PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16025566
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-07
Publication Date: 2018-10
Patent Classification: ["134", "021000"]

Abstract:
Disclosed herein are systems and methods for treating the surface of a microelectronic substrate, and in particular, relate to an apparatus and method for scanning the microelectronic substrate through a cryogenic fluid mixture used to treat an exposed surface of the microelectronic substrate. The fluid mixture may be expanded through a nozzle to form an aerosol spray or gas cluster jet (GCJ) spray may impinge the microelectronic substrate and remove particles from the microelectronic substrate's surface. In one embodiment, the fluid mixture may be maintained to prevent liquid formation within the fluid mixture prior to passing the fluid mixture through the nozzle. The fluid mixture may include nitrogen, argon, helium, neon, xenon, krypton, carbon dioxide, or any combination thereof.

Claim (Index 22):
A method for treating a microelectronic substrate, comprising\n receiving the microelectronic substrate in a vacuum process chamber comprising a fluid expansion component comprising an inlet and an outlet, and wherein the process chamber is at a chamber pressure of 35 Torr or less; positioning the substrate opposite the fluid expansion component at a distance within 50 mm of the outlet; supplying an incoming gas or gas mixture to the fluid expansion component, said incoming gas or gas mixture comprising:\n a controllable, incoming pressure greater than atmospheric pressure; and \n a controllable, incoming temperature that is less than 273K, and wherein the incoming temperature and the incoming pressure are controlled such that the incoming gas or gas mixture is in a gaseous state comprising less than 1 volume percent of a liquid phase; \n expanding the incoming gas or gas mixture into the process chamber through the fluid expansion component to form a spray comprising a plurality of gas clusters that contact the microelectronic substrate, while expanding the incoming gas or gas mixture into the process chamber, varying the incoming temperature of the incoming gas or gas mixture, the incoming pressure of the incoming gas or gas mixture, and/or the chamber pressure to vary gas cluster of the spray; and removing objects from the microelectronic substrate using the gas clusters.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 2.0
- Percentile: 95.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.86301
- Patent Class: 134.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['14876242', '14876214', '15197450', '15681105', '15078338']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8749149026224823
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5717759490014166
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8446010072603757
- Mean Citation Score: 396.094512
- Max Citation Score: 465.3694
- Similarity Product: 436.78653923401833

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

Dataset: test