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Determining a malfunctioning device in a plasma system

  • US 9,620,337 B2
  • Filed: 02/19/2014
  • Issued: 04/11/2017
  • Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2013
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A system for determining a malfunctioning device, the system comprising:

  • one or more plasma processing tools, each plasma processing tool including one or more plasma modules for processing a work piece, each plasma processing tool including a transfer module for transferring the work piece between two of the plasma modules, each plasma module including a power delivery portion and a plasma processing portion, the plasma processing portion including a plasma chamber, the power delivery portion for generating radio frequency (RF) power to provide to the plasma processing portion to generate plasma;

    a computing device coupled to the one or more plasma processing tools, the computing device including a processor, the processor for;

    determining whether one of the plasma modules operates within constraints;

    receiving a measured value of a variable at an output of the power delivery portion in response to determining that the plasma module lacks operation within the constraints, wherein the value is measured when the power delivery portion is decoupled from the plasma chamber of the plasma processing portion to be coupled with a known load;

    comparing the measured value with a pre-recorded value of the variable to determine whether the measured value is outside a range of the pre-recorded value; and

    determining that a malfunctioning device is between an input of the power delivery portion and an output of the power delivery portion in response to determining that the measured value is outside the range of the pre-recorded value.

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