PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15884012
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-01
Publication Date: 2019-05
Patent Classification: ["257", "774000"]

Abstract:
A method and structure for forming a via-first metal gate contact includes depositing a first dielectric layer over a substrate having a gate structure with a metal gate layer. An opening is formed within the first dielectric layer to expose a portion of the substrate, and a first metal layer is deposited within the opening. A second dielectric layer is deposited over the first dielectric layer and over the first metal layer. The first and second dielectric layers are etched to form a gate via opening. The gate via opening exposes the metal gate layer. A portion of the second dielectric layer is removed to form a contact opening that exposes the first metal layer. The gate via and contact openings merge to form a composite opening. A second metal layer is deposited within the composite opening, thus connecting the metal gate layer to the first metal layer.

Claim (Index 18):
The method of  claim 11 , wherein the gate via opening is substantially aligned with the metal gate of the gate structure, and wherein the contact via opening is substantially aligned with the first metal layer.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 23.0
- Percentile: 86.0
- Lexical Diversity: 3.29167
- Patent Class: 257.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: none
- Component Type: 0
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15687275', '12702012', '15394620', '14961638', '15165293']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.9184596589588736
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.4799823875128739
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8746119318142735
- Mean Citation Score: 161.561472
- Max Citation Score: 165.80325
- Similarity Product: 118.50021254450084

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