Patent ID: 8057114

Claim:
A wet-processing apparatus for processing a substrate held in a horizontal position by pouring a processing solution onto the substrate, said wet-processing apparatus comprising: a plurality of processing modules, whose number being an even number not smaller than four, each processing module comprising a substrate holding device for holding a substrate in a horizontal position and a cup surrounding the substrate holding device, the plural processing modules being grouped into plural module groups with each module group comprising plural processing modules; a plurality of nozzle devices for pouring processing solutions onto substrates, a respective one of said plurality of nozzle devices being assigned to a respective one of the plural module groups, and each assigned nozzle device being shared by the plural processing modules within the respective module group; a plurality of nozzle moving mechanisms each for moving a respective one of said nozzle devices of each module group from one to another of the plural processing modules of the respective module group; substrate carrying means for delivering substrates to and receiving substrates from the plural processing modules; and a controller for controlling the substrate carrying means such that a succeeding one of the substrates to be successively carried is carried to a processing module of another module group other than the module group to which the substrate preceding the succeeding substrate is delivered, wherein each of the plurality of nozzle devices comprises a developing nozzle for pouring a developer onto the substrate to form a developer film and a cleaning nozzle for pouring a cleaning liquid onto the substrate after a passage of a predetermined developing time since coating the developing film; and the substrates are delivered to said plural processing modules at a fixed time interval t 1 , the nozzle device is detained by each processing module to process the substrate for a time t 2 covering the predetermined developing time, and the time interval t 1 and the time t 2 meet an inequality: t 2 >t 1 .