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.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 08, 2011
Filed:
Mar. 05, 2007
Beom Soo Park, San Jose, CA (US);
Soo Young Choi, Fremont, CA (US);
John M. White, Hayward, CA (US);
Hong Soon Kim, San Jose, CA (US);
James Hoffman, San Jose, CA (US);
Beom Soo Park, San Jose, CA (US);
Soo Young Choi, Fremont, CA (US);
John M. White, Hayward, CA (US);
Hong Soon Kim, San Jose, CA (US);
James Hoffman, San Jose, CA (US);
Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
Abnormal conditions within an RF-powered plasma process chamber are detected by detecting whether the frequency of a variable-frequency RF power supply moves outside established lower and upper limits. In a first aspect, a first pair of lower and upper limits are established as a function of the frequency of the power supply sampled after a new process step begins or after a sample control signal changes state. In a second aspect, a second pair of lower and upper limits are not adapted to the frequency of the power supply. Both aspects preferably are used together to detect different occurrences of abnormal conditions.