Method for controlling a power beam process

A method for controlling a power beam process, the method comprising:

• carrying out a plurality of test power beam processes using a power beam on one or more test components;
• determining a plurality of power distributions of the power beam corresponding to the plurality of test power beam processes, wherein each of the plurality of power distributions is a distribution of a beam intensity of the power beam with respect to a distance from a centre of the power beam;
• determining a plurality of beam parameters of the power beam corresponding to each of the plurality of power distributions;
• generating a plurality of derived features for each of the plurality of power distributions based on the plurality of beam parameters of the corresponding power distribution, wherein each of the plurality of derived features is obtained by combining two or more of the plurality of beam parameters of the corresponding power distribution;
• determining a plurality of process characteristics of each of the plurality of test power beam processes;
• classifying each of the plurality of power distributions into one of a plurality of predetermined quality indicators based on the plurality of process characteristics of the corresponding test power beam process;
• generating a comprehensive dataset by consolidating the plurality of power distributions with the corresponding plurality of derived features, the corresponding plurality of beam parameters, the corresponding plurality of process characteristics, and the corresponding predetermined quality indicator;
• dividing the comprehensive dataset into a test dataset and a training dataset that is mutually exclusive from the test dataset, wherein the test dataset comprises a set of test power distributions from the plurality of power distributions, and wherein the training dataset comprises a set of training power distributions from the plurality of power distributions;
• determining a plurality of key discriminative features from the plurality of derived features of the set of training power distributions;
• receiving a plurality of input key discriminative features;
• classifying each of the plurality of input key discriminative features into one of the plurality of predetermined quality indicators;
• and
• controlling the power beam process based on the predetermined quality indicator of each of the plurality of input key discriminative features.