Patent ID: 9583361
Date: 2017-02-28
CPC Classifications: G03F,H01J,H01L

Claim:
1. A method of processing a target object, which has an etching target layer, a hard mask layer formed on the etching target layer and a resist mask formed on the hard mask layer, the method comprising: exposing the resist mask to active species of hydrogen generated by exciting plasma of a hydrogen-containing gas within a processing vessel while the target object is mounted on a mounting table provided in the processing vessel; and etching the hard mask layer by exciting plasma of an etchant gas within the processing vessel after the exposing of the resist mask to the active species of hydrogen, wherein the plasma of the hydrogen-containing gas and the plasma of the etchant gas are excited by generating a high frequency electric field between an upper electrode and a lower electrode, which forms the mounting table and is provided to face the upper electrode, through an application of a high frequency power for plasma excitation to the upper electrode, and a distance between the upper electrode and the mounting table in the etching of the hard mask layer is set to be larger than a distance between the upper electrode and the mounting table in the exposing of the resist mask to the active species of hydrogen, wherein the distance between the upper electrode and the mounting table in the etching of the hard mask layer is set such that a Peclet number on a top surface of the mounting table is equal to or less than 1.