A polysilicon gate of 30 nm length is successfully fabricated by direct trimming of a gate stack that consists of organic BARC, polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) and SiO2. It is achieved by patterning the gate stack using a 193 nm photoresist process and trimming the poly-Si gate with HBr/Cl2 plasma chemistry in an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etcher. HBr is found to be more effective than Cl2 as a trimming etchant since it can achieve a higher trimming rate. A maximum trimming rate of 32 nm/min is obtained with gas chemistry of 80% HBr and 20% Cl2 at 40 mTorr, ICP power of 700 W, and rf bias power of 0 W. In general, the trimming rate increases with an increase in ICP power from 200 to 800 W and decrease in pressure from 70 to 10 mTorr. The inclusion of SF6 and O2 to the plasma and the longer trimming time are found to be very effective in reducing the poly-Si footprint which is observed after the trimming process.