PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15773145
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-05
Publication Date: 2018-11
Patent Classification: ["250", "305000"]

Abstract:
Determining a property of a layer of an integrated circuit (IC), the layer being formed over an underlayer, is implemented by performing the steps of: irradiating the IC to thereby eject electrons from the IC; collecting electrons emitted from the IC and determining the kinetic energy of the emitted electrons to thereby calculate emission intensity of electrons emitted from the layer and electrons emitted from the underlayer calculating a ratio of the emission intensity of electrons emitted from the layer and electrons emitted from the underlayer; and using the ratio to determine material composition or thickness of the layer. The steps of irradiating IC and collecting electrons may be performed using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) or x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF).

Claim (Index 31):
A system for determining a thickness of a layer in a multi-layer structure, comprising:\n a critical dimension metrology tool; a thickness measurement metrology tool; a thickness determining module, comprising:\n a first input port coupled to the critical dimension metrology tool and configured for receiving from the critical dimension metrology tool parameters corresponding to topography of a top surface of the IC; \n a second input port configured for receiving radiation intensity signal from a sensor of the thickness measurement metrology tool, the radiation intensity signal corresponding to radiation detected by the sensor from the top surface of the IC; \n a coefficient generator receiving the parameters and calculating at least one coefficient therefrom; \n a calibration module receiving the coefficient and using the coefficient to calibrate the radiation intensity signal to thereby produce a calibrated signal; \n a determination module receiving the calibration signal and using the calibration signal to generate a determination of the thickness of the layer.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 2.0
- Percentile: 93.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.2931
- Patent Class: 250.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['14744198', '11118035', '11118683', '14080050', '12752678']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7176350808189328
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5079284663018201
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.6966644193672216
- Mean Citation Score: 242.514802
- Max Citation Score: 301.10162
- Similarity Product: 230.09108138607505

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