PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15880448
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-01
Publication Date: 2019-05
Patent Classification: ["257", "751000"]

Abstract:
Generally, the present disclosure provides example embodiments relating to conductive features, such as metal contacts, vias, lines, etc., and methods for forming those conductive features. In an embodiment, a barrier layer is formed along a sidewall. A portion of the barrier layer along the sidewall is etched back. After etching back the portion of the barrier layer, an upper portion of the barrier layer along the sidewall is smoothed. A conductive material is formed along the barrier layer and over the smoothed upper portion of the barrier layer.

Claim (Index 5):
The method of  claim 1 , wherein smoothing the upper portion of the barrier layer along the sidewall decreases a thickness of the upper portion of the barrier layer along the sidewall.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 20.0
- Percentile: 86.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.19565
- Patent Class: 257.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: none
- Component Type: 0
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15801154', '14829959', '15802729', '15297850', '14579864']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.9148817051789154
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.4840415605783381
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8717976907188577
- Mean Citation Score: 143.51318999999995
- Max Citation Score: 147.1743
- Similarity Product: 97.55061069517134

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

Dataset: test