PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16010694
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-06
Publication Date: 2019-12
Patent Classification: ["257", "401000"]

Abstract:
A shallow trench isolation (STI) structure is formed from a conventional STI trench structure of a first dielectric material extending into the substrate. The conventional STI structure undergoes further processing: removing a first portion of the dielectric material and adjacent portions of the semiconductor substrate to create a first recess, and then removing another portion of the dielectric material to create a second recess in just the dielectric material. A nitride spacer layer is formed above the remaining dielectric material and on the sidewalls of the substrate. A second dielectric material is formed on the spacer layer and fills the remainder of first and second recesses to a lever above the substrate. A nitride capping layer and another dielectric layer are disposed above the second material, thereby substantially encasing the STI structure in nitride. This provides a taller STI structure that results in a better fin profile during a subsequent fin reveal process.

Claim (Index 10):
A method of fabricating a semiconductor device for use with one or more field-effect transistor (FinFET) devices, the method comprising:\n forming a shallow trench isolation (STI) structure within a semiconductor substrate from a shallow trench of first insulating material, comprising,\n forming a mask layer to selectively expose the first insulating material and adjacent portions of the semiconductor substrate, \n removing a first portion of the first insulating material and the substrate using the mask layer to form a first recess in the substrate having a first depth and expose vertical sidewall portions of the substrate, \n removing a second portion of the first insulating material using a chemical oxide removal process, thereby foil ling a second recess having a second depth wherein a third portion of the first insulating material remains, \n forming an inner spacer layer above the third portion of the first insulating material and along the exposed vertical sidewalls of the substrate, \n forming a layer of second insulating material above the inner spacer layer, the second insulating material extending above a surface of the substrate and below a top surface of the masking layer, \n forming a capping layer above the second insulating material, \n forming a layer of third insulating material above the capping layer, thereby foi ming the STI structure comprising the third portion of first insulating material, the inner spacer layer, the second insulating material, and the capping layer, and the third insulating material, and \n removing the mask layer, wherein at least a portion of the STI structure is disposed above the surface of the substrate.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 9.0
- Percentile: 94.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.30986
- Patent Class: 257.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15665183', '15076762', '14512282', '10733378', '15480340']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.9194706060825116
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5112291781812237
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8786464632923828
- Mean Citation Score: 237.786226
- Max Citation Score: 328.1339
- Similarity Product: 326.8474134017289

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