Substrate conveyance method and substrate processing apparatus

Abstract

Provided is a substrate conveyance method where a segment which can simultaneously hold M pieces of substrates defined by an integer M of 2 or more is provided, and a substrate conveyance part can simultaneously convey N pieces of substrates defined by an integer N of 2 or more which is not a divisor of the integer M from the segment or toward the segment. The substrate conveyance part performs a substrate conveyance cycle repeatedly where when N pieces of variables ik defined by integers k of 1 to N are arbitrary integers of 0 or more and not more than (M/N) and satisfy a relationship of M=N×i+ . . . +1×iN, a conveyance step where a substrate conveyance step of simultaneously conveying (N−k−1) pieces of substrates from the segment or toward the segment by the substrate conveyance part is performed ik times is performed with respect to the conveyance step where the number of times of the substrate conveyance steps is defined by each variable which is a natural number out of N pieces of variables ik.