The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.

The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.

Date of Patent:
Aug. 27, 2002

Filed:

Aug. 29, 2000
Applicant:
Inventors:

John Scanlan, Waterford, IE;

Justin Lawler, Howth, County Dublin, IE;

Stephen Daniels, Malahide, County Dublin, IE;

Assignee:

Other;

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G01N 2/766 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G01N 2/766 ;
Abstract

A method of fault identification in a plasma process powered by an RF source comprises initially determining, in respect of a given baseline plasma process, the changes in magnitude of a plurality of Fourier components of the RF source resulting from changes in a plurality of the process input parameters from their baseline values. These magnitude changes are stored as reference data. During a subsequent production run, the plasma process is monitored for faults and if one is found the baseline process is repeated with input parameter values nominally the same as the original baseline values. The changes in the Fourier components from the original baseline values are determined and compared with the reference data to determine which input parameter(s) have changed.


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