Plasma processing apparatus and plasma processing method

A plasma processing method using a plasma processing apparatus that generates plasma in a state where an inside of a vacuum processing chamber is exhausted to vacuum, so as to process a processing target film formed on a processing target material, the plasma processing method comprising:

• a step of detecting, by alight emission detection unit, light emission of the plasma generated inside the vacuum processing chamber;
• a step of obtaining, by a calculation unit, a differential waveform data of the light emission of the plasma detected by the light emission detection unit;
• a step of calculating, by a film thickness calculation unit, an estimated value of the film thickness of the processing target film processed on the processing target material by weighting based on differences between the differential waveform data obtained by the calculation unit and a plurality of pieces of differential waveform pattern data stored in a database unit;
• and
• a step of determining, by an endpoint determination unit, an end point of processing using the plasma based on the estimated value of the film thickness of the processing target film calculated by the film thickness calculation unit.

A plasma processing method using a plasma processing apparatus that generates plasma in a state where an inside of a vacuum processing chamber is exhausted to vacuum, so as to process a processing target film formed on a processing target material, the plasma processing method comprising:

• a step of detecting, by a light emission detection unit, light emission of the plasma generated inside the vacuum processing chamber;
• a step of obtaining, by a calculation unit, a differential waveform data of the light emission of the plasma detected by the light emission detection unit;
• a step of calculating, by a film thickness calculation unit, an estimated value of the film thickness of the processing target film processed on the processing target material by weighting based on differences between the differential waveform data obtained by the calculation unit and a plurality of pieces of differential waveform pattern data stored in a database unit;
• a step of processing the processing target film until the estimated value of the film thickness calculated by the film thickness calculation unit reaches a predetermined remaining film thickness;
• and
• a step of further processing the processing target film for as long as processing time obtained by an additional processing time calculator and required for the predetermined remaining film thickness to reach a target film thickness when the estimated value of the film thickness calculated by the film thickness calculation unit has reached the predetermined remaining film thickness.