Patent ID: 8828259

Claim:
A method for automatically performing power matching using a mechanical RF match during substrate processing in a plasma processing system, comprising: providing a plurality of parameters for said substrate processing wherein said plurality of parameters including at least a predefined number of learning cycles; setting said mechanical RF match to operate in a mechanical tuning mode; providing a first set of instructions to ignore a predefined number of cycles of a Rapid Alternating Process (RAP) step, the predefined number of cycles of the RAP step being either one cycle, two cycles, three cycles, four cycles, or five cycles; operating said mechanical RF match in said mechanical tuning mode for said predefined number of learning cycles, wherein said predefined number of learning cycles occur after said predefined number of cycles of said RAP step have been ignored; determining a set of optimal capacitor values; and providing a second set of instructions to said power generator to switch from said fixed frequency mode to a frequency tuning mode.