Patterning of a hard mask material

1. A method for processing a substrate, comprising:

providing a substrate including a photoresist/bottom anti-reflection coating (PR/BARC) layer, a hard mask layer, a stop layer, a carbon layer and a stack including a plurality of layers;

defining a hole pattern including a plurality of holes in the PR/BARC layer using photolithography;

transferring the hole pattern, as defined in the PR/BARC layer, from the PR/BARC layer into the carbon layer;

filling the plurality of holes in the hole pattern, as defined in the PR/BARC layer and the carbon layer, with oxide to create oxide pillars;

using a planarization technique to remove the hard mask layer, a remaining portion of the PR/BARC layer and the stop layer;

stripping the carbon layer to expose the oxide pillars; and

filling space between the oxide pillars with a hard mask material including metal.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the planarization technique includes using chemical mechanical polishing.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein filling the space includes using physical vapor deposition (PVD), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), atomic layer deposition (ALD) or electroless deposition (ELD).

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein filling the space includes using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and further comprising depositing a glue layer.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the glue layer includes a tungsten (W) layer.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising planarizing excess hard mask material.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the planarizing stops on and exposes the oxide pillars.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising stripping the oxide pillars to expose the hole pattern in the hard mask material.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of layers includes alternating silicon oxide and silicon nitride layers.

10. A method for processing a substrate comprising:

providing the substrate including a photoresist/bottom anti-reflection coating (PR/BARC) layer, a hard mask layer, a stop layer, a carbon layer and a stack including a plurality of layers;

defining a hole pattern in the PR/BARC layer using photolithography;

transferring the hole pattern including a plurality of holes, as defined in the PR/BARC layer, from the PR/BARC layer into the carbon layer; and

filling the plurality of holes in the hole pattern, as defined in the PR/BARC layer and the carbon layer, with oxide to create oxide pillars,

wherein the oxide pillars are subsequently used to pattern a hard mask material including metal.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising using a planarization technique to remove the hard mask layer, a remaining portion of the PR/BARC layer and the stop layer.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the planarization technique includes using chemical mechanical polishing.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising stripping the carbon layer to expose the oxide pillars.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising filling space between the oxide pillars with the hard mask material.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein filling the space includes using physical vapor deposition (PVD), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), atomic layer deposition (ALD) or electroless deposition (ELD).

16. The method of claim 14 , wherein filling the space includes using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and further comprising depositing a glue layer.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the glue layer includes a tungsten (W) layer.

18. The method of claim 14 , further comprising planarizing at least part of the hard mask material.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the planarizing stops on and exposes the oxide pillars.

20. The method of claim 19 , further comprising stripping the oxide pillars to expose the hole pattern in the hard mask material.

21. The method of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of layers includes alternating layers of silicon nitride and silicon oxide.