US 2026/0303052 A1Published application

Impedance matcher

AssigneeDAIHEN Corporation

InventorShuji OMAE

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Abstract

A matching controller stores information on electrode positions of variable capacitors and in the storage as OFF-time position information at a time of change of the state from the ON state to the OFF state, gives a command signal to drivers and so that the electrode position is shifted to a predetermined position (minimum position in terms of structure) after the state change from the OFF state to the ON state, estimates the information on the electrode position at a time of the state change from the OFF state to the ON state as the ON-time position information based on a change amount of the information on the positional relationship of the electrodes until a positional relationship of the electrodes is changed to a predetermined positional relationship, and discerns whether a difference regarding the OFF-time position information and the ON-time position information is within a prescribed range.

An impedance matcher provided between a high frequency power source and a load, the high frequency power source being configured to supply high frequency power to the load, the impedance matcher comprising:

a matching circuit including at least one variable impedance element, the variable impedance element including electrodes and windings and having a variable positional relationship regarding the electrodes or regarding the windings;
a driver that changes the positional relationship regarding the electrodes or regarding the windings;
a position acquirer that acquires information on the positional relationship regarding the electrodes or regarding the windings;
a storage being a nonvolatile unit and configured to store information on the positional relationship regarding the electrodes or regarding the windings;
a controller;
a power supply state discerning unit that discerns whether power for operating the controller is supplied from an external power supply source;
and
an auxiliary power source that supplies power to the controller when power supply from the external power supply source is stopped,
wherein, when a state in which power is supplied from the external power supply source is defined as an ON state and a state in which power is not supplied from the external power supply source is defined as an OFF state,
the controller performs operations including:
storing, in the storage, information on a positional relationship regarding the electrodes or regarding the windings, as off-state positional information, when the ON state has changed to the OFF state,
giving a command signal to the driver so that the positional relationship regarding the electrodes or regarding the windings becomes a predetermined positional relationship, after the change from the OFF state to the ON state,
estimating information on the positional relationship regarding the electrodes or regarding the windings when the state has been changed from the OFF state to the ON state as On-state positional information based on a change amount of the information on the positional relationship regarding the electrodes or regarding the windings until a change to the predetermined positional relationship;
and
discerning whether a difference regarding the OFF-time position information and the ON-time position information is within a prescribed range.

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Abstract

Claims6