Patent ID: 8043039

Claim:
A substrate treatment apparatus, comprising: a cassette loading portion on which a cassette for containing a substrate is loaded when the cassette is carried to/from outside of the substrate treatment apparatus; a substrate treatment portion that performs a treatment on the substrate; a substrate carrying portion that carries the substrate in the cassette loaded on the cassette loading portion to the substrate treatment portion, and that carries the substrate that has been subjected to the treatment by the substrate treatment portion to the cassette on the cassette loading portion; a vacant cassette loading portion disposed above the cassette loading portion and on which the cassette caused to be vacant by carrying the substrate to the substrate treatment portion is temporarily loaded; a vacant cassette transfer mechanism for transferring the vacant cassette between the vacant cassette loading portion and the cassette loading portion; and a cassette carrying apparatus that vertically moves from the outside of the substrate treatment apparatus to carry the cassette into/out of the cassette loading portion and that is provided outside the substrate treatment apparatus, wherein said vacant cassette loading portion includes two supporting members parallel to each other that support a lower surface of the cassette, and wherein said vacant cassette loading portion forms a path through which the cassette carrying apparatus and the cassette carried by the cassette carrying apparatus are vertically moved by distancing the two supporting members from each other.