Patent ID: 7361599

Claim:
A method of forming a capacitor, comprising: (a) forming a stack of layers over a substrate with exposed capacitor connections, said stack including a top electrode layer on a ferroelectric layer on a bottom electrode layer; (b) forming an etch mask over said stack, said mask defining location of a capacitor; (c) etching said stack using said mask, said etching including introducing said substrate with said stack into a plasma etcher; (d) exciting a first plasma from a first gas; (e) etching through said top electrode layer using ions from said first plasma; (f) after step (e) exciting a second plasma from a second gas; (g) etching through said ferroelectric layer using ions from said second plasma; (h) after step (g) exciting a third plasma from a third gas; and (i) etching through said bottom electrode layer using ions from said third plasma.