Patent ID: 8529704

Claim:
An operating method for a vacuum processing apparatus that carries out self-cleaning procedures, at a timing interval, of feeding a cleaning gas into a film deposition chamber in which a film deposition processing is carried out on a substrate, the method comprising: a step of determining the timing interval between the self-cleaning procedures so as to be in a range in which a film deposition operating time ratio is 80% or more, where the film deposition operating time ratio is a proportion of a film deposition-related operating time in a sum of the film deposition-related operating time and a cleaning-related operating time; and a step of implementing the self-cleaning procedures at the timing interval determined in the step of determining the timing interval, wherein the film deposition-related operating time includes a film deposition time and a film deposition preparation time, and the cleaning-related operating time includes a self-cleaning procedure time, a self-cleaning procedure preparation time, and a pre-deposition film deposition time.