A technique for dry etching a rutile TiO2 film in a Ru/TiO2/Ru capacitor structure was evaluated considering the electrical performance of the dielectric film. Ar + Cl-2, CF4, and SF6 etching gases were used to dry etch the TiO2 film. The Ar + Cl-2 and CF4 gases largely degraded the leakage current behavior, which was not recovered by the curing annealing process. The SF6 etching gas maintained the intact leakage current performance, which was improved further by a cure annealing process. Although the SF6 etching gas produced by-products from a reaction with the photoresist, they were removed using the H2SO4 + H2O2 cleaning solution. (C) 2009 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI: 10.1149/1.3247971] All rights reserved.