Method of fabricating a semiconductor device including a pattern of line segments

1. A method of fabricating a semiconductor device comprising:

depositing a hardmask layer on a layer of the semiconductor device;

selectively etching a pattern of continuous lines in the hardmask layer;

depositing an antireflective coating over remaining portions of the hardmask layer;

depositing a photoresist layer on the antireflective coating;

patterning the photoresist layer with a plurality of isolation trenches via a lithography process, each of the isolation trenches extending perpendicular to and crossing portions of at least one of the continuous lines of the underlying hardmask layer, with each isolation trench having an initial width;

reducing the width of each of the isolation trenches from the initial width to desired width via a shrinking process;

etching the antireflective coating underlying the isolation trenches to expose intersecting portions of the underlying continuous lines; and

etching the exposed intersecting portions of the underlying continuous lines of the hardmask layer to form a pattern of line segments having line ends separated by the desired width.

2. The method of claim 1 , including:

removing the remaining portions of the photoresist layer;

removing the remaining portions of the antireflective layer by etching;

etch transferring the pattern of line segments formed by remaining portions of the hardmask layer to the layer of the semiconductor device; and

removing the remaining portions of the hardmask by etching.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the layer of the semiconductor device comprises a gate layer and the pattern of line segments comprise gate lines.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the gate layer comprises a polysilicon layer.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the gate layer comprises a metal gate stack.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein etch transferring the pattern of line segments to the layer of the semiconductor device comprises a plasma etching process.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the shrinking process includes growing a layer of polymer material on side walls of the isolation trenches using a Resolution Enhancement Lithography Assisted by Chemical Shrink (RELACS™) technique.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein shrinking the width of each isolation trench includes depositing a polymer material on walls of the isolation trenches via a Motif™ post-lithography plasma assist critical dimension shrink technique.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the hardmask layer comprises Advanced Patterning Film (APF™).

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the antireflective coating comprises a highly planarized antireflective coating.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein selectively etching a pattern of continuous lines in the hardmask layer includes depositing a photoresist layer on the hardmask layer and patterning the photoresist layer with the pattern of continuous lines via a lithography process.

12. The method of claim 11 , further including disposing an antireflective coating between the hardmask layer and the photoresist layer.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the initial width is of a dimension that enables the lithography process used to pattern the photoresist layer to employ a lithography process window having an exposure latitude in a range from 8-10% and a depth-of-focus in a range from 140-180.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the initial width is at least 50 nanometers.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the desired width comprises a sub-lithographic dimension.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the desired width is not greater than 40 nanometers.