Coating and developing apparatus and coating and developing method

A coating and developing apparatus comprising:

• a first liquid process module configured to sequentially perform a first liquid process by a first chemical liquid on each of substrates of a substrate group having a plurality of substrates, and to sequentially perform a second liquid process by a second chemical liquid again on each of the substrates which has been subjected to the first liquid process;
• a second liquid process module to sequentially perform a third liquid process by a third chemical liquid on each of the substrates which has been subjected to the first liquid process;
• and
• a buffer module to temporarily store each of the substrates sequentially which has been subjected to the third liquid process but has not yet been subjected to the second liquid process, until the first liquid process performed on a last substrate of the substrate group is ended
• wherein each of the substrates loaded to a carrier block by a carrier is sequentially transferred to a process module where a coating film including a resist film is formed, carried to an exposure device via an interface block, and then each of the substrates which has been exposed and returned via the interface block is developed in the process module, and then transferred to the carrier block thereby sequentially performing a liquid process on each of the substrates of the substrate group.

A coating and developing method comprising:

• performing a first liquid process by a first liquid process module on a substrate of a substrate group having a plurality of substrates using a first chemical liquid;
• temporarily storing the substrate which has been subjected to the first liquid process in a buffer module;
• performing a second liquid process by a second liquid process module on the substrate taken out from the buffer module after the storing step using a second chemical liquid;
• and
• performing a third liquid process by the first liquid process module again on the substrate which has been subjected to the second liquid process using the first chemical liquid,
• wherein the second liquid process to be performed on a first substrate of the substrate group is started before the first liquid process performed on a last substrate of the substrate group is ended so that the third liquid process is to be performed on the first substrate of the substrate group right after the first liquid process is performed on the last substrate of the substrate group, and
• wherein each of the substrates loaded to a carrier block by a carrier is sequentially transferred to a process module where a coating film including a resist film is formed, carried to an exposure device via an interface block, and then each of the substrates which has been exposed and returned via the interface block is developed in the process module, and then transferred to the carrier block thereby sequentially performing a liquid process on each of the substrates of the substrate group.

A coating and developing method comprising:

• performing a first liquid process by a first liquid process module on a substrate of the substrate group using a first chemical liquid;
• performing a second liquid process by a second liquid process module on the substrate which has been subjected to the first liquid process using a second chemical liquid;
• temporarily storing the substrate which has been subjected to the second liquid process in a buffer module, until the first liquid process performed on a last substrate of the substrate group is ended;
• and
• performing a third liquid process by the first liquid process module again on the substrate taken out from the buffer module using a third chemical liquid,
• wherein each of the substrates loaded to a carrier block by a carrier is sequentially transferred to a process module where a coating film including a resist film is formed, carried to an exposure device via an interface block, and then each of the substrates which has been exposed and returned via the interface block is developed in the process module, and then transferred to the carrier block thereby sequentially performing a liquid process on each of the substrates of the substrate group.