Method of fabricating ultra thin nitride spacers and device incorporating same

A method of forming silicon nitride sidewall spacers on a transistor, comprising:

• forming a gate dielectric above a surface of a semiconducting substrate;
• forming a gate conductor above said gate dielectric;
• forming a layer of silicon nitride above said substrate;
• and
• forming said spacers by performing at least one anisotropic etching process on said layer of silicon nitride using a recipe comprised of approximately 200-300 cubic centimeters of helium (He), approximately 50-85 cubic centimeters of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), and approximately 10-30 cubic centimeters of hydrogen bromide (HBr).

A method of forming silicon nitride sidewall spacers on a transistor, comprising:

• forming a gate dielectric above a surface of a semiconducting substrate;
• forming a gate conductor above said gate dielectric;
• forming a layer of silicon nitride above said substrate;
• and
• forming said spacers by:
• performing at least one anisotropic etching process on said layer of silicon nitride using a recipe comprised of helium (He), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), and hydrogen bromide (HBr);
• and
• performing at least one additional anisotropic etching process using an etching recipe comprised of helium (He), Freon-14 (CF4) and Freon-23 (CHF3).