PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16132239
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-09
Publication Date: 2019-01
Patent Classification: ["205", "081000"]

Abstract:
Methods of and apparatuses for monitoring electroplating bath quality in electroplating cells using voltage readings are described herein. Methods involve obtaining real-time voltage readings during an electroplating process and determining whether the voltage readings are within a threshold deviation of an expected voltage reading at a given time.

Claim (Index 27):
An apparatus for monitoring conditions of a plating solution during electroplating of a substrate comprising one or more recessed features, the apparatus comprising:\n (a) a plating vessel configured to hold the plating solution, wherein the apparatus is configured for electrodepositing a metal from the plating solution onto the substrate; (b) a power supply; (c) an electrode; (d) a controller comprising program instructions and/or logic for:\n (i) detecting an initial voltage between the substrate and the electrode; \n (ii) electroplating a metal layer on the substrate in the plating solution; \n (iii) repeatedly reading a voltage between the substrate and the electrode during (ii); \n (iv) determining whether voltage reading in (iii) is greater than a corresponding expected voltage by a value greater than a threshold deviation; and \n (v) in response to determining that the deviation in (iv) is greater than the threshold deviation, sending a notification and/or suspending operation of the plating vessel, \n wherein the threshold deviation is based on an expected voltage, \n wherein the corresponding expected voltage drifts from the initial voltage, and \n wherein the drift was determined from voltage readings in an electroplating process that produced satisfactory electroplating results.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 38.0
- Percentile: 97.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.38889
- Patent Class: 205.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['14685512', '14275750', '15590718', '13110488', '14627897']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7134458634691115
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5521953753620595
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.6973208146584065
- Mean Citation Score: 241.0206
- Max Citation Score: 424.12982
- Similarity Product: 370.66224146498433

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