Patent ID: 7789577

Claim:
A coating and developing system, comprising: a film forming unit block disposed behind a carrier block to form films including a resist film on a substrate carried in a carrier delivered to the carrier block; an interface block disposed behind the film forming unit block to transfer the substrate provided with the films including the resist film to an exposure system; and a developing unit block disposed on the film forming unit block to process the substrate returned from the exposure system through the interface block by a developing process, the developing unit block including a substrate carrying passage, along which the substrate is carried from the interface block toward the carrier block and the substrate processed by the developing process is transferred to the carrier block, wherein the developing unit block further includes developing modules for processing a substrate by the developing process, and a substrate carrying means for carrying a substrate to and receiving a substrate from the developing modules, and wherein each of the developing modules includes: a pair of rotating members respectively having horizontal axes of rotation parallel to each other and disposed longitudinally opposite to each other, a carrying passage forming mechanism extended between the rotating members, capable of moving along an orbital path and forming a part of the carrying passage for the substrate supported thereon, a sending-in transfer unit disposed at an upstream end of the carrying passage to transfer a substrate from the substrate carrying means to the carrying passage forming mechanism, a sending-out transfer unit disposed at a downstream end of the carrying passage to transfer a substrate from the carrying passage forming mechanism to the substrate carrying means, a developer pouring nozzle for pouring a developer onto a substrate, a cleaning liquid pouring nozzle for pouring a cleaning liquid onto a substrate, and a gas blowing nozzle for blowing a gas against a substrate, arranged in that order from an upstream side toward a downstream side of the carrying passage between the upstream and the downstream end of the carrying passage.