PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16241582
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2019-01
Publication Date: 2019-05
Patent Classification: ["257", "432000"]

Abstract:
An image sensor is disclosed. The image sensor includes an epitaxial layer, a plurality of plug structures and an interconnect structure. Wherein the plurality of plug structures are formed in the epitaxial layer, and each plug structure has doped sidewalls, the epitaxial layer and the doped sidewalls form a plurality of photodiodes, the plurality of plug structures are used to separate adjacent photodiodes, and the epitaxial layer and the doped sidewalls are coupled to the interconnect structure via the plug structures. An associated method of fabricating the image sensor is also disclosed. The method includes: providing a substrate having a first-type doped epitaxial substrate layer on a second-type doped epitaxial substrate layer; forming a plurality of isolation trenches in the first-type doped epitaxial substrate layer; forming a second-type doped region along sidewalls and bottoms of the plurality of isolation trenches; and filling the plurality of isolation trenches by depositing metal.

Claim (Index 9):
An image sensor, comprising:\n a first-type doped epitaxial layer having a front side and a back side; an interconnect structure at the front side of the epitaxial layer; a color filter layer in physical contact with the back side of the epitaxial layer; a plug structure formed through the first-type doped epitaxial layer, and the plug structures extending to a higher level than the front side of the first-type doped epitaxial layer and in physical contact with the interconnect structure at one end, and being level with the back side of the first-type doped epitaxial layer and in physical contact with the color filter at the other end; second-type doped sidewalls conformally formed around the plug structure; and a micro-lens formed over the back side of the first-type doped epitaxial layer; wherein the first-type and the second-type are different polarities.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 50.0
- Percentile: 99.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.77966
- Patent Class: 257.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['14724055', '16113066', '15919784', '12844642', '14923635']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.896560667585998
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5072889487661357
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8576334957040117
- Mean Citation Score: 218.371302
- Max Citation Score: 299.9188200000001
- Similarity Product: 287.1503477734066

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