A new and practical via hole taper‐etching technology is proposed to obtain excellent step coverage of the upper metallization around the via holes in submicron multilevel interconnections. The technology uses incident‐angle dependency of sputter etching and etching selectivity of oxygen ions. A bias electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma‐etching method is applied to realize a practical etching rate using oxygen ions. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) inspection and contact string tests confirm that excellent results are obtained using the technology, including high yields and high reliability of submicron multilevel interconnections.