A communications system for synchronizing control signals between subsystems coupled to a process module used for processing a substrate. A distributed controller coupled to the subsystems is configured to initiate process steps, each step having a step period. A distributed clock module includes a master clock having a clock speed including clock cycles, each clock cycle having a duration that is pre-correlated to a feedback loop within which synchronized control signals are delivered to and received from the subsystems by the distributed clock module. A predefined number of clock cycles is assigned by the distributed clock module for performing a corresponding number of feedback loops for transitioning between process steps. The predefined number of clock cycles are restricted to a fraction of the step period.