PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15956090
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-04
Publication Date: 2018-08
Patent Classification: ["257", "288000"]

Abstract:
Disclosed are a field effect transistor (FET) and a FET formation method. In the FET, an interlayer dielectric (ILD) layer is positioned laterally adjacent to a sidewall spacer of a replacement metal gate and a cap layer covers the ILD layer, the sidewall spacer and the gate. However, during processing after the gate is formed but before the cap layer is formed, the ILD layer is polished and then recessed such that the top surface of the ILD layer is lower than the top surfaces of the sidewall spacer and the gate. The cap layer is then deposited such that the cap layer is, not only above the top surfaces of the ILD layer, sidewall spacer and gate, but also positioned laterally adjacent to a vertical surface of the sidewall spacer. Recessing the ILD layer prevents shorts between the gate and subsequently formed contacts to the FET source/drain regions.

Claim (Index 1):
A field effect transistor comprising:\n source/drain regions and a channel region positioned laterally between the source/drain regions; a gate adjacent to the channel region; a sidewall spacer positioned laterally adjacent to a sidewall of the gate; an interlayer dielectric layer positioned laterally adjacent to the sidewall spacer, the interlayer dielectric layer having a top surface that is at a lower level than top surfaces of the gate and the sidewall spacer; and a dielectric cap layer on the interlayer dielectric layer, the sidewall spacer and gate, the dielectric cap layer having a portion above the top surface of the interlayer dielectric layer and positioned laterally immediately adjacent to a vertical surface of the sidewall spacer.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 44.0
- Percentile: 91.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.5
- Patent Class: 257.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15878486', '15851774', '15388400', '15354212', '15468170']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.9391986816204138
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5446867164749448
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8997474851058669
- Mean Citation Score: 405.260168
- Max Citation Score: 414.2269
- Similarity Product: 318.87080899835826

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

Dataset: test