Patent ID: 7541286

Claim:
An apparatus configured to: form an oxide film over a semiconductor substrate; form a gate conductor over the oxide film; form an antireflective film over the gate conductor; form a photoresist film over the antireflective film; photo-etch the photoresist film, thereby forming a first photoresist film pattern having a first line width; etch the antireflective film, using the first photoresist film pattern as a mask, thereby forming an antireflective film pattern, and simultaneously laterally etch the first photoresist film pattern, thereby forming a second photoresist film pattern having a second line width corresponding to a final design value for the gate conductor; and etch the gate conductor and the oxide film, using the second photoresist film pattern and the antireflective film pattern as a mask, thereby forming a gate conductor pattern and an oxide film pattern, wherein the photo-etch to form the first photoresist film pattern is executed using a KrF light source.