We have used mass spectroscopy to observe and analyze, in real-time, gas phase reactants and product species in plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of silicon. We describe a doubly differentially pumped mass spectrometry system to sample the exhaust stream of a large area plasma CVD reactor operating at 0.4-1.5 Torr. We show real-time quantitative analysis of silane consumption and hydrogen production for deposition of hydrogenated amorphous silicon and for pulsed-gas selective area silicon deposition. The ability of mass spectrometry to observe process faults in real time is also demonstrated. Mass spectroscopy is a useful nonintrusive process-state sensor for real-time metrology of plasma deposition, for example, to quantify gas phase species, and to characterize reactions occurring on the substrate surface. Based on our results, we discuss I potential advanced manufacturing applications of real-time mass spectrometry in amorphous silicon and selective area silicon plasma deposition, including indirect wafer-state sensing, fault analysis and classification, and run-to-run and real-time process control.