Patent ID: 8257013

Claim:
A manufacturing method of a semiconductor device by using a substrate treatment apparatus which includes a substrate conveyance chamber having a substrate conveyance device, a plurality of treatment chambers having respective treatment times for treating each of a plurality of substrates, wherein a treatment time of at least one treatment chamber differs from the respective treatment times of the other treatment chambers, and wherein the treatment chambers are communicated with the conveyance chamber, and a control part which controls a conveyance operation of the substrate conveyance device by setting treatment schedules of the substrates, and which treats each of the substrates sequentially in the treatment chambers based on a preset same treatment schedule, the method comprising: determining a substrate loading interval based on a reference substrate loading interval, wherein the reference substrate loading interval is a time corresponding to a sum of (i) a longest treatment time of the respective treatment times of the treatment chambers, and (ii) conveyance times during which each substrate is to be conveyed to and conveyed from the treatment chamber having the longest treatment time, wherein said determining of the substrate loading interval includes executing a first process which sets the reference substrate loading interval as an initial value of the substrate loading interval, executing a second process which develops the treatment schedules of the substrates with time, executing a third process which determines an interference state of the substrate conveyance device among the developed treatment schedules, and executing a fourth process which sets an interval which is obtained by adding a predetermined interval to a currently set substrate loading interval as a new substrate loading interval when an interference of the substrate conveyance device occurs, wherein said executing of the second, third and fourth processes are sequentially repeated until the interference of the substrate conveyance devices is eliminated; conveying a first one of the substrates to a first one of the treatment chambers set in the preset same treatment schedule; and conveying successive ones of the substrates to the first treatment chamber based on the substrate loading interval.