Patent ID: 7662646

Claim:
A plasma processing method for generating a plasma of a processing gas by applying a high frequency power to an electrode provided in a processing chamber and processing a substrate using the plasma, the plasma processing method comprising: an analysis step of obtaining, by using a multivariate analysis, a correlation between type data set corresponding to a plurality of types classified based on a type of a mask or a film to be processed that is disposed on the substrate and optical data to be detected by an optical data detection unit when plasma-processing the substrate; a determining step of obtaining, based on the correlation obtained in the analysis step, type data from optical data detected by the optical data detection unit when initiating a plasma processing on the substrate, and determining a type of the substrate by using the obtained type data, the type of the substrate corresponding to the type of the mask or the film to be processed on the substrate; a selection step of selecting a setting data set corresponding to the type of substrate determined in the determining step from setting data sets, each of the setting data sets serving to detect a plasma processing end point, and corresponding to one of the types and being stored in advance in a data storage unit; an end point detection step of detecting an end point of the plasma processing based on the setting data set selected in the selection step; and a termination step of terminating the plasma processing at the end point detected in the end point detection step.