Patent ID: 8025023

Claim:
A coating and developing system comprising: a carrier block, for holding carriers each containing a plurality of substrates, provided with a transfer means for carrying the substrate from and to each of the carriers; and a processing block for forming a film on the substrate transferred thereto by the transfer means and processing the substrate processed by an exposure process by a developing process; the processing block being provided with a substrate carrying means for carrying the substrate along a route passing a first temperature conditioning unit for adjusting temperature of the substrate to a first temperature, a first coating unit for applying a first coating solution to the substrate, a first heating unit for processing the substrate by a heating process, a second temperature conditioning unit for adjusting the temperature of the substrate to a second temperature, a second heating unit for processing the substrate by a heating process, and a cooling unit for cooling the substrate in that order, and the substrates being carried successively to modules for holding the substrate according to a carrying schedule by repeating a carrying cycle in which the substrate carrying means carries the substrate to the modules in order of increasing number of the modules such that the substrates of lower numbers are in the modules of higher numbers than the substrates of higher numbers; the improvement comprising: a temperature changing means for changing process temperature of the second heating unit from a temperature for processing a plurality of substrates of the same type of a first lot to a temperature for processing a plurality of substrates of the same type of a second lot after the completion of processing the substrates of the first lot by a heating process by the second heating unit; a buffer unit placed in the processing block and capable of holding at least one substrate succeeding a first substrate of a second lot belonging to the second lot and making the at least one substrate waiting for being heated by the at least one by the second heating unit, the buffer unit being positioned in the processing block as that the at least one substrate is carried from the first heating unit to the buffer unit and from the buffer unit to the second temperature conditioning unit; and a control means configured to control the substrate carrying means such that carrying cycles succeeding a carrying cycle in which the first substrate of the second lot is carried to the second temperature conditioning unit are executed to carry the substrates succeeding the first substrate and processed by a heating process by the first heating unit in due order to the buffer unit, and the substrates held in the buffer unit are carried in due order to the downstream modules after the process temperature of the second heating unit has been changed from the temperature for processing the substrates of the first lot to the temperature for processing the substrates of the second lot.