Abstract: A plasma processing control method for detecting an endpoint and controlling plasma processing is disclosed. The plasma processing control method includes tracking one or more harmonics that are produced due to nonlinearity of an impedance of a plasma environment. The one or more harmonics are associated with voltage, current, or a combination thereof. The plasma processing control method further includes analyzing the tracked one or more harmonics and detecting an endpoint of plasma processing based on the analysis of the tracked one or more harmonics. Thereafter, the plasma processing control method includes stopping the plasma processing based on the detected endpoint.

Abstract: An method for detecting excursion in plasma processing and controlling plasma processing is disclosed. The method includes the steps of tracking harmonics that are produced due to nonlinearity of an impedance of a plasma environment. The method includes the steps of creating a fingerprint of energy distribution in frequency space based on the tracked harmonics and comparing the created fingerprint with reference spectra of an ideal plasma processing to detect deviation of the fingerprint with the reference spectra. The method includes the steps of detecting an excursion in the plasma processing based on the detected deviation. The method includes the steps of generating recommendations to control the detected excursion. Such recommendations are generated based on the detected deviation and the associated historical data related to corrective action stored in a corrective action database.