Patent ID: 7347915

Claim:
An apparatus for creating semiconductor devices by etching a layer over a wafer, comprising: a process chamber; a hardening gas source; an etching gas source; and a controller controllably connected to the hardening gas source and the etching gas source, comprising computer readable media, comprising: computer instructions for hardening the photoresist by providing a hardening plasma containing high energy electrons in the process chamber to harden the photoresist layer, wherein the high energy electrons have a density, wherein the high energy electrons have an energy greater than 450 eV, wherein the density of the high energy electrons in the hardening plasma is greater than 10 8 electrons/cm 3 ; and computer instructions for etching the wafer within the process chamber with an etching plasma, where a density of high energy electrons in the etching plasma is less than the density of high energy electrons in the hardening plasma, wherein the computer instructions for hardening the photoresist comprises: computer instructions for accelerating ions from the hardening plasma to an electrode to generate secondary electrons; computer instructions for accelerating the secondary electrons back through a plasma sheath to the wafer; computer instructions for exposing the photoresist to the accelerated secondary electrons; and computer instructions for terminating the hardening the photoresist prior to etching the wafer.