process for etching of the gate in mos technology using a hard mask on the basis of sion

摘要

A process for etching a gate conductor material in the fabrication of MOS transistors is presented. A hard mask layer composed of silicon oxynitride is formed upon a gate conductor layer. The hard mask layer is preferably patterned using a resin layer. The patterned hard mask layer is preferably used to form a patterned gate conductor. The gate conductor is preferably composed of polycrystalline silicon or a silicon-germanium alloy.