Proactive arc management of a plasma load
First Claim
1. A proactive arc management module in a power supply having a power module providing power to a plasma load through arc management hardware, and a digital power monitor module monitoring the present voltage and current supplied to the plasma load, said proactive arc management module comprising:
- arc detect module comparing a present voltage supplied to the plasma load to a preset voltage threshold and comparing present current supplied to the plasma load to a preset current threshold and generating an actual arc handling request when comparison of the present voltage or present current to the voltage threshold and current threshold, respectively, indicates an arc is occurring in the plasma load;
proactive arc management adjust module responsive to actual arc handling requests from the arc detect module and providing a proactive arc management count as a function of the actual arc handling requests received during a sampling interval; and
arc management control module responsive to the proactive arc management count and to actual arc handling requests to control the arc management hardware to execute an arc handling routine for each proactive count and each actual arc so that arcs in the plasma load are reduced to a minimum while the plasma load operates at maximum efficiency.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Proactive arc management systems and methods are disclosed. In many implementations, proactive arc management is accomplished by executing an arc handling routine in response to an actual arc occurring in the plasma load and in response to proactive arc handling requests in a sampling interval. The number of proactive arc handling requests in a sampling interval is a function of a proactive arc management count that in turn is a function of actual number of arcs in a preceding sampling interval. Accordingly during a present sampling interval proactive arc management executes arc handling for actual arcs in the present sampling interval and for each count in a proactive arc management count updated as a function of the number of arcs in the immediately preceding sampling interval.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A proactive arc management module in a power supply having a power module providing power to a plasma load through arc management hardware, and a digital power monitor module monitoring the present voltage and current supplied to the plasma load, said proactive arc management module comprising:
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arc detect module comparing a present voltage supplied to the plasma load to a preset voltage threshold and comparing present current supplied to the plasma load to a preset current threshold and generating an actual arc handling request when comparison of the present voltage or present current to the voltage threshold and current threshold, respectively, indicates an arc is occurring in the plasma load; proactive arc management adjust module responsive to actual arc handling requests from the arc detect module and providing a proactive arc management count as a function of the actual arc handling requests received during a sampling interval; and arc management control module responsive to the proactive arc management count and to actual arc handling requests to control the arc management hardware to execute an arc handling routine for each proactive count and each actual arc so that arcs in the plasma load are reduced to a minimum while the plasma load operates at maximum efficiency. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method for proactively managing power supplied to a plasma load to minimize the occurrence of arcs in the plasma load, said method comprises:
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detecting an arc in the plasma load and sending an actual arc handling request when an arc in the plasma load is detected; counting actual arc handling requests during a sampling interval to provide an actual arc count; updating a proactive arc management count as a function of the actual arc count; and controlling the arc management hardware to execute an-arc handling routine to extinguish the arc in the plasma load in response to an actual arc handling request, and to discharge built-up charge in the plasma load in response to a proactive arc handling request for each count in the proactive arc management count. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A computer program product readable by a computing system in a power supply providing power to a plasma load and encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process for proactive arc management of the power supply and plasma load, said computer process comprises:
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comparing a voltage value and a current value to a voltage threshold and a current threshold, respectively, to detect an arc in the plasma load; generating an actual arc handling request when an arc in the plasma load is detected; counting actual arc handling requests during a present sampling interval (TM) to generate an actual arc count (CA) for the present sampling interval (TM); updating a proactive arc management count (CAM) as function of a preset arc-management count (CAM-PRESET), the actual arc count (CA) for the present sampling interval am), and an index value (N) equal to a function of the actual arc count (CA); and controlling arc management hardware to execute an-arc handling routine during the next sampling interval (TM+1) in response to an actual arc handling request occurring during next sampling interval (TM+1) and in response to the proactive arc management count (CAM) from present sampling interval (TM), the arc handling routine discharges accumulated charge in the plasma load when executed. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification