Patent ID: 8236700

Claim:
A method of dry developing an anti-reflective coating (ARC) layer on a substrate, comprising: disposing a substrate comprising a multi-layer mask in a plasma processing system, wherein said multi-layer mask comprises a lithographic layer overlying a silicon-containing ARC layer and wherein said lithographic layer comprises a feature pattern having nested structures and isolated structures formed therein using a lithographic process; establishing a process recipe for transferring said feature pattern to said silicon-containing ARC layer; establishing one or more performance metrics for said process recipe, said one or more performance metrics including a target nested critical dimension (CD) bias between a first CD and a second CD for said nested structures, a target isolated CD bias between a first CD and a second CD for said isolated structures, and a target isolated-nested CD bias between said second CD for said nested structures and said second CD for said isolated structures; introducing a process gas to said plasma processing system according to said process recipe, said process gas consisting of SF 6 and a hydrocarbon gas of the form C x H y ; adjusting a flow rate of said hydrocarbon gas relative to a flow rate of said SF 6 in said process recipe to achieve at least one of said one or more performance metrics; forming plasma from said process gas in said plasma processing system according to said process recipe; and exposing said substrate to said plasma in order to transfer said feature pattern in said lithographic layer to said underlying silicon-containing ARC layer.