PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16246373
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2019-01
Publication Date: 2019-05
Patent Classification: ["438", "637000"]

Abstract:
Self-aligned isotropic etch processes for via and plug patterning for back end of line (BEOL) interconnects, and the resulting structures, are described. In an example, a method of fabricating an interconnect structure for an integrated circuit includes removing a sacrificial or permanent placeholder material of a subset of a plurality of holes or trenches through openings in a patterning layer. The method also includes removing the patterning layer and filling the subset of the plurality of holes or trenches with a permanent material.

Claim (Index 6):
A method of fabricating an interconnect structure for an integrated circuit, the method comprising:\n providing a previous layer metallization structure comprising metal lines formed in first a first dielectric layer; forming a second dielectric layer above the previous layer metallization structure; forming a plurality of holes or trenches in the second dielectric layer; filling the plurality of holes or trenches with a sacrificial or permanent placeholder material; forming a patterning layer above the second dielectric layer and the sacrificial or permanent placeholder material; forming openings in the patterning layer to expose a portion of the sacrificial or permanent placeholder material of a subset of the plurality of holes or trenches, each opening smaller than the corresponding portion of the sacrificial or permanent placeholder material of the subset of the plurality of holes or trenches; removing the sacrificial or permanent placeholder material of the subset of the plurality of holes or trenches through the openings in the patterning layer; and filling the subset of the plurality of holes or trenches with a permanent material.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 1.0
- Percentile: 99.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.71698
- Patent Class: 438.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15743616', '14911991', '14914095', '14133385', '14133262']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.853455226700224
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5800012612597232
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8261098301561739
- Mean Citation Score: 343.219122
- Max Citation Score: 457.45953
- Similarity Product: 441.5751156002444

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