Patent ID: 8010225

Claim:
A method, comprising: operating a tool working at an operating mode such that at least one of its control parameters is outside of a normal operating range; measuring the at least one of the control parameters of the tool working at the operating mode outside of the normal operating range; detecting a change to a condition of the tool based on the measuring of the at least one control parameter, wherein the condition comprises one of: process gas temperature; process gas dissociation level; chamber wall condition and deposition; outgassing; pressure gage calibration; chamber conductance; and mass flow control (MFC) calibration; and comparing the parameter across multiple tools for determining differences between the tools, wherein the operating the tool occurs at least one of: between processing steps of the tool; while the tool is in a manufacturing idle state; between conditioning steps of the tool; before or after processing a wafer on the tool; and before or after conditioning of the tool.