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Abstract

A method of forming a gate structure includes the steps of: providing a substrate; sequentially forming a polysilicon layer, a hard mask layer, an anti-reflection layer and a photoresist layer over the substrate; etching the hard mask layer using the anti-reflection layer and the photoresist layer as a mask; performing a SiCoNi process to trim the etched hard mask layer until the trimmed hard mask layer has a desired critical dimension; and etching the polysilicon layer to form a gate structure using the trimmed hard mask layer as a mask. The method is capable of precise control of the width and profile of the trimmed hard mask layer and can thereby result in a gate structure with a smaller critical dimension and an improved profile.

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