Patent ID: 7485188

Claim:
A coating process apparatus for performing a coating process to form a coating film by discharging a coating liquid onto a target substrate while rotating the target substrate so as to expand the coating liquid radially outward on the target substrate, the coating process apparatus comprising: (a) a plurality of coating process units disposed at different heights each for performing the coating process, each of the coating process units includes a substrate holding member configured to hold a target substrate in a substantially horizontal state, a motor configured to rotate the substrate holding member, a coating liquid discharge nozzle configured to discharge a coating liquid onto the target substrate held by the substrate holding member, and a detecting device configured to optically detect discharge of the coating liquid from the coating liquid discharge nozzle; (b) coating liquid supply mechanisms respectively connected to the coating process units, each of the coating liquid supply mechanisms includes a pump connected to the coating liquid discharge nozzle through a supply line and configured to cause the coating liquid to be discharged from the coating liquid discharge nozzle, and a valve provided on the supply line and configured to open and close the supply line; and (c) a controller configured to control an operation of the coating process apparatus and preset to use a detection signal of the detecting device to calculate a discharge start delay, which is a delay of a start of coating liquid discharge from the coating liquid discharge nozzle relative to a start of coating liquid supply determined by an operation of at least one of the pump and the valve, and to use the discharge start delay to correlatively control the motor, the pump, and the valve, so as to remove variations in a matching time interval among the plurality of coating process units, wherein the matching time interval is an interval between a drive start time point of the motor to rotate the substrate holding member and a discharge start time point of the coating liquid from the coating liquid discharge nozzle, in the coating process.