Arrangement for identifying uncontrolled events at the process module level and methods thereof

An arrangement for detecting an in-situ fast transient event within a processing chamber of a plasma processing system, wherein said processing chamber includes a plurality of sensors configured for collecting data during substrate processing, said arrangement comprising:

• a fast-transient sensor operating at a high sampling rate configured to receive data indicative of electrical conditions within the processing chamber, wherein the fast-transient sensor comprises a sensor controller implementing a fast sampling transient algorithm contemporaneously with the receipt of the data, wherein the fast sampling transient algorithm identifies potential in-situ fast transient events in the received data based on the application of pre-defined criteria, wherein the pre-defined criteria includes a simultaneous voltage and current spike in the received data;
• wherein the sensor controller is configured such that when a potential in-situ fast transient event in the received data is identified by the sensor controller, the fast sampling transient algorithm extracts from the received data an electrical signature corresponding to the potential in-situ fast transient event, wherein the extraction is performed in a time period during which the potential in-situ fast transient event occurs;
• an analyzing module separate from the fast-transient sensor configured to receive the electrical signature directly from the fast-transient sensor, wherein the analyzing module is a process-module-level analysis server configured to perform analysis for a process module and a set of fast-transient sensors associated with the process module;
• wherein the analyzing module is further configured to:
• analyze the received electrical signature by comparing the received electrical signature against a set of stored arc signatures;
• classify the received electrical signature as a first in-situ fast transient event when the received electrical signature matches one of the set of stored arc signatures;
• add the received electrical signature to a library as a non-fast transient event when the received electrical signature does not match one of the set of stored arc signatures;
• and
• determine a severity level for the first in-situ fast transient event based on a predefined set of threshold ranges.