Patent ID: 8457788

Claim:
A method for teaching a carrier means, wherein the method is used for a substrate processing apparatus including a table for placing thereon a carrier container storing substrates therein, the carrier means, which has a holding part for holding the carrier container, a drive unit and a measuring means, and is adapted for transferring the carrier container onto the table, a coordinate position monitoring unit adapted for monitoring a coordinate position of the holding part on the coordinates of a drive system, in both of horizontal and vertical directions, based on an output of an encoder connected with the drive unit of the carrier means, and a carrier control unit adapted for controlling the carrier means, the method comprising the steps of: having the holding part of the carrier means hold a carrier jig, in a predetermined position of the holding part, the carrier jig being provided with an image obtaining means facing downward and including a light radiation part adapted for radiating light onto a region including a marker provided to the table; having the holding part of the carrier means move to a preset lowering start position, in which the holding part will start to be lowered; obtaining an image of the marker provided to the table and used for detecting a positional shift, by using the image obtaining means to radiate light onto the region including the marker and obtain an image of a position irradiated with the light in the region including the marker, comparing a position of the marker obtained in the image obtained by the image obtaining means, with the position of the marker in a view of the image obtaining means when the holding part is assumed to be in an ideal position of the lowering start position, while measuring a distance in the vertical direction between the holding part and the table by using the measuring means, further comparing the measured distance in the vertical direction with the distance in the vertical direction between the holding part and the table when the holding part is assumed to be in the ideal position of the lowering start position, calculating each correction amount, in both of the horizontal and vertical directions, for the lowering start position, then storing the calculated correction amount in a memory, whereby the preset lowering start position can be corrected with the correction amount, thereby obtaining the coordinate position of the holding part on the coordinates of a drive system, in both of the horizontal and vertical directions, corresponding to the corrected lowering start position of the holding part.