PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16108528
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-08
Publication Date: 2018-12
Patent Classification: ["204", "275100"]

Abstract:
Plating bath and well structures and methods are described to stop the organic compounds present in plating reservoir wells or bath solution from rising, i.e., climbing up the reservoir wall. An electroplating apparatus includes a vessel holding a liquid solution including metal plating material and an organic species, and a method of operating an electroplating apparatus. The apparatus is designed with plating bath and structures and methods to stop the organic compounds present in plating reservoir wells or bath solution from rising, i.e., climbing or wicking up the inner surfaces of reservoir walls, and to wash them back down on a continuous or cyclical basis in order to maintain a concentration of organic compounds in the plating solution within upper and lower specification limits.

Claim (Index 1):
An electroplating apparatus comprising:\n a vessel having walls configured to hold a liquid solution of a metal plating material and including an organic species, the liquid solution contained within the vessel at a first level below a top rim of the vessel; and means for preventing an organic species of the solution from wicking up inner wall surfaces of the vessel toward the top rim, wherein the vessel top rim defines a vessel perimeter, the preventing means comprising: a source of the metal plating solution; a conveying apparatus for providing the liquid solution from the source to a height at or above the top rim, the conveyance apparatus having a portion aligned with the vessel perimeter at the height, and an opening formed in the aligned conveyance portion to create a flow of the metal plating solution over the top rim and on an inner wall surface, the solution flow of a force suitable to rinse the organics back into the tank, wherein a relative concentration of organic species in the liquid solution is maintained, and wherein the conveyance apparatus is a pipe including a nozzle bar portion at a height above or aligned with the vessel top rim and inwardly offset therefrom, the nozzle bar portion including a plurality of nozzle openings; and a pump connected to the pipe for pumping liquid solution through the plurality of nozzle openings, the plurality of nozzle openings directed to create a downward flow of the liquid solution at or below the top rim on each inner wall surface.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 2.0
- Percentile: 96.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.95588
- Patent Class: 204.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['14523061', '12179352', '14151532', '10154426', '12401113']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7530633883988187
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5765177314363853
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7354088227025755
- Mean Citation Score: 256.094968
- Max Citation Score: 469.40598
- Similarity Product: 423.26780212405447

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