Substrate processing system, ring replacement method, and substrate processing procedure

Abstract

The substrate processing system includes a plurality of processing modules, a vacuum transport module, and a control unit. Each processing module has a processing container and a substrate support. The vacuum transport module includes a transport robot capable of transporting substrates and rings between the plurality of processing modules. The control unit monitors the replacement time points of the rings configured in the plurality of processing modules. When the replacement time point of a ring in one of the plurality of processing modules has been determined, it recognizes other processing modules with replacement time points close to that processing module's replacement time point and replaces the rings of that processing module and the rings of the other processing modules at the same time points. This allows the substrate processing system to shorten the downtime caused by ring replacement, thereby improving the overall processing efficiency of the system.

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