Surface material removal, especially for hard mask removal from a semiconductor surface, comprises removing material while protecting the rest of the surface with a temporary layer

摘要

A surface material removal process, comprising removing material (6) while the rest of the surface (4) is covered by a temporary protective layer (7), is new. Preferred Features: The material (6) is a mask on a layer (3) to be structured, the layer (3) comprising a metal (especially a Pt group metal) or its oxide; a ferroelectric material, a high dielectric constant dielectric material, a perovskite or their precursors; silicon oxide (especially SiO2); a metal nitride (especially TiNx, x = 0.8 to 1.2 exclusive); or a metal silicide. The protective layer (7) may be a lacquer layer.