Quantification of Processing Chamber Species by Electron Energy Sweep

A method of measuring quantities of species in a processing chamber, the method comprising:

• closing a shutter positioned between the processing chamber and a mass spectrometer to block a particle beam originating from the processing chamber, the mass spectrometer comprising an ionizer;
• setting an electron energy of the ionizer to an initial energy value;
• sweeping the electron energy from the initial energy value to a final energy value by cyclically performing the following steps
• collecting background quantification data while the shutter is closed,
• opening the shutter,
• collecting signal quantification data of species in the particle beam while the shutter is open,
• closing the shutter, and
• setting the electron energy to a next value;
• and
• after collecting signal quantification data with the electron energy set at the final energy value, determining quantities of species in the processing chamber using the signal quantification data and the background quantification data.

A method of measuring quantities of a species present in a processing chamber, the method comprising:

• sweeping an electron energy of an ionizer of a mass spectrometer through a plurality of energy steps beginning at an initial energy value and ending with a final energy value;
• generating a data set by collecting a series of data points corresponding to detection events of the species at each of the plurality of energy steps, the species comprising a mass/charge ratio selected by the mass spectrometer;
• and
• determining the quantity of a first variety of the species present in the processing chamber using a first interval of the data set beginning at a threshold ionization energy of the first variety, the first variety having the mass/charge ratio.