PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15990037
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-05
Publication Date: 2018-09
Patent Classification: ["257", "314000"]

Abstract:
An annular dielectric spacer can be formed at a level of a joint-level dielectric material layer between vertically neighboring pairs of alternating stacks of insulating layers and spacer material layers. After formation of a memory opening through multiple alternating stacks and formation of a memory film therein, an anisotropic etch can be performed to remove a horizontal bottom portion of the memory film. The annular dielectric spacer can protect underlying portions of the memory film during the anisotropic etch. In addition, a silicon nitride barrier may be employed to suppress hydrogen diffusion at an edge region of peripheral devices.

Claim (Index 7):
The method of  claim 6 , further comprising:\n forming a flare region in an upper portion of the first-tier memory opening by isotropically recessing a top surface of the joint-level dielectric material layer and a portion of the sidewall of the joint-level dielectric material layer that is not covered by the annular dielectric spacer, while isotropically recessing an upper portion of the annular dielectric spacer that is not covered by the second sacrificial fill material portion; and forming a third sacrificial fill material portion inside the flare region, wherein the third sacrificial fill material portion is subsequently removed during the step of forming the memory opening.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 5.0
- Percentile: 93.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.69355
- Patent Class: 257.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15434544', '15445579', '15914560', '15347101', '15186768']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.9404212112899172
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5513010531066351
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.9015091954715888
- Mean Citation Score: 418.19315000000006
- Max Citation Score: 479.896
- Similarity Product: 286.4717120809555

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