PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15967156
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-04
Publication Date: 2018-10
Patent Classification: ["257", "401000"]

Abstract:
A shallow trench isolation (STI) structure is formed having a conventional STI trench structure formed of dielectric material extending into the substrate. A planarizing stack of nitride and oxide is formed above the STI trench structure (and optionally a dummy gate may be formed above this stack). After further conventional processing, the nitride layer results in a structure that extends laterally outward beyond the outer edges of the underlying STI structure—creating a shadow or umbrella structure. The S/D cavity is formed (between the active gate and dummy gate) and the epitaxial S/D regions are grown. The placement and configuration of the nitride layer assists in reducing the amount of substrate material removed adjacent the STI structure during the S/D region cavity formation.

Claim (Index 1):
A semiconductor device comprising:\n a semiconductor substrate; a shallow trench isolation (STI) structure disposed within the semiconductor substrate, the STI structure comprising:\n a first STI layer disposed in the substrate and having a first sidewall and a second sidewall, and \n an STI protective layer disposed in the substrate and above the first STI layer, the STI protective layer extending laterally outward and beyond at least one of the first and second sidewalls; and \n a field effect transistor (FET) disposed on the semiconductor substrate and having a first gate structure, an epitaxial first source/drain (S/D) region, and an epitaxial second S/D region, wherein the epitaxial first S/D region is disposed adjacent to the STI structure.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 29.0
- Percentile: 91.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.88732
- Patent Class: 257.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15665183', '15397978', '15184479', '15282836', '10952286']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.9206384409888124
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5209513001983306
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8806697269097641
- Mean Citation Score: 267.180246
- Max Citation Score: 337.7358
- Similarity Product: 275.6982141978264

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