Patent ID: 7601619

Claim:
A plasma processing method in which a sample is placed on a sample electrode within a vacuum chamber, then gas within the vacuum chamber is exhausted while supplying the gas within the vacuum chamber from a gas supply device, and a high-frequency power is supplied to the sample electrode via a matching circuit for the sample electrode while controlling a pressure within the vacuum chamber to a predetermined value thereby to generate plasma within the vacuum chamber, thereby accelerating ions in the plasma toward a surface of the sample to collide with the surface to process the sample, comprising: a step of supplying a high-frequency voltage to the sample electrode under a condition of not generating the plasma to measure a high-frequency voltage V 0 and a current I 0 supplied to the sample electrode by a high-frequency sensor provided between the sample electrode matching circuit and the sample electrode; a step of measuring a high-frequency voltage V 1 and a current I 1 supplied to the sample electrode by the high-frequency sensor when the plasma is generated to subject the sample to a plasma processing; a step of obtaining a substantial high-frequency current based on charged particles movement flowing into the sample electrode as Ir=I 1 −I 0 ·V 1 /V 0 ; and a step of controlling a processing condition based on Ir thus obtained.