Patent ID: 7645081

Claim:
A coating and developing apparatus, comprising: a carrier block into which substrates are carried by a carrier; a processing block to and from which the substrates that have been carried into the carrier block are transferred, the processing block forming a film coating, inclusive of a resist film, upon the substrates; and an interface block for conveying to an optical exposure apparatus the substrates each having the film coating formed thereon by the processing block; wherein: the processing block includes a plurality of resist-film forming blocks each extending from a direction of the carrier block, towards the interface block, and a developing block extending from the direction of the carrier block, towards the interface block; conveyance means for substrate loading into the processing block is provided in the carrier block, the conveyance means for substrate loading adapted to convey the substrates from the carrier to the resist-film forming blocks; conveyance means for substrate loading into the exposure apparatus is provided in the interface block, the conveyance means for substrate loading adapted to convey the substrates to the exposure apparatus and after unloading the substrates therefrom, convey the substrates to the developing block; the conveyance means for substrate loading into the processing block conveys the substrates from the carrier, one at a time, to each resist-film forming block sequentially and periodically, and the conveyance means for substrate loading into the exposure apparatus loads the substrates from each resist-film forming block into the exposure apparatus in the sequence that each substrate has been conveyed to each resist-film forming block by the processing block loading conveyance means.