Patent ID: 8394723

Claim:
A method, comprising: (a) placing a semiconductor substrate in an inductive plasma reactor chamber, the substrate including a patterned photoresist mask formed on a substrate surface, the photoresist mask including a plurality of mask features having a top surface and at least one sidewall; (b) placing a conformal polymer layer over the mask features, comprising: (i) flowing a deposition gas into the chamber; (ii) transforming the deposition gas into a plasma; and (iii) depositing the conformal polymer layer on the mask features; (c) shaping the mask features to increase an aspect ratio of the mask features, comprising: (i) flowing a trimming gas into the chamber; (ii) transforming the trimming gas into a trim plasma; and (iii) trimming the polymer layer and photoresist material from sidewalls of the plurality mask features with said trim plasma such that the mask features become narrower and a residual portion of the polymer layer remains on a top surface of the mask feature such that a height of the mask feature is increased.