Patent 7195716 was granted and assigned to United Microelectronics Corporation on March, 2007 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An etching process is described. A material layer having a bottom anti-reflection coating (BARC) and a patterned photoresist layer thereon is provided. An etching step is performed to the BARC using the patterned photoresist layer as a mask. A cleaning step is performed to remove the polymer formed on the surface of the patterned photoresist layer. Thereafter, another etching step is performed to the material layer using the patterned photoresist layer as a mask.