Patent 7670760 was granted and assigned to Freescale Semiconductor on March, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A method for reducing line edge roughness (LER) in a layer of photoresist is provided. In accordance with the method, a layer of photoresist is applied to a substrate. The layer of photoresist is then patterned and annealed in an atmosphere comprising at least one gas selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, nitrogen and fluorine-containing materials. Preferably, the anneal is performed after patterning the photoresist, but either immediately after, or subsequent to, the trim.