Systems and methods are provided herein for etch features on a substrate, while maintaining a near-unity critical dimension (CD) shrink ratio. The features etched may include, but are not limited to contacts, vias, etc. More specifically, the techniques described herein use a pulsed plasma to control the polymer build-up ratio between the major CD and minor CD of the feature, and thus, control the CD shrink ratio when etching features having substantially different major and minor dimensions. The CD shrink ratio is controlled by selecting or adjusting one or more operational parameters (e.g., duty cycle, RF power, etch chemistry, etc.) of the plasma etch process(es) to control the amount of polymer build-up at the major and minor dimensions of the feature.