Patent ID: 7595005

Claim:
A method for removing residue from a substrate, comprising: disposing said substrate in a plasma processing system, said substrate having: a dielectric layer formed thereon, and a mask layer overlying said dielectric layer, wherein said mask layer comprises a pattern formed therein and said dielectric layer comprises a feature formed therein as a result of an etching process used to transfer said pattern in said mask layer to said dielectric layer; pre-treating said mask layer prior to introducing a process gas comprising carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), wherein said pre-treating includes: introducing a pre-treatment process gas comprising a hydrocarbon gas and an inert gas; forming a pre-treatment plasma from said pre-treatment process gas in said plasma processing system; and exposing said mask layer and said dielectric layer to said pre-treatment plasma introducing a process gas comprising carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) into said plasma processing system; forming a plasma from said process gas in said plasma processing system; and removing said mask layer from said substrate with said plasma.