Patent ID: 8202139

Claim:
A method of operating a substrate processing apparatus having a polishing section, a cleaning section including a reversing machine for reversing a substrate and a plurality of cleaning devices for cleaning a polished substrate, and a transferring mechanism including a transporter for transporting a substrate from the polishing section to the cleaning section, said method comprising: classifying substrates, upon detection of a malfunction in any of the polishing section, the cleaning section and the transferring mechanism, according to the site of the malfunction and to the positions of the substrates in the substrate processing apparatus; and carrying out an operation for each of the substrates after the detection of the malfunction, wherein when the malfunction is detected in the polishing section, said operation comprises stopping an operation of feeding new substrates into the substrate processing apparatus and an operation of the polishing section while continuing operations of the cleaning section and the transferring mechanism, discharging a substrate present in the polishing section from the polishing section after all substrates present in the cleaning section and the transferring mechanism are discharged from the substrate processing apparatus by the operations of the cleaning section and the transferring mechanism, and cleaning the substrate discharged from the polishing section in the cleaning section or a cleaning section of another substrate processing apparatus in which the cleaning section is in normal operation.