1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device and a method for controlling a substrate processing apparatus that performs a specified process on a substrate, and to a storage medium that stores the control program. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for controlling the transfer of the substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
The recent substrate processing apparatuses installed in the semiconductor factory mostly include a transfer mechanism transferring a substrate and two or more processing chambers performing a specified process on the substrate. In the substrate processing apparatus including a plurality of processing chambers, it is important to transfer a large number of substrates to the processing chambers in a way to increase the throughput of the substrate process and increase the productivity of the products.
Some of the conventional substrate processing apparatuses operate as follows. Different substrates are processed in different processing chambers at the same time. The processing is done after sequentially transferring the different substrates to the different processing chambers through different transfer paths for the different substrates (hereinafter this transfer method is also referred to as “OR transfer”). Alternatively, the transfer paths for the different substrates are controlled so that the substrates are sequentially processed via two or more processing chambers (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. 63-133532). The substrates may thus be processed efficiently.
Others of the conventional substrate processing apparatuses refer to a signal indicating which processing chamber is operatable, and transfer the substrate only to a group of the operatable processing chambers (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. 11-067869). If any of the processing chambers cannot operate due to a failure or the like, other processing chambers may be used to process the substrate efficiently.