PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15874654
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-01
Publication Date: 2018-05
Patent Classification: ["257", "773000"]

Abstract:
Ultra-low-k dielectric materials used as inter-layer dielectrics in high-performance integrated circuits are prone to be structurally unstable. The Young's modulus of such materials is decreased, resulting in porosity, poor film strength, cracking, and voids. An alternative dual damascene interconnect process incorporates air gaps into a high modulus dielectric material to maintain structural stability while reducing capacitance between adjacent nanowires. Incorporation of an air gap having k=1.0 compensates for the use of a higher modulus film having a dielectric constant greater than the typical ultra-low-k (ULK) dielectric value of about 2.2. The higher modulus film containing the air gap is used as an insulator between adjacent metal lines, while a ULK film is retained to insulate vias. The dielectric layer between two adjacent metal lines thus forms a ULK/high-modulus dielectric bi-layer.

Claim (Index 13):
The method of  claim 10  wherein at least some of the metal lines are aligned on top of filled vias to form metal interconnect structure elements having a substantially uniform width.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 23.0
- Percentile: 86.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.58242
- Patent Class: 257.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: none
- Component Type: 0
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['14098346', '12885596', '13362292', '15143969', '14314945']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.9262226796365084
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5618178433294503
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8897821960058026
- Mean Citation Score: 282.522398
- Max Citation Score: 449.76526
- Similarity Product: 353.51410634388924

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