PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15975852
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-05
Publication Date: 2018-11
Patent Classification: ["438", "714000"]

Abstract:
A selectivity can be improved in a desirable manner when etching a processing target object containing silicon carbide. An etching method of processing the processing target object, having a first region containing silicon carbide and a second region containing silicon nitride and in contact with the first region, includes etching the first region to remove the first region atomic layer by atomic layer by repeating a sequence comprising: generating plasma from a first gas containing nitrogen to form a mixed layer containing ions contained in the plasma generated from the first gas in an atomic layer of an exposed surface of the first region; and generating plasma from a second gas containing fluorine to remove the mixed layer by radicals contained in the plasma generated from the second gas.

Claim (Index 1):
An etching method of etching a processing target object having a first region and a second region, the etching method comprising:\n etching the first region to remove the first region by atomic layer by repeating a sequence comprising: a first process of generating first plasma from a first gas within a processing vessel of a plasma processing apparatus in which the processing target object is accommodated to form a mixed layer containing ions contained in the first plasma in an atomic layer of an exposed surface of the first region; a second process of purging a space within the processing vessel after performing the first process; after performing the second process, a third process of generating second plasma from a second gas within the processing vessel to remove the mixed layer by radicals contained in the second plasma; and a fourth process of purging the space within the processing vessel after performing the third process, wherein the first region contains silicon carbide, the second region contains silicon nitride, the first gas contains nitrogen, and the second gas contains fluorine.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 1.0
- Percentile: 93.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.36842
- Patent Class: 438.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['15954802', '15952328', '15007420', '14863863', '15952359']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8637065242808304
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.4918106844907524
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8265169403018225
- Mean Citation Score: 238.835716
- Max Citation Score: 256.23923
- Similarity Product: 210.104605069685

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