Patent ID: 7605063

Claim:
A method of protecting an active area on a substrate, comprising: positioning a substrate in an inductively coupled plasma processing chamber of a plasma reactor, the plasma reactor including a dielectric window overlying the substrate and at least one coil which inductively couples RF energy through the dielectric window and into a space between the dielectric window and the substrate, the substrate including an active area; supplying a process gas to the plasma processing chamber, generating a plasma from the process gas by supplying power to the coil; processing the substrate with the plasma so as to protect the active area by (a) maintaining a plasma potential of about 5 to 15 volts at the substrate during the processing and/or (b) passivating the active area by using a silane-free process gas comprising at least one additive effective to form a protective layer on an active area of the substrate wherein the protective layer includes at least one element from the additive which is already present in the active area.