Fabrication of notched gates by passivating partially etched gate sidewalls and then using an isotropic etch

The present invention relates to semiconductor devices such as complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) devices and metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) devices, and more particularly to a method for fabricating gates having notched features at the bottom of the gate by utilizing processing steps that significantly reduce the product cycle time. A method of forming a notched gate structure having substantially vertical sidewalls and a sub-0.05 m electrical critical dimension is provided. The method includes forming a conductive layer on an insulating layer; forming a mask on the conductive layer so as to at least protect a portion of the conductive layer; anisotropically etching the conductive layer not protected by the mask so as to thin the conductive layer to a predetermined thickness and to form a conductive feature underlying the mask, the conductive feature having substantially vertical sidewalls; forming a passivating layer at least on the substantially vertical sidewalls; and isotropically etching remaining conductive layer not protected by the mask to remove the predetermined thickness thereby exposing a lower portion of said conductive feature not containing the passivating layer, while simultaneously removing notched regions in the lower portion of the conductive feature.