supplied to the patterned surface to form a processing film which holds a removal object present on the patterned surface, the processing film forming step including a step of forming the processing film such that, in an interior of a recessed portion defined between an adjacent pair of the projections of the patterned surface, the front surface of the processing film is positioned closer to a bottom of the recessed portion than top ends of the adjacent pair of the projected portions defining the recessed portion;
• a removing step of supplying a peeling liquid to the patterned surface to peel the processing film from the patterned surface together with the removal object, thereby removing the processing film from the substrate, while such a state is kept that the removal object is held by the processing film;
• and
• a substrate rotating step of holding the substrate horizontally to rotate the substrate around a vertical axis passing through a central portion of the substrate,
• wherein the substrate rotating step includes a first rotating step of rotating the substrate at a first speed until formation of the processing film from a start of supplying the processing liquid to the patterned surface, thereby causing the processing liquid to enter the recesses of the pattern surface, and a second rotating step of accelerating a rotation of the substrate to rotate the substrate at a second speed faster than the first speed after the first rotating step, thereby forming a semi-solid state film from the processing liquid on the substrate, and
• the method further comprises a heating step of heating the semi-solid state film that is started after the semi-solid state film has been formed and that is performed until the processing film is formed, and
• the semi-solid state film before start of the heating step has a front surface positioned closer to the bottom of the recessed portion than the top ends of the adjacent pair of the projected portions defining the recessed portion in the interior of the recessed portion defined between the adjacent pair of the projections of the patterned surface.