Abstract: A plurality of process modules for conducting processes on a wafer; conveying modules for conveying the wafer, a turnout module for transferring the wafer to/from the conveying module, and a CPU for detecting a trouble occurring in the process module and centrally controlling each of the modules based on a detection signal. When the controller detects the trouble occurring in any one of the process modules, the wafer to be conveyed to the process module where the trouble occurs is conveyed to the turnout module, and conveyance of the wafer before the process module where the trouble occurs is temporarily stopped, and conveyance and processing of the other wafer are continued, and thereafter, conveyance and processing of the wafer before the process module where the trouble occurs are conducted.

Abstract: A cassette waiting block is connected to a transfer in/out block of a coating and developing treatment system, and in the cassette waiting block, a cassette transfer in/out unit, a cassette waiting unit, a cassette delivery unit, and a substrate processing unit are provided. In the cassette waiting block, a cassette transfer unit for transferring the cassette between the cassette transfer in/out unit, the cassette waiting unit, and the cassette deliver unit, and a transfer unit for transferring the substrate between the cassette in the cassette waiting unit and the substrate processing unit are provided. Each cassette waiting unit has an opening mechanism for opening a port of the cassette.

Abstract: Herein disclosed is an imaging apparatus, carrying out a step of calculating an exposure value based on image data obtained by the imaging section, a step of computing a shutter speed by mean of, for example, a program AE control in accordance with the exposure value calculated in the calculation step; a step of determining, in accordance with the shutter speed computed in the computation step, a continuous shooting speed indicative of the number of photographs per unit time; and a step of driving the imaging section so that a photographing operation is carried out with the continuous shooting speed thus determined.

Abstract: In a coating and developing apparatus applied to liquid-immersion light exposure, substrates without an appropriately formed protective film can be recovered without adversely affecting normal-substrate processing efficiency, and in addition, removal of protective films can be simplified. In the coating and developing apparatus of the present invention, abnormal substrates not appropriately surface-coated with a protective film during liquid-immersion light exposure are queued in a queuing module, instead of being loaded into an exposure unit, and after the immediately preceding substrate has been unloaded from the exposure unit and loaded into a designated module, for example, a pre-developing second heating module, each abnormal substrate is loaded into the designated module in order to prevent so-called “scheduled transfer” from being affected, and a protective-film removing unit is also controlled to process the abnormal substrate.

Abstract: A coating and developing apparatus having a plurality of cassettes includes at least a step of acquiring, for each of all wafers retained in the cassettes, wafer attribute information associated with a cassette retaining that wafer and a process recipe, a step of acquiring inside-cassette information associated with the retained wafer, a step of acquiring information on a process recipe in an exposure apparatus directly from the exposure apparatus, and a step of determining a processing order for the plurality of wafers based on the attribute information, the inside-cassette information, process recipe information of the coating and developing apparatus which the coating and developing apparatus has, and the process recipe information of the exposure apparatus acquired from the exposure apparatus.

Abstract: In a digital camera 1, when a shutter key is operated, a CPU 13 executes the shooting process (Step S103), extracts a face image from this shot image (Step S104), and judges whether the extracted face image is a face image registered in a face image registration table (Step S106). When judged that the registered face image is contained in the image which has just been shot, the CPU 13 turns ON an already-shot flag for the registered face image judged to be contained in the face image registration table (Step S107). Also, the CPU 13 detects a face image that has not been shot yet which is a registered face image for which the already-shot flag F is in the OFF state in the face image registration table (Step S108), and displays the detected face image that has not been shot yet in the display section 14 (Step S109).

Abstract: The present invention is a substrate treatment method in which a treatment by supplying a treatment solution from a nozzle to a substrate is successively performed for a plurality of substrates, which comprises the step of, during the performance of the successive treatments, performing between the treatments a plurality of pre-dispenses for different purposes of the treatment solution, wherein at least a recipe of the treatment solution to be pre-dispensed or a start condition of the pre-dispense is determined for each of the pre-dispenses. According to the present invention, the pre-dispense can be performed at a necessary and sufficient frequency to shorten the suspension time due to the pre-dispenses in the substrate treatment. This improves the throughput and reduces the number of pre-dispenses, resulting in reduced consumption of the treatment solution.

Abstract: A substrate processing apparatus of the invention comprises a transfer schedule creating section, a transfer schedule storage section, a transfer control section which controls, by referring to the transfer schedule, plural transfer mechanisms so as to transfer a substrate written into data of a cycle containing plural transfer operations to a module corresponding to the substrate, and a standby position control section which operates such that, by referring to the transfer schedule stored in the transfer schedule storage section, after one transfer mechanism completes the transfer operations allotted to itself in one cycle, and during a period that another transfer mechanism executes the transfer operations allotted to itself in the one cycle, the standby position control section moves the one transfer mechanism and puts the one transfer mechanism on standby at a front module when viewed in the transfer operation in the modules allotted thereto in a next cycle.

Abstract: In a coating and developing apparatus that forms a resist film on substrates such as semiconductor wafers, and develops substrates exposed by an aligner, times after the aligner unloads substrates until heating units (PEB) start heating the substrates are kept uniform. Exposed wafers are prevented from being left stagnant in an interface portion disposed between a region in which resist is coated and developed and the aligner. In the region in which resist is coated and developed, a first transferring means that successively executes transportation cycles to transfer substrates from upstream side modules to downstream side modules in a flow of processes of substrates. N heating units (PEB) are disposed (n is for example 5). Exposed wafers loaded into the heating units (PEB) are unloaded by the first transferring means after (n?1) cycles including the transferring cycle of the first transferring means have elapsed.

Abstract: In a coating/developing apparatus, a process section includes post-exposure baking units each having a waiting position and configured to perform a baking process on a substrate. An interface section transfer mechanism includes a first transfer mechanism configured to transfer the substrate to and from the process section and to load the substrate into the post-exposure baking units, and a second transfer mechanism configured to transfer the substrate to and from the light exposure apparatus. An interface section includes a relay position configured to place thereon the substrate transferred by the second transfer mechanism, and to allow the first transfer mechanism to receive the substrate therefrom. A control section is arranged to set the substrate on standby at the relay position and the waiting position, to make a time period constant among substrates from an end of the light exposure process to a start of a post-exposure baking process.

Abstract: When a trouble occurs in a substrate treatment apparatus, the substrate existing in the substrate treatment apparatus is quickly collected without exerting adverse effects on the subsequent substrate treatment to resume the substrate treatment early. At the time of occurrence of trouble in a coating and developing treatment apparatus, all of the substrates in the coating and developing treatment apparatus are collected to a transfer-in/out section using a transfer unit in the apparatus. In this event, each transfer unit transfers the substrate from each position at the time of occurrence of trouble in a direction toward the transfer-in/out section for collection. Further, the substrate under treatment in the treatment unit at the time of occurrence of trouble is collected after the treatment is finished.

Abstract: Once an imaging mode is set, an imaging apparatus displays a through image with a tracking frame on the predetermined position. If a shutter button is pressed halfway, an object that is overlapped by the tracking frame is recognized as a main subject that a user wants to capture. Until the shutter button is fully pressed or until the halfway-press is released, it is detected where the recognized subject is in frame image data that is captured in sequence, and the tracking frame is displayed based on the detected position. If the halfway press of the shutter button is released before the shutter button is fully pressed, the tracking frame is displayed on the predetermined position. Then if the shutter button is pressed halfway once again, the process is repeated.

Abstract: A coating and developing system includes a cassette station, a processing station and an inspection station interposed between the cassette station and the processing station. Time for which a substrate is held uselessly in the inspection module is reduced. A substrate carrying means disposed in the inspection module places priority to transferring a substrate between the cassette station and the processing station, and transfers a substrate to an inspection module in a part of a cycle time in which a substrate carrying means disposed in the processing station carries out one carrying cycle. It is permitted to carry out a substrate from the inspection module in a skip carrying mode, in which a substrate specified by a larger ordinal numeral is carried ahead of a substrate specified by a smaller ordinal numeral. It is inhibited to carry a substrate to the inspection module in the skip carrying mode.

Abstract: Disclosed is a countermeasure to be taken when a fault occurs in one of process modules 11-17 or a transport module 20 that makes it impossible to transport substrates to a process module positioned downstream of a post-exposure baking module 15 in accordance with a predetermined transport schedule in a post-exposure substrate transport path that starts from an exposure apparatus 5 and goes through the post-exposure baking (PEB) module 15, a developing module 12, and a post-development baking module 15. In this instance, part of post-exposure processes to a post-exposure baking process are continuously performed to the exposed substrates and the wafers W having been subjected to the PEB process are loaded into a buffer module 32 and temporarily stored in the buffer module 32 until the fault is cleared.

Abstract: The object is to reduce the total processing time by transferring the substrate at the first delivery stage to the process block where processing can be carried out earliest. The substrate processing apparatus includes first transfer means (22) for delivering a wafer (W) with respect to a substrate carrier (C), and second transfer means (23) for delivering a wafer (W) between a plurality of process blocks (B3-B5) and the first transfer means (22) via a first delivery stage (24), to transfer the wafer (W) with respect to the process blocks (B3-B5). In this apparatus, the process block where there is no wafer (W) or where processing of the last wafer (W) within the relevant process block will be completed earliest is determined based on processing information of the wafers (W) from the process blocks (B3-B5), and the wafer (W) of the first delivery stage (24) is transferred by the second transfer means (23) to the relevant process block. This ensures smooth transfer of the wafer (W) to the process block.

Abstract: A wafer flow recipe is prepared. Based on this wafer flow recipe, there are estimated and calculated respectively a PCD time from a time point at which a process for coating a resist liquid on a substrate by a coating unit has been terminated to a time point at which a first heating process is started at a first heating unit, a PAD time from a time point at which the first heating process has been terminated at the first heating unit to a time point at which an exposure process is started, and a PED time from a time point at which the exposure has been terminated to a time point at which a second heating process is started at a second heating unit. Then, these estimated times are displayed.

Abstract: A substrate processing apparatus having a recipe storage section, a transfer control section and a transfer schedule changing section which, when delivery of an n-th substrate from a transfer art to the previous module is delayed by “m” cycles, changes a transfer schedule so as to move each of n-th and subsequent substrates (including the n-th substrate) in the transfer schedule to a module to which an “m”-th substrate following the substrate has been allocated, and transferring the changed transfer schedule data to the transfer control section.

Abstract: A substrate processing apparatus of the invention comprises a transfer schedule creating section, a transfer schedule storage section, a transfer control section which controls, by referring to the transfer schedule, plural transfer mechanisms so as to transfer a substrate written into data of a cycle containing plural transfer operations to a module corresponding to the substrate, and a standby position control section which operates such that, by referring to the transfer schedule stored in the transfer schedule storage section, after one transfer mechanism completes the transfer operations allotted to itself in one cycle, and during a period that another transfer mechanism executes the transfer operations allotted to itself in the one cycle, the standby position control section moves the one transfer mechanism and puts the one transfer mechanism on standby at a front module when viewed in the transfer operation in the modules allotted thereto in a next cycle.

Abstract: The present invention is a substrate treatment method in which a treatment by supplying a treatment solution from a nozzle to a substrate is successively performed for a plurality of substrates, which comprises the step of, during the performance of the successive treatments, performing between the treatments a plurality of pre-dispenses for different purposes of the treatment solution, wherein at least a recipe of the treatment solution to be pre-dispensed or a start condition of the pre-dispense is determined for each of the pre-dispenses. According to the present invention, the pre-dispense can be performed at a necessary and sufficient frequency to shorten the suspension time due to the pre-dispenses in the substrate treatment. This improves the throughput and reduces the number of pre-dispenses, resulting in reduced consumption of the treatment solution.

Abstract: A coating and developing apparatus having a plurality of cassettes includes at least a step of acquiring, for each of all wafers retained in the cassettes, wafer attribute information associated with a cassette retaining that wafer and a process recipe, a step of acquiring inside-cassette information associated with the retained wafer, a step of acquiring information on a process recipe in an exposure apparatus directly from the exposure apparatus, and a step of determining a processing order for the plurality of wafers based on the attribute information, the inside-cassette information, process recipe information of the coating and developing apparatus which the coating and developing apparatus has, and the process recipe information of the exposure apparatus acquired from the exposure apparatus.