Patent ID: 7291446

Claim:
A method of preparing a structure on a substrate comprising: preparing a film stack comprising a thin film, a hard mask formed on said thin film, and a layer of light-sensitive material formed on said hard mask, wherein said thin film comprising mono-crystalline silicon, poly-silicon, doped silicon, silicon nitride, silicon dioxide or a low dielectric constant material or a combination of two or more thereof, and wherein said hard mask comprising a tunable anti-reflective coating formed within said film stack having a structural formula R:C:H:X, wherein R is selected from the group consisting of Si, Ge, B, Sn, Fe, Ti, and combinations thereof, and wherein X is not present or is selected from the group consisting of one or more of O, N, S, and F; forming a pattern in said layer of light-sensitive material; transferring said pattern to said hard mask to form a patterned hard mask; removing said layer of light-sensitive material; treating a surface layer of said patterned hard mask after at least a portion of the light sensitive material is removed, in order to chemically alter said surface layer to a depth of at least 10 angstroms; and transferring said pattern to said thin film using said patterned treated hard mask as an etch mask, wherein said removing said light-sensitive material is followed by said treating said surface layer of said hard mask, said removing and said treating comprise exposing said substrate to an oxygen-containing plasma for an exposure time at a substrate holder temperature.