The invention provides an
etching method. The method comprises providing a substrate, forming an
etching material layer on the substrate, forming hard masks, which comprises a second
hard mask and a first
hard mask successively formed on the
etching material layer, on the etching material layer, enabling the first
hard mask to be graphical, forming a pattern in the first hard
mask, enabling part of the second hard
mask to be exposed, etching the second hard
mask taking the first hard mask as a mask, transferring the pattern onto the second hard mask, and etching the material layer taking the second hard mask, having the pattern, as the mask. The etching method is advantageous in that, compared with a mode that hard masks are etched completely by utilizing first
photoresist in the prior art, the etching method reduces the etched degree of the first
photoresist, and then the problem that the patterns formed in the hard masks are not precise enough due to the too thin first
photoresist is prevented as far as possible.