Patent attributes
A coating and developing system for enabling maintenance of an exposure system combined therewith. The system carries a substrate, delivered to a carrier handling block, to a processing block to form a film thereon using a coating block included in the processing block. The substrate is carried through an interface block to the exposure system, the exposed substrate is processed by a developing process using a developing block included in the processing block and the processed substrate is returned to the carrier handling block. A direct carrying means is superposed on the coating block and the developing block to carry a substrate having a surface coated with a film from the carrier handling block directly to the interface block. A test substrate can be carried to the exposure system to inspect the condition of the exposure system even where the coating and developing blocks are under maintenance work.
