Patent ID: 9646864
Date: 2017-05-09
CPC Classifications: H01L

Claim:
1. A substrate processing system, comprising: a plurality of processing chambers configured to perform a predetermined processing with respect to substrates; a transfer device configured to transfer the substrates to the processing chambers in a predetermined order; and a delivery unit configured to deliver the substrates between the delivery unit and the transfer device, the substrate processing system configured to sequentially process the substrates by repeating an operation in which the substrates are transferred by the transfer device from the delivery unit to the processing chambers in a predetermined transfer order, the substrate processing system further comprising: a transfer order setting unit configured to, when one or more of the processing chambers stays in a substrate loading prohibition state, set a first transfer order with respect to the remaining processing chambers into which the substrates are loadable, and configured to, if the loading prohibition state of one or more of the processing chambers is terminated and brought into a substrate loadable state, set a second transfer order including the first transfer order as it stands, with respect to all the processing chambers into which the substrates are loadable, including the processing chambers whose loading prohibition state is terminated, the second transfer order being set by adding the loading of the substrates into the processing chambers whose loading prohibition state is terminated to an end of the first transfer order; and a transfer control unit configured to switch the first transfer order to the second transfer order, wherein, when one transfer cycle ranges from the loading of a substrate into a first processing chamber to the loading of a substrate into a last processing chamber in the first transfer order and the second transfer order, the transfer control unit is configured to switch the first transfer order to the second transfer order at a predetermined transfer cycle, if the predetermined transfer cycle based on the first transfer order is ongoing at the time point at which the loading prohibition state of one or more of the processing chambers is terminated, and the transfer control unit is configured to switch the first transfer order to the second transfer order at a subsequent transfer cycle, if the predetermined transfer cycle is finished.