Peeling apparatus and peeling method

A peeling method of peeling a device substrate from a stacked workpiece obtained by attaching said device substrate through a thermoplastic adhesive to a support substrate by using a peeling apparatus comprising:

• a first surface plate having a first holding surface for holding the entire surface of said support substrate under suction and a first heating member for heating said first holding surface;
• a second surface plate having a second holding surface for holding the entire surface of said device substrate under suction and a second heating member for heating said second holding surface, said first holding surface and said second holding surface being opposed to each other;
• and
• moving means for relatively moving said first surface plate and said second surface plate so that said first holding surface and said second holding surface are relatively moved away from each other in a direction perpendicular to said first holding surface and said second holding surface, said peeling method comprising:
• a holding step of holding said support substrate of said stacked workpiece on said first holding surface of said first surface plate under suction and holding said device substrate of said stacked workpiece on said second holding surface of said second surface plate;
• a heating step of heating said first holding surface and said second holding surface after performing said holding step until the viscosity of said thermoplastic adhesive is decreased to a predetermined viscosity or less and said thermoplastic adhesive is therefore softened;
• and
• a peeling step of operating said moving means after performing said heating step to relatively move said first surface plate and said second surface plate away from each other in the direction perpendicular to said first holding surface and said second holding surface, thereby vertically separating said device substrate and said support substrate from each other.