Method and apparatus for reducing arcing in plasma processing chambers

摘要

Arcing in a plasma process is reduced by shaping the target (40) and dark space shield (13) so that their peripheral regions curve away from each other, reducing electric fields and the propensity for arcing between the target and dark space shield. Also disclosed is an improved system for detecting arcing and presenting data related to detected arcs for analysis; the system generates a graph of the number of arcs, or rate of arcing, as a function of total power consumed, or alternatively a histogram of bars (120) each indicating the number of arcs having an associated magnitude.