Four load lock chambers 2, 2′, 2″, 2′″ and eight process chambers 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107 and 108 are hermetically connected around the outside of a central separation chamber 3 via gate valves 5—both types of chambers being stacked up in two places—and each chamber is capable of being evacuated by its respective vacuum pump system 301, 201 and 100. A transfer mechanism 42 inside separation chamber 3 removes a substrate 9 from a load lock chamber 2, 2′, 2″, 2′″ transports it to each of the process chambers 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107 and 108 in a prescribed sequence and thereafter returns it to load lock chamber 2, 2′, 2″, 2′″. Each load lock chamber 2 has inside it a substrate holder which always holds a single substrate 9 in the same position.