PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15942187
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-03
Publication Date: 2018-08
Patent Classification: ["257", "401000"]

Abstract:
A semiconductor device includes a substrate including a first fin element, a second fin element, and a third fin element. A first source/drain epitaxial feature is disposed over the first and second fin elements. A first portion of the first source/drain epitaxial feature disposed on the first fin element and a second portion of the first source/drain epitaxial feature disposed on the second fin element merge at a merge point. A second source/drain epitaxial feature is disposed over the third fin element. A first sidewall of the second source/drain epitaxial feature interfaces a first third-fin spacer disposed along a first sidewall of the third fin element. A second sidewall of the second source/drain epitaxial feature interfaces a second third-fin spacer disposed along a second sidewall of the third fin element. The merge point has a first height less than a second height of the first third-fin spacer.

Claim (Index 8):
A method, comprising:\n providing a substrate including a first fin element, a second fin element adjacent to the first fin element, and a shallow trench isolation (STI) feature disposed between the first and second fin elements; forming a plurality of spacers along sidewalls of the first and second fin elements, wherein the forming the plurality of spacers includes:\n forming a first spacer disposed along a first first-fin sidewall of the first fin element facing away from the second fin element; and \n forming a second spacer disposed along a first second-fin sidewall of the second fin element facing away from the first fin element; and \n forming a first source/drain epitaxial feature over the first fin element and the second fin element, wherein the forming of the first source/drain epitaxial feature is laterally constrained by the first and second spacers,\n wherein an air-gap interposes the first source/drain epitaxial feature and the STI feature, and \n wherein the air-gap has a first height less than a second height of the first spacer, and is at least partially defined by a third sidewall and a fourth sidewall of the first source/drain epitaxial feature and a top surface of the STI feature.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 50.0
- Percentile: 90.0
- Lexical Diversity: 4.0
- Patent Class: 257.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['14997372', '13865478', '14788161', '15809726', '15907427']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.9053307234915308
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5414405247852571
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8689417036209034
- Mean Citation Score: 271.918966
- Max Citation Score: 375.5413
- Similarity Product: 285.25973277936583

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

Dataset: test