Method of operating substrate processing apparatus and substrate processing apparatus

Abstract

A method of operating a substrate processing apparatus, upon the occurrence of a nonfatal failure in the apparatus, makes it possible to continue part of the apparatus operations for substrates to clean and recover a substrate or to easily discharge a substrate from the apparatus, without stopping an entire apparatus, thereby reducing the risk of a substrate becoming unprocessable. The method of operating a substrate processing apparatus having a polishing section, a cleaning section and a transferring mechanism, includes: 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, the operation varying depending on the classification of the substrate.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.