Patent ID: 7022611

Claim:
A method for creating semiconductor devices by etching a layer over a wafer, comprising: providing a photoresist layer on a wafer; patterning the photoresist layer; placing the wafer in a process chamber; hardening the photoresist by providing a hardening plasma containing high energy electrons in the process chamber to harden the photoresist layer, wherein the high energy electrons have a density, wherein the high energy electrons have an energy greater than 450 eV, wherein the density of the high energy electrons in the hardening plasma is greater than 10 8 electrons/cm 3 , wherein the hardening the photoresist comprises: accelerating ions from the hardening plasma to an electrode to generate secondary electrons; accelerating the secondary electrons back through a plasma sheath to the wafer; and exposing the photoresist to the accelerated secondary electrons; and terminating the hardening the photoresist prior to etching the wafer; etching the layer within the process chamber with an etching plasma, where a density of high energy electrons in the etching plasma is less than the density of high energy electrons in the hardening plasma, wherein the density of the high energy electrons in the etching plasma is less than 10 7 electrons/cm 3 .