1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus that performs processing on a substrate, a storage device and a method of transporting a substrate storing container.
2. Description of the Background Art
Substrate processing apparatuses are used to subject various substrates such as semiconductor substrates, substrates for liquid crystal displays, plasma displays, optical disks, magnetic disks, magneto-optical disks, photomasks, and other substrates to various types of processing.
A substrate storing container is used for carrying a plurality of substrates in/out of the substrate processing apparatus from/to the outside. Examples of such a substrate storing container include a FOUP (Front Opening Unified Pod). The substrate storing container is provided with an opening through which the substrates are taken out or stored, and a cover for opening/closing the opening.
An opener places the substrate storing container thereon and opens/closes the cover of the placed substrate storing container. In the substrate processing apparatus including the opener, the substrate storing container storing the substrates before processing is placed on the opener of the substrate processing apparatus, for example. In this state, the cover of the substrate storing container is opened, and the substrates before processing in the substrate storing container are taken out to the substrate processing apparatus. This causes the taken out substrates to be subjected to given processing. Then, the substrates after the processing by the substrate processing apparatus are stored in the empty substrate storing container. With the cover closed, the substrate storing container storing the substrates after the processing is transported from the opener to the outside of the substrate processing apparatus (JP 2003-257945 A, for example).
In recent years, processing capability of the substrate processing apparatus has been improved with an increasing number of stacked processing units that perform processing on substrates. This allows more substrates to be processed by the substrate processing apparatus per unit time, thus requiring more substrates to be taken out from the substrate storing container to the substrate processing apparatus. The number of substrates to be stored from the substrate processing apparatus to the substrate storing container per unit time also needs to be increased. Therefore, the number of openers on which the substrate storing container is to be placed is preferably increased according to improved processing capability of the substrate processing apparatus.
However, the limited number of openers can be mounted because of footprint constraints. Therefore, the throughput of the substrate processing apparatus may be limited due to exchange time of substrate storing containers.