Patent ID: 7379785

Claim:
A substrate processing system for a substrate processing apparatus having two transferring means, a transfer processing unit, and a plurality of processing units, the transfer processing unit functioning as a transferring portion, the two transferring means transferring a substrate processed by a processing apparatus to the processing units through the transfer processing unit, the system comprising: n number of transfer processing units that perform a predetermined process for the substrate processed by the processing apparatus where n is any integer that is 2 or larger; first transferring means for successively executing transportation cycles to successively and individually transfer substrates from modules where the substrates are placed to downstream modules so as to successively and individually take out substrate from the transfer processing units and transfer the substrates to the processing units; second transferring means for successively and individually transferring substrates processed by the processing apparatus to the transfer processing units; and a controlling portion that controls the first transferring means to successively and individually unload substrates from the transfer processing units after (n−m) cycles including the current transportation cycle have elapsed where m is any integer that is 1 or larger and smaller than n.