Patent ID: 8740481

Claim:
A coating and developing system that: transfers a substrate, which has been loaded to a carrier block by a carrier, to a processing block; transfers, after a coating film including a resist film is formed on the substrate, the substrate to an exposure apparatus through an interface block which is located on a side of the processing block opposite to the carrier block; develops the substrate, which has been exposed and returned through the interface block in the processing block; and transfers the substrate to the carrier block, wherein: (a) the processing block includes: a coating treatment stack comprising coating treatment unit blocks vertically stacked on each other, each of the coating treatment unit blocks including: a liquid treatment module that supplies a chemical liquid for forming the coating film onto the substrate; a heating module that heats the substrate after being coated with the chemical liquid; a unit block transfer mechanism that moves on a linear transfer path connecting the carrier block and the interface block to transfer the substrates between those modules; and a developing treatment stack comprising developing treatment unit blocks vertically stacked on each other, each of the developing treatment unit blocks including: a liquid treatment module that supplies a developing liquid onto the substrate; a heating module that heats the substrate; a unit block transfer mechanism that moves on a linear transfer path connecting the carrier block and the interface block; (b) the interface block is located adjacent to the processing block and includes: a first transfer mechanism that is turnable in horizontal directions and is also movable forward and backward in horizontal directions, and that moves vertically to transfer the substrate; a second transfer mechanism that is turnable in horizontal directions and is also movable forward and backward in horizontal directions, and that moves vertically to transfer the substrate; a third transfer mechanism that transfers the substrate to and from the exposure apparatus; and a vertically multi-staged transition part located in an area across which the first and second transfer mechanisms face each other; (c) a control unit is provided to control transferring of the substrate; the transition part is configured to allow the substrate to be transferred to and from the first transfer mechanism, configured to allow the substrate to be transferred to and from the second transfer mechanism, and configured to allow the substrate to be transferred to and from the unit block transfer mechanisms at positions where the transition part is adjacent to the unit blocks, and a portion of the transition part is configured to allow the substrate to be transferred to and from the third transfer mechanism.