Patent ID: 7322756
Filing Date: 2008-01-29
Classification: H01L

Abstract:
1. A coating and developing apparatus comprising: a carrier block for carrying in and out a carrier on which a plurality of substrates are mountable; a process block in which a substrate in said carrier carried into said carrier block is transferred, and which forms a coating film including a resist film on a substrate, develops said coating film after exposure, and performs a heat processing accompanying those film formation and development; and an interface block, provided between said process block and an exposure apparatus which performs an exposure process on said coating film formed on a substrate, for transferring the substrate between said process block and said exposure apparatus, wherein after the coating film including the resist film is formed on a substrate transferred to said process block from said carrier, the substrate is transferred to said exposure apparatus via said interface block, and the substrate after exposure is returned to said process block via said interface block and is subjected to a developing process in said process block, after which the substrate is transferred to said carrier block, said process block includes a unit block for coating-film formation or a stack of plural unit blocks for coating-film formation, and a unit block for development stacked on said unit block for coating-film formation or said plural unit blocks for coating-film formation, said unit block for coating-film formation or each of said unit blocks for coating-film formation includes a liquid process unit which applies a chemical liquid to a substrate, a heating unit which heats a substrate, a cooling unit which cools a substrate, a first transfer mechanism which transfers a substrate between those units, and a first substrate retaining section for retreat, provided at each of said unit blocks for coating-film formation and retainable substrates whose quantity corresponds to a number of substrates retainable in that unit block, and said coating and developing apparatus further comprises a second transfer mechanism, intervened between said process block and said exposure apparatus, for transferring a substrate therebetween, and a control device which, upon occurrence of an abnormality in said second transfer mechanism, outputs a control instruction to control said first transfer mechanism in said unit block for coating-film formation in such a way that those substrates which are present in that unit block for coating-film formation retreat to said first substrate retaining section after an ordinary process is performed in said unit block for coating-film formation, and inhibit transfer of any substrate into said unit block for coating-film formation.