PROCESSING METHOD AND SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE MANUFACTURING METHOD

摘要

There are obtained a processing method that allows adherence of foreign particles to an object to be processed in a load lock chamber to be suppressed, and a fabrication method of a semiconductor device using the processing method. The processing method includes the step of receiving a substrate that is the object to be processed at a load lock chamber (substrate load lock chamber) to load the substrate into a processing chamber where processing is to be applied to the substrate (step (S21) in Fig. 3 ), and reducing internal pressure from a substrate load lock chamber 3 (step (S23) in Fig. 3 ). In the step of reducing internal pressure (S23), pressure is released at a relatively low decompression rate, and then at a relatively high decompression rate.