PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15874618
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-01
Publication Date: 2019-03
Patent Classification: ["257", "401000"]

Abstract:
Methods of forming a differential layer, such as a Contact Etch Stop Layer (CESL), in a semiconductor device are described herein, along with structures formed by the methods. In an embodiment, a structure includes an active area on a substrate, a gate structure over the active area, a gate spacer along a sidewall of the gate structure, and a differential etch stop layer. The differential etch stop layer has a first portion along a sidewall of the gate spacer and has a second portion over an upper surface of the source/drain region. A first thickness of the first portion is in a direction perpendicular to the sidewall of the gate spacer, and a second thickness of the second portion is in a direction perpendicular to the upper surface of the source/drain region. The second thickness is greater than the first thickness.

Claim (Index 6):
A method of semiconductor processing comprising:\n forming a differential layer over a device structure on a substrate, forming the differential layer comprising:\n exposing, in a first exposure, the device structure to first one or more precursors; \n after the first exposure, activating an upper surface on the device structure using a directional plasma activation; and \n after activating the upper surface on the device structure, exposing, in a second exposure, the device structure to second one or more precursors, wherein more reactions occur at the activated upper surface on the device structure than at a non-activated surface on the device structure while the device structure is exposed to the second one or more precursors.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 1.0
- Percentile: 86.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.47619
- Patent Class: 257.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15874278', '15490439', '15235233', '15429894', '15221123']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8942097926188426
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.4840745385378774
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8531962672107462
- Mean Citation Score: 174.03635
- Max Citation Score: 181.2334
- Similarity Product: 133.77214116101266

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

Dataset: test