Methods and apparatus for passivating a target are provided herein. For example, a method includes a) supplying an oxidizing gas into an inner volume of the process chamber; b) igniting the oxidizing gas to form a plasma and oxidize at least one of a target or target material deposited on a process kit disposed in the inner volume of the process chamber; and c) performing a cycle purge comprising: c1) providing air into the process chamber to react with the at least one of the target or target material deposited on the process kit; c2) maintaining a predetermined pressure for a predetermined time within the process chamber to generate a toxic by-product caused by the air reacting with the at least one of the target or target material deposited on the process kit; and c3) exhausting the process chamber to remove the toxic by-product.

Provided are methods, apparatuses and systems for enhanced determination of the gas composition of a sample gas using glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy (GD-OES) for gas analysis. A first method comprises: generating one or more oscillating electromagnetic fields within a plasma cell to excite particles within the cell, to produce a glow discharge plasma in the plasma cell, and controlling the operating conditions for the plasma cell while flowing a gas mixture through the plasma cell to maintain glow discharge optical emissions from the plasma within a desired operating range; and monitoring one or more glow discharge optical emissions from the plasma in the plasma cell; wherein said monitoring of the optical emissions comprises measuring the optical emissions, or measuring a signal that correlates with the optical emissions, at twice the plasma excitation frequency; and processing the signal during each excitation cycle of the electromagnetic excitation, to determine the concentration of a gas within a gas mixture flowing through the plasma cell.

A solution-cathode glow discharge mass spectrometry (SCGD-MS) apparatus comprises a SCGD source and a mass spectrometer. The SCGD source may comprise conductive rods, a power source, and a capillary. A method for ionizing an analyte comprises flowing an electrically conductive liquid onto a conductive rod, applying an electric potential to a second conductive rod such that a plasma discharge forms between the first conductive rod and the electrically conductive liquid to produce ions, and separating the ions in a mass spectrometer. The analyte may be a polypeptide that may be contacted with trypsin. The analyte may be a solid, liquid, gas, chemical complex, or ion in solution. The method may comprise sequencing the polypeptide.

A substrate processing method is provided. The substrate processing method includes (a) placing a substrate on a substrate support disposed in a chamber, the substrate having a plurality of flow sensors on a surface of the substrate; (b) supplying a processing gas into the chamber; and (c) measuring magnitudes and directions of flows of the processing gas on the surface of the substrate using the plurality of flow sensors.

A substrate processing system includes a substrate processing apparatus and a switching timing creation support device, wherein the switching timing creation support device includes: an acquisition part configured to acquire, for each of a plurality of properties of particles contained in a gas in the substrate processing apparatus during a processing for a substrate, a measured value of an amount of the particles from a measuring device; a selection part configured to select properties of a predetermined number of the particles in descending order of temporal variations in the amount of the particles; a determination part configured to determine an operation expression and a switching condition for determining a switching timing based on a temporal change in the amount of the particles for each of the selected properties of the particles; and an output part configured to output the operation expression and the switching condition to the substrate processing apparatus

A substrate processing module includes a process chamber configured to perform a treatment process on a substrate; a transfer chamber provided on a first side of the process chamber, the substrate being transferred between the process chamber and the transfer chamber; an optical emission spectroscopy (OES) system provided on a second side of the process chamber and configured to monitor the process chamber; and a reference light source disposed in the transfer chamber and configured to emit a reference light to calibrate the OES system.

Embodiments of the present invention provide apparatus, systems and methods for measuring dissociation of a process gas generated by a RPS. In one embodiment, a method of measuring dissociation of a process gas includes receiving a process gas from a RPS, the process gas including a polyatomic molecule that dissociates into at least one free radical. The method further includes irradiating the process gas with IR radiation at one or more wavelengths, detecting the IR radiation that passes through the process gas, and determining a degree of dissociation of the polyatomic molecule in the process gas based, at least in part, on the detected IR radiation. In one embodiment, the method further comprises modifying one or more settings of the RPS, based, at least in part, on the determined degree of dissociation.

A solution-cathode glow discharge mass spectrometry (SCGD-MS) apparatus comprises a SCGD source and a mass spectrometer. The SCGD source may comprise conductive rods, a power source, and a capillary. A method for ionizing an analyte comprises flowing an electrically conductive liquid onto a conductive rod, applying an electric potential to a second conductive rod such that a plasma discharge forms between the first conductive rod and the electrically conductive liquid to produce ions, and separating the ions in a mass spectrometer. The analyte may be a polypeptide that may be contacted with trypsin. The analyte may be a solid, liquid, gas, chemical complex, or ion in solution. The method may comprise sequencing the polypeptide.

A parameter measurement system is provided. A cavity ring down device is provided comprising a first cavity ring down mirror and a second cavity ring down mirror spaced apart from the first cavity ring down mirror. At least one laser light source is optically coupled to the first cavity ring down mirror. A light detector is optically coupled to either the first cavity ring down mirror or the second cavity ring down mirror. A controller is configured to use a sample received from the processing chamber and the light from the at least one laser light source and reflected between the first and second cavity ring down mirrors to measure one or more process parameters and adjust the process based on the one or more process parameters.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a plasma generator capable of efficiently identifying the cause of an abnormal stoppage when an abnormal stoppage of the plasma generator occurs. When the controller determines that at least one detected value has become an abnormal value, the controller terminates plasma generation control. Further, in response to starting plasma generation control, the controller causes the storage section to store a history of detected values in association with time. As a result, it is possible to provide a history of detected values stored in the storage section to efficiently identify the cause of the abnormal stoppage.