Abstract: Methods are provided for processing a substrate including etching conductive materials with amorphous carbon materials disposed thereon. In one aspect, the invention provides a method for processing a substrate including forming a conductive material layer on a surface of the substrate, depositing an amorphous carbon layer on the conductive material layer, etching the amorphous carbon layer to form a patterned amorphous carbon layer, and etching feature definitions in the conductive material layer corresponding to the patterned amorphous carbon layer. The amorphous carbon layer may act as a hardmask, an etch stop, or an anti-reflective coating.