Substrate processing apparatus and substrate processing method

A substrate processing apparatus that continuously performs a series of processing while changing an orientation of a substrate, the substrate processing apparatus comprising:

• a carrier placement shelf on which a carrier that stores a plurality of substrates in a horizontal orientation at predetermined intervals in a vertical direction is placed;
• an indexer robot that takes out and stores a predetermined number of substrates from and in the carrier;
• an orientation changing mechanism that changes the orientation of a predetermined number of substrates into a horizontal orientation and a vertical orientation;
• a liquid processing tank in which a plurality of substrates in the vertical orientation are arrayed in a horizontal direction and immersed in a processing liquid;
• a single wafer substrate processing chamber that performs drying processing on substrates in the horizontal orientation one by one by rotating the substrates in the horizontal orientation around a vertical axis;
• a first substrate conveyance mechanism that conveys the predetermined number of substrates in the horizontal orientation between the indexer robot, the orientation changing mechanism, and the single wafer substrate processing chamber;
• a second substrate conveyance mechanism that conveys the predetermined number of substrates in the vertical orientation between the orientation changing mechanism and the liquid processing tank;
• and
• a control unit,
• wherein
• the control unit controls the indexer robot to take out the predetermined number of substrates from the carrier,
• the control unit controls the first substrate conveyance mechanism to convey the predetermined number of substrates taken out from the carrier to the orientation changing mechanism,
• the control unit controls the orientation changing mechanism to change the orientation of the predetermined number of substrates in the horizontal orientation into the vertical orientation,
• the control unit controls the second substrate conveyance mechanism to sequentially immerse the predetermined number of substrates whose orientation has been changed into the vertical orientation in the liquid processing tank, the control unit controls the second substrate conveyance mechanism to
• sequentially take out the predetermined number of substrates in the vertical orientation that have been subjected to liquid processing for a predetermined time from the liquid processing tank and convey the substrates to the orientation changing mechanism,
• the control unit controls the orientation changing mechanism to change the orientation of the predetermined number of substrates in the vertical orientation that have been subjected to liquid processing into the horizontal orientation,
• the control unit controls the first substrate conveyance mechanism to convey the predetermined number of substrates in the horizontal orientation to the single wafer substrate processing chamber,
• the control unit controls the single wafer substrate processing chamber to rotate the substrates in the horizontal orientation about a vertical axis to dry the substrates one by one,
• the control unit controls the first substrate conveyance mechanism to cause the indexer robot to convey the predetermined number of substrates in the horizontal orientation that have been subjected to drying processing, and
• the control unit controls the indexer robot to store the predetermined number of substrates in the horizontal orientation that have been subjected to drying processing in the carrier.