An apparatus for processing a substrate is provided. A processing chamber is provided. A substrate support is within the processing chamber. A gas inlet provides a process gas into the processing chamber. A gas source provides the process gas to the gas inlet. An exhaust pump pumps gas from the processing chamber. A parameter measurement system comprises a cavity ring down device in fluid communication with the processing chamber, comprising a first cavity ring down mirror on a first side of the cavity ring down device and a second cavity ring down mirror on a second side of the cavity ring down device 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 system includes an image processing module configured to receive an image, captured by an imaging device, of a plasma environment within a substrate processing chamber during processing of a substrate and extract one or more features of the image indicative of a plasma sheath formed within the plasma environment during the processing of the substrate. A control module is configured to determine a plasma sheath profile based on the one or more features extracted from the image and selectively adjust at least one processing parameter related to the processing of the substrate based on the plasma sheath profile.

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.

System and methods of improving dynamic pressure response during recipe step transitions. An exemplary method may include changing at least one of a plurality of recipe parameters in accordance with a processing recipe while running the processing recipe on a semiconductor substrate in a processing chamber. The method may further include measuring a pressure response in the processing chamber responsive to the changing of the at least one of the plurality of recipe parameters, and determining a response error based on the pressure response and a model pressure response calculated based on the processing recipe. The method may further include, in response to determining that the response error may be greater than a threshold value, calculating an adjustment to an operation of a valve downstream of the processing chamber when changing the at least one of the plurality of recipe parameters in accordance with the processing recipe in subsequent runs.

A system and method provides a more precise mole delivery amount of a process gas, for each pulse of a pulse gas delivery, by measuring a concentration of the process gas and controlling the amount of gas mixture delivered in a pulse of gas flow based on the received concentration of the process gas. The control of mole delivery amount for each pulse can be achieved by adjusting flow setpoint, pulse duration, or both.

A method for dry processing a substrate in a processing chamber is provided. The substrate is placed in the processing chamber. The substrate is dry processed, wherein the dry processing creates at least one gas byproduct. A concentration of the at least one gas byproduct is measured. The concentration of the at least one gas byproduct is used to determine processing rate of the substrate.

There is provided a method for etching an organic region of a substrate. In the method, an organic film is formed on a surface in a chamber of a plasma processing apparatus. The surface extends out around a region where the substrate is to be disposed in the chamber of the plasma processing apparatus, and the organic region is etched by chemical species from plasma in the chamber.

A method for reducing a wet etch rate of flowable chemical vapor deposition (FCVD) oxide layers in a semiconductor wafer, the method including performing a plasma doping operation on the semiconductor wafer using a primary dopant gas and a diluent gas adapted to reduce a wet etch rate of the FCVD oxide layer, wherein the dopant gas and the diluent gas are supplied by a gas source of a plasma doping system, wherein the diluent gas is provided in an amount of 0.01%-5% by volume of the total amount of gas supplied by the gas source 36 during the plasma doping operation, and wherein the primary dopant gas is He and the diluent gas is selected from a group including of CH4, CO, CO2, and CF2.

Described herein are architectures, platforms and methods for acquiring optical emission spectra from an optical emission spectroscopy system by flowing a dry cleaning gas into a plasma processing chamber of the plasma processing system and igniting a plasma in the plasma processing chamber to initiate the waferless dry cleaning process.

Contaminant cleaning systems and related methods are provided. Exemplary embodiments include a reactive substance generator to produce or transfer reactive substance(s) that react with contaminant(s) on an item into a cleaning chamber. An analysis section can be attached to the cleaning chamber to perform gas analysis on gas samples brought into the analysis chamber that measure reaction byproducts from the reactive substance(s) interaction with the contaminants. An exemplary valve system can selectively couple the reactive substance generator, the analysis section, and the cleaning chamber. An exemplary pumping system, in combination with the valve system, can selectively generate differential pressure/vacuum levels between the reactive substance generator vs cleaning chamber as well as between the cleaning chamber and analysis section. For example, the analysis chamber can be configured to have a higher vacuum than the cleaning chamber to facilitate passage of gas test samples into the analysis chamber.