PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15897204
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-02
Publication Date: 2019-08
Patent Classification: ["257", "369000"]

Abstract:
Gate isolation methods and structures leverage the formation of a sidewall spacer layer within a recess formed in an organic planarization layer. The spacer layer enables precise alignment of the cut region of a sacrificial gate, which may be backfilled with an isolation layer. By forming the isolation layer after a reliability anneal of the gate dielectric and after formation of a first work function metal layer, both the desired critical dimension (CD) and alignment of the isolation layer can be achieved.

Claim (Index 1):
A method of forming a semiconductor structure, comprising:\n forming a plurality of semiconductor fins over a semiconductor substrate; forming a gate dielectric layer over each of the tins; forming a first work function metal layer over the gate dielectric layer; forming a masking layer over the first work function metal layer; etching the masking layer to form a recess extending partially through the masking layer, the recess overlying the first work function metal layer between adjacent fins; forming a spacer layer over side walls of the recess; etching the masking layer using the spacer layer as an etch mask to form a gate cut opening and expose the first work function metal layer, the exposed first work function metal layer forming a first bottom of the gate cut opening; etching the first work function metal layer at the first bottom of the gate cut opening and etching the gate dielectric layer thereunder, thereby forming a second bottom of the gate cut opening; and depositing an isolation dielectric layer within the gate cut opening.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 2.0
- Percentile: 88.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.64815
- Patent Class: 257.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15467536', '15830217', '15486387', '15860840', '15705888']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.9284101377447296
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5140193734106882
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8869710613113255
- Mean Citation Score: 309.4815040000001
- Max Citation Score: 321.95813
- Similarity Product: 266.12180602840004

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test