Patent ID: 8900363

Claim:
An inline vacuum processing apparatus, comprising: a first deposition chamber and a second deposition chamber which are capable of performing any of a CVD process, an ashing process, and a pre-deposition process, a substrate transportation apparatus which transports, in only one direction, a substrate into said first deposition chamber and said second deposition chamber, a control unit configured to select one of the CVD process, the ashing process, and the pre-deposition process to be selectively performed in said first deposition chamber and said second deposition chamber, wherein said first deposition chamber and said second deposition chamber are connected in series along a direction in which the substrate is transported by the substrate transportation apparatus, wherein said control unit selects one of said first deposition chamber and said second deposition chamber as the deposition chamber to be used for the CVD process of the substrate for a consecutive predetermined number of times, and said control unit selects, in a state where the substrate does not exist in the other of said first deposition chamber and said second deposition chamber, one of the ashing process and the pre-deposition process as a process to be performed in the other of said first deposition chamber and said second deposition chamber while the CVD process is performed consecutively in said one deposition chamber of said first deposition chamber and said second deposition chamber, wherein in a case where the one deposition chamber is connected to an upstream side of the other deposition chamber, said control unit controls transportation of the substrate so that the substrate on which the CVD process has been executed in the one deposition chamber passes through the other deposition chamber and is transported directly from the one deposition chamber, through the other deposition chamber, to a chamber, connected in series to a downstream side of the other deposition chamber, to execute a post-process of the CVD process, during the transportation of the substrate in the other deposition chamber, the pre-deposition process or the ashing process in the other deposition chamber is interrupted.