An in-line type film forming apparatus, comprising:
- a plurality of chambers which are connected to form a closed path and perform a film forming process;
- a carrier which holds a substrate which is a film forming target, in the connected chambers;
- a substrate loading robot used before film forming, which loads the substrate not subjected to film forming process on the carrier, and a substrate unloading robot used after film forming, which unloads the substrate subjected to film forming process from the carrier, provided in the same closed path;
- a transportation path which forms a closed path provided inside the connected chambers;
- a transportation device which sequentially transports the carrier between the plurality of chambers along the transportation path;
- a processing chamber which is disposed to deviate from the closed path, which is directly or indirectly connected to any chamber of the plurality of chambers, which does not include the carrier inside, and which processes the substrate;
- a loading and unloading unit which unloads the substrate from the carrier, and moves the substrate to the inside of the processing chamber and which takes out the substrate processed in the processing chamber from the processing chamber, loads the substrate on the carrier in the same closed path;
- a control device which performs control of allowing the carrier to sequentially move to chambers on a downstream side on the transportation path, and allowing a film forming process to be performed with respect to the substrate;
- a stock holder capable of accommodating a plurality of substrates provided in the processing chamber;
- wherein the control device drives the loading and unloading unit to unload the substrate from the carrier and to move the substrate to the inside of the processing chamber, and drives the loading and unloading unit to take out the substrate, which is processed in advance in the processing chamber, from the processing chamber and to load the substrate on the carrier in the same closed path;
- wherein the stock holder is configured by accommodating the substrate during processing;
- wherein the closed path has a rectangular shape, and the processing chamber is directly or indirectly connected to a connection corner chamber which is a corner chamber disposed at a corner of the rectangular closed path;
- wherein the processing chamber is connected to the connection corner chamber through a sub-chamber,
- the sub-chamber includes an extended transportation path which is extended from the transportation path in the connection corner chamber,
- the connection corner chamber and the sub-chamber include an auxiliary transportation path which is provided in parallel with the extended transportation path, and
- the control device drives the loading and unloading unit to unload the substrate from the carrier disposed on the extended transportation path or the auxiliary transportation path, and to move the substrate to the inside of the processing chamber, and drives the loading and unloading unit to load the substrate processed in advance in the processing chamber on the carrier disposed on one of the extended transportation path and the auxiliary transportation path,
- wherein the substrate loading robot used before film forming, the substrate unloading robot and the loading and unloading unit are separately provided.