Method of fabricating a semiconductor structure with a self-aligned contact

A method of fabricating a semiconductor structure, comprising:

• forming a dummy gate electrode on the substrate;
• forming a first interlayer dielectric on a substrate after the step of forming the dummy gate electrode;
• removing the dummy gate electrode to leave a trench in the first interlayer dielectric;
• forming a gate electrode in the trench, wherein a periphery of the gate electrode is surrounded by the first interlayer dielectric;
• forming a hard mask on a top surface of the gate electrode;
• forming a patterned mask layer comprising at least a layer of organic material on the gate electrode after the step of forming the hard mask;
• forming a conformal dielectric layer to conformally cover the layer of organic material;
• and
• forming a second interlayer dielectric to cover the conformal dielectric layer.