Patent ID: 8206076

Claim:
A substrate processing system comprising: a processing block that is configured to process substrates in a single-substrate mode; a transfer in/out block that is configured to transfer the substrates into/from said processing block, the processing block and the transfer in/out block being adjacent to each other; said transfer in/out block having a cassette mounting unit that mounts a cassette housing a plurality of substrates on the cassette mounting unit, the transfer in/out block configured to transfer the substrates from/into the cassette on said cassette mounting unit into/from said processing block; a cassette waiting block provided adjacent to said transfer in/out block; and in said transfer in/out block, further comprising cassette waiting units configured to store a plurality of cassettes, a cassette delivery unit configured to deliver the cassette to/from said transfer in/out block, and a substrate pre-processing unit configured to accept transfer of the substrates from the cassette waiting units and configured to perform pre-processing on the substrates before the cassette is transferred from said transfer in/out block, wherein the substrate pre-processing unit in said cassette waiting block is configured to accept one substrate at a time from the cassette waiting units for processing therein and performs at least one of temperature regulation processing, adhesion treatment, or thermal processing.