Patent ID: 8447422

Claim:
A substrate processing apparatus comprising: a substrate carrying-in block including a carrier placing unit on which a plurality of substrate carriers each containing at least one substrate are placed, and a transfer mechanism to transfer the at least one substrate from the substrate carriers placed on the carrier placing unit; a processing block including a plurality of processing units to perform same types of processes for a plurality of substrates carried therein from the substrate carrying-in block and a substrate carrying unit to carry the plurality of substrates between the substrate carrying-in block and the respective processing units; and a control unit configured to control the substrate carrying-in block and the processing block, the control unit including a lot information acquiring unit, wherein the control unit controls the substrate carrying-in block and the processing block such that either a portion of the plurality of processing units or all of the plurality of processing units are assigned as priority processing units such that each of the priority processing units can receive and begin to process a priority substrate in preference to a normal substrate, and wherein the assignment of processing units as priority processing units is based on information acquired from the lot information acquiring unit including an estimated processing time required until a process for a priority substrate is completed within a processing unit assigned as a priority processing unit; and wherein the assigned priority processing units receive and begin to process the priority substrates and afterward the remaining processing units receive and begin to process the normal substrates, the processing of the priority and normal substrates within their respective processing units then continuing simultaneously.