PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15950616
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-04
Publication Date: 2019-08
Patent Classification: ["257", "314000"]

Abstract:
A contact via structure vertically extending through an alternating stack of insulating layers and electrically conductive layers is provided in a staircase region having stepped surfaces. The contact via structure is electrically isolated from each electrically conductive layer of the alternating stack except for an electrically conductive layer that directly underlies a horizontal interface of the stepped surfaces. A laterally-protruding portion of the contact via structure contacts an annular top surface of the electrically conductive layer. The electrical isolation can be provided by a ribbed insulating spacer that includes laterally-protruding annular rib regions at levels of the insulating layers, or can be provided by annular insulating spacers located at levels of the electrically conductive layers. The contact via structure can contact a top surface of an underlying metal interconnect structure that overlies a substrate to provide an electrically conductive path.

Claim (Index 10):
The device structure of  claim 9 , further comprising lower-level metal interconnect structures embedded in lower-level dielectric material layers and located between the substrate and the alternating stack, wherein the bottommost surface of the conductive pillar portion contacts a top surface of one of the lower-level metal interconnect structures.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 3.0
- Percentile: 91.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.11594
- Patent Class: 257.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15950505', '15877219', '15632983', '15489050', '15909073']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.9375078069061396
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.590695461994463
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.902826572414972
- Mean Citation Score: 432.758462
- Max Citation Score: 575.9639
- Similarity Product: 422.1071340617418

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