Patent ID: 8145339

Claim:
A substrate transfer method adopted in a substrate processing apparatus that transfers substrates, taken out of a substrate storage container one at a time into a processing chamber, repeatedly executes a manufacturing process on the substrates and a cleaning process for cleaning the interior of the processing chamber, and includes an interrupt start button operated to start interrupt substrate processing on one or more interrupt substrates similar to the manufacturing process executed on product substrates, the one or more interrupt substrates being taken from a second substrate storage container, and a storage unit that stores a normal transfer pattern defining an order in which product substrates to undergo the manufacturing process and dummy substrates to be used in the cleaning process are to be taken out of substrate storage containers, an interrupt transfer pattern with one or more interrupt substrates replacing a specific number of product substrates in the normal transfer pattern, and a substrate transfer history with respect to substrates having been taken out of the substrate storage containers, the substrate transfer method comprising: performing a normal transfer pattern cycle corresponding to the normal transfer pattern by transferring individual substrates out of the substrate storage container in the order defined in the normal transfer pattern; detecting when the interrupt start button has been depressed; and when the interrupt start button is detected as having been depressed, determining if the transfer pattern cycle has ended based upon the transfer history, and when the transfer pattern cycle is determined to have ended, immediately starting an interrupt transfer pattern cycle corresponding to the interrupt transfer pattern by transferring the one or more interrupt substrates out of the second substrate storage container in the order defined in the interrupt transfer pattern, and when the normal transfer pattern cycle is determined not to have ended, allowing the normal transfer pattern cycle to end and then starting the interrupt transfer pattern cycle, and resuming control that allows individual substrates to be taken out of the substrate storage container in the order defined in the normal transfer pattern after the interrupt transfer pattern cycle ends.