Patent ID: 7232766

Claim:
A method of passivating an exposed conductive material comprising: placing a substrate in an etch process chamber, wherein the substrate includes a conductive overburden portion formed over a plurality of features, the overburden portion having a non-uniformity; planarizing the substrate to remove a bulk of the overburden portion and substantially remove the non-uniformity without imparting stress to the plurality of features including: injecting a hydrogen containing species into the process chamber, the hydrogen containing species includes at least one of a group consisting of HCl, HBr, CH 4 and NH 3 ; forming a hydrogen containing species plasma in the process chamber; and removing a surface layer species from a top surface of the substrate, the surface layer species includes at least one of an oxide, a halide or a nitride; and purging the removed surface layer species from the process chamber.