Patent ID: 8588952

Claim:
A substrate processing system comprising: modules each capable of holding a substrate and identified by module numbers indicating numerical carrying order of carrying and including a multimodule unit including three or more unit modules identified by the same module number and built to execute the same process; carrying means for taking out a substrate from a preceding module and transferring the same substrate to a succeeding module after receiving a substrate from the succeeding module in one carrying cycle, and executing one carrying cycle after another to carry substrates sequentially from lower modules identified by lower module numbers to higher modules identified by higher module numbers and to subject substrates to predetermined processes; in a normal state, substrates being carried in predetermined carrying order to the unit modules of the multimodule unit from the module preceding the multimodule unit, distribution numbers indicating distribution order in which substrates are distributed to the unit modules of the multimodule unit being assigned to the unit modules of the multimodule unit, and a substrate being delivered to a first unit module identified by a lowest distribution number of the multimodule unit after a substrate has been delivered to a last unit module identified by a highest distribution number of the multimodule unit; a storage device storing a carrying schedule formed by arranging carrying cycle data specifying carrying cycles by matching numbers assigned to substrates and modules in a time series; and a controller for controlling the carrying means to make the carrying means execute the carrying cycles such that substrates written to the carrying cycle data are carried to corresponding modules, respectively; wherein upon a change of state where at least one of the unit modules of the multimodule unit is unusable and the rest of the unit modules are usable into a state where all the unit modules of the multimodule unit are usable, the controller controls the carrying means such that the carrying means carries a substrate taken out from a module preceding the multimodule unit to a target unit module of the multimodule unit next to a proceeding unit module of the multimodule unit in carrying order, the proceeding unit being defined as one unit module of the multimodule unit to which a substrate is taken out in time nearest to time when a substrate is taken out from the module preceding the multimodule unit.