Patent 7405160 was granted and assigned to Tokyo Electron on July, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A plasma processing method, which enables the etching controllability for a high-dielectric-constant insulating film to be improved. A substrate having a high-dielectric-constant gate insulating film and a hard mask formed thereon is subjected to etching processing using a plasma of a processing gas containing a noble gas and a reducing gas.