PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16037985
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-07
Publication Date: 2020-01
Patent Classification: ["438", "009000"]

Abstract:
Generally, embodiments described herein relate to methods for manufacturing an interconnect structure for semiconductor devices, such as in a dual subtractive etch process. An embodiment is a method for semiconductor processing. A titanium nitride layer is formed over a substrate. A hardmask layer is formed over the titanium nitride layer. The hardmask layer is patterned into a pattern. The pattern is transferred to the titanium nitride layer, where the transferring comprises etching the titanium nitride layer. After transferring the pattern to the titanium nitride layer, the hardmask layer is removed, where the removal comprises performing an oxygen-containing ash process.

Claim (Index 5):
The method of  claim 2 , wherein etching the ruthenium layer comprises:\n initiating flowing of etch process gases provided to the ruthenium layer at a first time; determining an end point at a second time using optical emission spectrometry, the end point being determined based on a decrease of a detected optical signal; continuing flowing of the etch process gases for an over-etch period after the second time, the over-etch period being in a range from 10% to 100% of a duration from the first time to the second time; and terminating flowing of the etch process gases at a conclusion of the over-etch period.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 22.0
- Percentile: 95.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.09434
- Patent Class: 438.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: none
- Component Type: 0
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['14543683', '11117854', '14603018', '15818947', '14533999']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.902155781624578
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5154830978242312
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8634885132445432
- Mean Citation Score: 213.54447
- Max Citation Score: 220.2189
- Similarity Product: 109.98170709350109

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 0
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test