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 21):
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; positioning the substrate opposite the outlet of the fluid expansion component at a distance within 50 mm of the outlet; supplying an incoming fluid or fluid mixture to the inlet of the fluid expansion component comprising:\n a controllable, incoming pressure greater than atmospheric pressure; and \n a controllable, incoming temperature that is less than 273K; \n expanding the incoming fluid or fluid mixture into the process chamber through the fluid expansion component such that at least a portion of the expanded fluid or fluid mixture will contact the microelectronic substrate, the process chamber being maintained at a chamber pressure of 35 Torr or less; adjusting the incoming temperature and/or incoming pressure such that, while treating the microelectronic substrate, the incoming fluid or fluid mixture transitions between a gaseous state and a liquid state; and removing objects from the microelectronic substrate using the portion of the expanded fluid or fluid mixture that contacts the microelectronic substrate.

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): 0.8742229376455478
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5751311995161446
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8443137638326075
- Mean Citation Score: 396.094512
- Max Citation Score: 465.3694
- Similarity Product: 458.7659939222097

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