Patent ID: 7383093
Filing Date: 2008-06-03
Classification: H01L

Abstract:
1. A substrate processing apparatus comprising a group of modules which apply parallel processing to a plurality of substrates of which the transfer order is designated, and a plurality of substrate transfer mechanisms, each of which shares a predetermined number of modules of the module group, and transfers substrates to a plurality of the shared modules, wherein each of the substrate transfer mechanisms executes one transfer cycle by sharing the operations of transferring a substrate from one module to another module later by one in order by the substrate transfer mechanisms, shifts to a next transfer cycle after executing the one transfer cycle, and executes the next transfer cycle, whereby the substrates are sequentially transferred from the module being low in order in the module group to the module being high in order in a state that the succeeding substrate does not overtake the preceding substrate, the substrate processing apparatus further comprising: a transfer schedule creating section which assigns a transfer order to said plurality of substrates in a plurality of lots according to a predetermined transfer recipe, relates the assigned transfer order of the substrate to the shared modules to specify a transfer cycle, and creates a transfer schedule by time sequentially arranging data of the specified transfer cycle; a transfer schedule storage section which stores the transfer schedule created by the transfer schedule creating section; a transfer control section which controls, by referring to the transfer schedule stored in the transfer schedule storage section, the substrate transfer mechanism so as to transfer a substrate written into the data of the transfer cycle to the shared module corresponding to the substrate, thereby causing the substrate transfer mechanism to execute the transfer cycle; and a standby position control section which operates such that, by referring to the transfer schedule, after one of said plurality of substrate transfer mechanisms completes the transfer operations allotted to itself in one transfer cycle, and during the execution of the one transfer cycle by another substrate transfer mechanism, the standby position control section anticipates from the transfer schedule a module of those shared by the one substrate transfer mechanism, at which a last wafer of a first lot is placed in a next transfer cycle, and puts the one substrate transfer mechanism on standby at the anticipated module.