Patent ID: 8744614

Claim:
A substrate processing apparatus comprising: a first retaining unit and a second retaining unit which each retain substrates; n+m substrate holders (wherein n is an integer not smaller than 2 and m is a positive integer that is smaller than n and a divisor of n) capable of respectively retaining substrates in state where the substrates are arranged along a predetermined arrangement direction, the n+m substrate holders being unitarily rotatable for a substrate inverting operation; a rotation mechanism which rotates the n+m substrate holders so as to perform the substrate inverting operation and so as to arrange the n+m substrate holders along the arrangement direction in a post-rotation arrangement sequence reverse to a pre-rotation arrangement sequence in which the n+m substrate holders are arranged before rotation; a first transport robot which transports a substrate; a second transport robot which transports a substrate; and a control unit which performs: a first loading step of controlling the first transport robot so that n substrates are unloaded from the first retaining unit, then simultaneously transported and respectively loaded into n of the substrate holders consecutively arranged from one of opposite sides defined with respect to the arrangement direction by the first transport robot; an inverting step of controlling the rotation mechanism after the first loading step to rotate the n+m substrate holders so as to perform the substrate inverting operation and so as to arrange the n+m substrate holders along the arrangement direction in the post-rotation arrangement sequence reverse to the pre-rotation arrangement sequence; an unloading step of controlling the second transport robot after the inverting step so that the n substrates loaded into the n substrate holders in the first loading step are unloaded in a group of m in a sequence from the one side defined with respect to the arrangement direction and loaded into the second retaining unit by the second transport robot; and a second loading step of controlling the first transport robot after the inverting step so that n substrates are unloaded from the first retaining unit, then simultaneously transported and loaded into n of the substrate holders consecutively arranged from the one side defined with respect to the arrangement direction by the first transport robot.