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Abstract

A configurable hybrid superheterodyne spectrum analyzer for deriving process state parameters from detected modulated light emitted by a plasma receives and conditions the electric signals converted from the modulated light for subsequent superheterodyne mixing at a specific intermediate frequency (IF) that is lower than the frequency of the modulated light. Signal conditioning includes filtering noise, aliasing and DC and/or amplifying or de-amplifying the signal. Once mixed, the superheterodyne signal is further filtered by an IF filter to define the signal bandwidth characteristics relevant to the process state parameters. The IF filter may configurably employ multiple filter functions such as Gaussian filtering of increasing widths and/or comb filtering for multiple passbands in the frequency spectrum. Finally, the IF mixed and filtered signal is digitized with respect to the specific intermediate frequency using an IF digitizer. The processed signal is then passed to a signal analyzer for derivation of process state parameters. The system may further include a controller for receiving information from the signal analyzer regarding signal processing requirements and then actively configuring one or all of the signal conditioner filter, signal conditioner amplifier, IF filter and IF digitizer to meet those requirements.

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