Patent ID: 8015940
Filing Date: 2011-09-13
Classification: H01L

Abstract:
1. A coater/developer apparatus having a carrier block where a carrier housing plural substrates is placed and that has a transfer unit for transferring one of the substrates into and out from the carrier, and a process block where a coating film is formed on the substrate transferred from the carrier by the transfer unit and a developing process is carried out with respect to the substrate after an exposure process, wherein the process block includes plural liquid process modules where a coating solution is coated on the substrate, plural heating modules where the substrate is heated, plural temperature control modules where a temperature of the substrate is controlled, and a substrate transferring unit configured to transfer a first substrate out from a first module of the plural liquid process modules, the plural heating modules, and the plural temperature control modules, the first substrate having been processed in the first module, and transfer a second substrate into the first module, the second substrate having been processed in a second module located upstream from the first module by one process step in a wafer transfer route, and a controller further comprising: a transfer flow producing portion that produces, in accordance with a process recipe concerning the carrier in the carrier block, a transfer flow where a type of the modules listed in accordance with a substrate transfer order in the transfer flow is associated with a necessary staying time from when the substrate is transferred into any one of the modules by the substrate transferring unit to when the substrate undergoes a corresponding process in the module and is ready to be transferred back to the substrate transferring unit, the necessary staying time being determined corresponding to the type of the modules; a cycle limiting time determining portion that calculates a necessary transfer cycle time by dividing the necessary staying time by the number of the corresponding modules mounted in the coater/developer apparatus, the necessary transfer cycle time being obtained with respect to the modules listed in the transfer flow, and determines the longest necessary transfer cycle time to be a cycle limiting time; and a determining portion that calculates a value by dividing the necessary staying time by the cycle limiting time and determines the number of the modules to be used to be one of the value and a nearest integer to which the value is raised, the number of the modules to be used being determined with respect to the heating modules listed in the transfer flow.