PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16046627
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-07
Publication Date: 2019-10
Patent Classification: ["438", "622000"]

Abstract:
Embodiments of a method for forming a staircase structure of 3D memory devices are disclosed. The method comprises (i) forming an alternating layer stack including multiple layers disposed on a substrate in a vertical direction; (ii) removing a portion of the alternating layer stack to form multiple step-platforms in a staircase region of the alternating layer stack; (iii) forming a hard mask layer to cover top surfaces of the step-platforms; (iv) forming multiple openings in the hard mask layer to expose a portion of each of the step-platforms; (v) forming a photoresist layer to cover the top surfaces of the step-platforms and the hard mask layer; (vi) using a same set of trim-etch processes to pattern the photoresist layer to form a set of staircases on each of the step-platforms; (vii) removing the photoresist layer and the hard mask layer; and repeating (iii), (iv), (v), (vi) and (vii) sequentially.

Claim (Index 14):
The method of  claim 8 , wherein (viii) further includes:\n forming a second hard mask layer to cover top surfaces of the remaining alternating layer stack; forming a plurality of second openings in the hard mask layer to expose a larger portion of each of the step-platforms; forming a second photoresist layer to cover the exposed surfaces of the step-platforms and the second hard mask layer; using a second same set of trim-etch processes to pattern the photoresist layer to form another set of staircases in each of the step-platforms; and removing the second photoresist layer and the second hard mask layer.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 7.0
- Percentile: 95.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.80303
- Patent Class: 438.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: none
- Component Type: 0
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['16046820', '15144901', '15249903', '13314627', '14018578']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8702659083266693
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.4883739911151679
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8320767166055191
- Mean Citation Score: 203.828362
- Max Citation Score: 217.63974
- Similarity Product: 164.14565216105458

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