Patent ID: 8671875

Claim:
A liquid processing apparatus comprising: n-number of substrate retainers arranged in parallel to each other in a common case, n being an integer identical to or greater than three, each of circumferences of the substrate retainers being surrounded with a cup body; a common chemical liquid nozzle configured to be movable along an arrangement direction of the substrate retainers and to sequentially apply a chemical photoresist liquid to substrates retained in the substrate retainers; n-number of cleaning nozzles, each being dedicated to one of the substrate retainers, supplying a cleaning solvent to the substrates after application of the chemical photoresist liquid by the chemical liquid nozzle; a plurality of separate exhaustion passages each connected to a corresponding cup body, each separate exhaustion passage being equipped with a branched passage open to the common case; a common exhaustion passage connected downstream of the separate exhaustion passages, inner atmosphere of the common exhaustion passage being inhaled and exhausted with a total exhaust amount E; a first controller connected to each of the separate exhaustion passages and configured to control the intake amount of external air from the corresponding cup body and from a corresponding branched passage; and a control part configured to generate a control signal setting the first controller, wherein in a first mode where the common chemical liquid nozzle is located at a setting location facing the substrate retained in the corresponding substrate retainer for one cup body, the first controller for said one cup body receives the external air only from said one cup body in a first intake amount E 1 , while the first controller for each of the remaining cup bodies receives the external air not only from each said remaining cup body in a second intake amount E 2 , with E 2 being less than E 1 , but also receives air from the corresponding branched passage for each said remaining cup body, so that the total exhaust amount E will remain constant; wherein in a second mode where the common chemical liquid nozzle is not located at a setting location facing the substrate on the corresponding substrate retainer for any cup body, the first controller for each cup body receives the external air not only from each cup body in the second intake amount E 2 , but also receives air from the corresponding branched passage for each cup body, so that the total exhaust amount E will remain constant, wherein the common exhaustion passage comprises one end directly open in the common case, and a second controller for the intake amount of external air to control the intake amount of external air entering the common exhaustion passage, and wherein the control part is configured to change the intake amount of external air by the second controller between when the chemical liquid nozzle is placed at the setting location for the one cup body and when the chemical liquid nozzle is not placed at the setting location for any of the cup bodies.