Patent ID: 8904955

Claim:
A substrate processing apparatus, comprising: a boat including a plurality of holding members and configured to hold a plurality of substrates horizontally; a process chamber accommodating the boat when the plurality of substrates are processed; and a control unit configured to execute a first recipe for processing the plurality of substrates and a second recipe for a maintenance of the process chamber, wherein the control unit is configured to: (a) execute the first recipe; (b) start a watch timer when the plurality of substrates are completely processed by completing execution the first recipe; (c) execute the second recipe without any substrates loaded in the boat when a predetermined time elapses after starting the watch timer; (d) restart the watch timer when the second recipe is completed; and (e) repeatedly perform steps (c) and (d) until an instruction to process next substrates to be processed is received, wherein the control unit is configured to start processing the next substrates to be processed according to the instruction by executing the first recipe after execution of the second recipe is complete without restarting the watch timer when the instruction is received during the execution of the second recipe, and wherein the control unit is configured to start processing the next substrates to be processed according to the instruction by executing the first recipe when the instruction is received after the execution of the second recipe is complete.