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US 2026/0266880 A1Published application
System and method for non-invasive sensing of radio-frequency current spectra flowing in a plasma processing chamber
AssigneeApplied Materials, Inc.
InventorsDavid GAHAN, Paul SCULLIN
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system for non-invasive sensing of radio-frequency current spectra. In one example, the system comprises a plasma processing chamber, a plasma generator, and a shunt connector having a resistor therein. In one example, the shunt connector is attached across an opening in a ground-return path between the chamber and the generator.
Claims15
A system for monitoring a plasma process, comprising:
- a plasma processing chamber;
- a plasma generator;
- a shunt connector configured to define a ground-return path between the plasma processing chamber and the plasma generator;
- a sensor configured to detect a current flowing though the shunt connector and generate an RF signal;
- a converter configured to convert the RF signal to a digital signal;
- and
- a processing unit configured to:
- transform the digital signal from a time domain to a frequency domain to generate spectral data;
- determine one or more spectral characteristics relative to a fundamental frequency;
- and
- compare the one or more spectral characteristics to a reference baseline to detect a change in a condition of plasma.
8 more elements
A method for monitoring a plasma process comprising:
- detecting RF current in a ground-return path;
- generating an RF signal from the RF current;
- converting the RF signal to a digital signal;
- transforming the digital signal from a time domain to a frequency domain;
- and
- determining one or more spectral characteristics relative to a fundamental frequency to detect a change in a condition of the plasma.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.