A vacuum carrier can be employed to provide a partial vacuum on a back side surface of a substrate thereby holding the substrate flat against a rigid surface of the carrier throughout the duration of a bonding process. The method includes providing a gas into the space, and operating the electromagnetic field generating portion with a driving potential to generate an electromagnetic field within the space to transform at least a portion of the gas into plasma. Moreover, the first electrode of the capacitor is connected to the first conductive region of the MOS transistor. The sound pressure level at the eardrum may then be used to acoustically fit the hearing instrument to the person. A path segment pitch orientation is established based on at least one measured pitch orientation along the path segment.