Patent ID: 7108752

Claim:
A liquid processing apparatus comprising: a liquid processing section for applying a predetermined liquid processing to a substrate; a carrier delivery section for delivering a carrier having a plurality of substrates housed therein; a carrier stock section capable of storing a plurality of carriers; a substrate transfer section for transferring a plurality of substrates from a carrier on the carrier stock section into said liquid processing section; a carrier transfer device for transferring a carrier within said carrier stock section; a substrate inspecting device for inspecting the number and/or housed state of substrates within a carrier; and a carrier transfer device control section for controlling said carrier transfer device, wherein the carrier stock section includes carrier holding members for holding carriers, and a substrate delivery stage through which substrates are transferred between the substrate transfer section and a carrier, the carrier transfer device control section controls the carrier transfer device to store a carrier on the carrier holding members of the carrier stock section, when it is judged possible to apply a liquid processing to substrates in the carrier with reference to an inspection result obtained by the substrate inspecting device, and the carrier transfer device control section further controls the carrier transfer device, after a predetermined number of carriers are stored on the carrier holding members, to transfer the carriers from the carrier holding members to the substrate delivery stage, thereby allowing substrates housed therein to be transferred into the liquid processing section by the substrate transfer section.