Patent ID: 8282744

Claim:
A substrate processing method comprising: supplying processing liquid from a processing liquid supply part; and processing a plurality of substrates in a plurality of substrate processing units with the processing liquid, wherein the method further comprises sequentially carrying the substrates to each of the substrate processing units, a processing start time in each of the substrate processing units is controlled such that if a flow rate of the processing liquid used in a single substrate processing unit is less than a controllable flow rate at the processing liquid supply part, the substrates are continuously carried to a predetermined number of the substrate processing units until a combined flow rate of the processing liquid used in the predetermined number of the substrate processing units reaches the controllable flow rate at the processing liquid supply part, and then the processing liquid is used simultaneously in the predetermined number of the substrate processing units, the processing liquid supply part dilutes a second fluid with a first fluid to produce a predetermined concentration of the processing liquid and supply the produced processing liquid to the substrate processing units after the production of the processing liquid, and the processing start time is controlled such that if a flow rate of the second fluid contained in the predetermined concentration of the processing liquid used in one of the substrate processing units is less than the control flow rate of the second fluid that is controllable at the processing liquid supply part, the substrates are carried to the plurality of the substrate processing units until the flow rate of the second liquid reaches the control flow rate of the second fluid that is controllable at the processing liquid supply part, and then the processing liquid is use simultaneously in the plurality of the substrate processing units.