PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16037889
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-07
Publication Date: 2019-12
Patent Classification: ["257", "537000"]

Abstract:
A method for manufacturing a thin film resistor (TFR) module in an integrated circuit (IC) structure may include forming a trench in a dielectric region; forming a TFR element in the trench, the TFR element including a laterally-extending TFR region and a TFR ridge extending upwardly from a laterally-extending TFR region; depositing at least one metal layer over the TFR element; and patterning the at least one metal layer and etching the at least one metal layer using a metal etch to define a pair of metal TFR heads over the TFR element, wherein the metal etch also removes at least a portion of the upwardly-extending TFR ridge. The method may also include forming at least one conductive TFR contact extending through the TFR element and in contact with a respective TFR head to thereby increase a conductive path between the respective TFR head and the TFR element.

Claim (Index 28):
A thin film resistor (TFR) module, comprising:\n a TFR element including:\n a laterally-extending TFR element portion having an outer perimeter; and \n a vertical TFR ridge extending upwardly from the outer perimeter of the laterally-extending TFR element portion, the laterally-extending TFR element portion and vertical TFR ridge defining a continuous, contiguous TFR element formed from the same material; \n a conductive TFR contact extending vertically through the vertical TFR ridge; a pair of TFR heads formed over the TFR element, wherein a first TFR head is formed in contact with the conductive TFR contact, to thereby define a conductive path from the first TFR head to the TFR element via the TFR contact; wherein the vertical TFR ridge has a pair of end portions, each located below a respective one of the TFR heads; wherein a first portion of the vertical TFR ridge located laterally between the pair of end portions of the vertical TFR ridge has a smaller height in an upwardly extending direction than a height of each end portion of the vertical TFR ridge.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 38.0
- Percentile: 95.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.33824
- Patent Class: 257.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['16034423', '16037941', '15855576', '15855635', '15872429']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.914377996064128
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5297015513663925
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8759103515943546
- Mean Citation Score: 240.91046600000004
- Max Citation Score: 358.2349
- Similarity Product: 268.3442509477317

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 0
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test