Patent ID: 7361605

Claim:
In an overall technique for fabricating an integrated circuit on a wafer having an active device structure, during which fabrication, a patterned layer of photoresist is formed on an overall insulation layer that is itself supported directly on a stop layer that is, in turn, supported directly on the active device structure for use in etching contact openings to reach a contact arrangement that is defined by the active device structure in which each contact of a plurality of contacts is covered by said stop layer, a method, comprising: selectively etching, using a first plasma in cooperation with the patterned layer of photoresist, to form a plurality of contact openings through said overall insulation layer having contact hole edges such that one contact opening is associated with each contact in a way which at least partially exposes the stop layer above each contact and which, at least potentially, produces etch related residues; stripping said patterned layer of photoresist and said related residues using a second plasma formed from a plasma gas input that includes hydrogen; and after stripping, removing said stop layer from said contacts to avoid excessive faceting or rounding of the contact hole edges.