processing method

A plasma processing method using a plasma processing apparatus having:

• a process chamber in which a substrate is subjected to a plasma processing;
• a light-receiving part for monitoring a plasma emission in the process chamber;
• a spectrometer unit for performing a spectrometry on the received plasma emission to convert the same into a multi-channel signal;
• an arithmetic unit for converting the multi-channel signal into one or more output signals and performing an arithmetic operation on the output signals;
• a database for storing a filter vector;
• a determination unit for determining a condition in the process chamber based on a result of the arithmetic operation;
• and
• an apparatus controller for controlling an operation of the plasma processing apparatus in response to a signal from the determination unit,
• the method comprising:
• a step of converting the multi-channel signal output from the spectrometer unit into a batch of output signals;
• a step of finding differences between the output signals and output signals of the preceding batch;
• and
• a step of comparing an average value of the differences in one batch, a difference between a maximum and a minimum of the differences in one batch and a standard deviation of the differences in one batch with a preset threshold.

A plasma processing method using a plasma processing apparatus having:

• a process chamber in which a substrate is subjected to a plasma processing;
• a light-receiving part for monitoring a plasma emission in the process chamber;
• a spectrometer unit for performing a spectrometry on the received plasma emission to convert the same into a multi-channel signal;
• an arithmetic unit for converting the multi-channel signal into one or more output signals and performing an arithmetic operation on the output signals;
• a database for storing a filter vector;
• a determination unit for determining a condition in the process chamber based on a result of the arithmetic operation;
• and
• an apparatus controller for controlling an operation of the plasma processing apparatus in response to a signal from the determination unit,
• the method comprising:
• a step of performing evacuation after a wet cleaning;
• a step of automatically determining whether a degree of vacuum is adequate or not;
• a step of automatically determining whether there is an apparatus abnormality or not;
• a step of converting the multi-channel signal output from the spectrometer unit into a batch of output signals;
• a step of finding differences between the output signals and output signals of the preceding batch;
• and
• a step of comparing an average value of the differences in one batch, a difference between a maximum and a minimum of the differences in one batch and a standard deviation of the differences in one batch with a preset threshold.