PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16286149
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2019-02
Publication Date: 2019-06
Patent Classification: ["257", "421000"]

Abstract:
A method includes performing an ion beam etching process on a tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) stack to remove material portions of a first magnetic layer and a tunnel barrier layer of the TMR stack. The ion beam etching process stops at a top surface of a second magnetic layer of the TMR stack. A protective layer is deposited over the TMR stack. Another etch process is performed to remove the protective layer such that a portion of the second magnetic layer is exposed from the protective layer and a spacer is formed from a remaining portion of the protective layer. The spacer surrounds sidewalls of the first magnetic layer and the tunnel barrier layer. The portion of the second magnetic layer exposed from the protective layer is removed so that a TMR sensor element remains, where the TMR sensor element includes a bottom magnet, a top magnet, and a tunnel junction.

Claim (Index 18):
The TMR sensor element of  claim 16  wherein said bottom magnet includes a step region that extends laterally relative to said top magnet and said tunnel junction by a distance defined by a lateral thickness of said spacer, and said spacer resides on said step region.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 14.0
- Percentile: 99.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.59677
- Patent Class: 257.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: none
- Component Type: 0
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15652311', '15719932', '16021602', '10120512', '12589466']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.9004848528799906
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5246613012222262
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8629024977142141
- Mean Citation Score: 181.75742600000004
- Max Citation Score: 295.76776
- Similarity Product: 200.54907922929763

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