Patent ID: 7585754

Claim:
A method of forming a bonding pad opening, the method comprising: providing a substrate having a bonding pad formed thereon, the bonding pad comprising a conductive layer and an anti-reflection coating (ARC) layer; forming a passivation layer over the substrate to cover the bonding pad; forming a mask layer on the passivation layer, the mask layer having a first opening exposing the passivation layer; etching the passivation layer to form a second opening with use of the ARC layer as an etching stop layer; performing a dry removal process to remove the mask layer; performing a wet cleaning process to remove the residual mask layer or a polymer produced by previous manufacturing processes; and after performing the dry removal process and performing the wet cleaning process, etching and removing the ARC layer exposed by the second opening with use of the passivation layer and the conductive layer as a hard mask layer and the etching stop layer, respectively, so as to form the bonding pad opening.