Patent ID: 8618807

Claim:
A method for detecting an in-situ fast transient event within a processing chamber of a plasma processing system during substrate processing, said method comprising: receiving data indicative of electrical conditions within the processing chamber using a fast-transient sensor operating at a high sampling rate, 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; when a potential in-situ fast transient event in the received data is identified by the sensor controller, extracting from the received data an electrical signature corresponding to the potential in-situ fast transient event, wherein the extraction is implemented by the fast sampling transient algorithm and performed in a time period during which the potential in-situ fast transient event occurs; receiving, by an analyzing module separate from the fast-transient sensor, the electrical signature directly from the fast-transient sensor, wherein the analyzing module is a process-module-level analysis server to perform analysis for a process module and a set of fast-transient sensors associated with the process module; analyzing the received electrical signature by the analyzing module, wherein analyzing includes comparing the received electrical signature against a set of stored arc signatures; classifying, by the analyzing module, 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; adding, by the analyzing module, 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 determining, by the analyzing module, a severity level for the first in-situ fast transient event based on a predefined set of threshold ranges.