| abstract |
A method for patterning a conductive metal oxide film on a substrate surface by means of an oxygen plasma etching process. In one embodiment, a substrate (10) is provided having a ruthenium oxide layer (14) overlying a dielectric layer (12). The substrate is placed on an electrode (24) positioned in a vacuum chamber (20) and the vacuum chamber is evacuated to a low pressure. Oxygen gas is introduced to the vacuum chamber and RF power is applied to form an oxygen plasma within the vacuum chamber. The oxygen plasma preferentially etches the ruthenium oxide layer (14) and does not etch the underlying dielectric layer (12). The oxygen plasma etching process can be used to form high resolution ruthenium oxide features during semiconductor device fabrication of ferroelectric capacitors (60) and other electronic components. |