PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15961338
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-04
Publication Date: 2018-11
Patent Classification: ["438", "705000"]

Abstract:
A microelectronic method for etching a layer containing silicon nitride is provided, including the following successive steps: modifying the layer containing silicon nitride (SiN) so as to form at least one modified zone, the modifying including at least one implantation of ions made from hydrogen (H) in the layer containing SiN; and removing the at least one modified zone, the removing of the at least one modified zone including at least one step of etching of the at least one modified zone using a chemistry including at least: at least one compound chosen from the fluorocarbon compounds (C x F z ) and the hydrofluorocarbon compounds (C x H y F z ), and at least one compound chosen from Si w Cl(2 w +2) and Si w F(2 w +2).

Claim (Index 33):
The method according to  claim 19 ,\n wherein, before the steps of modification of the layer containing SiN and removal of the at least one modified zone, the following step is performed:\n providing a substrate above which there is at least one first gate pattern and at least one second gate pattern, the layer containing SiN covering the first and second gate pattern, said patterns having sides, \n wherein the at least one implantation of said ions being performed so as to form modified zones of the layer containing SiN outside of the sides and to preserve at least a portion of the thickness of the layer containing SiN on said sides, said portions defining non modified zones, and wherein, after the step of modification of the layer containing SiN and before the step of removal of the at least one modified zone, the following steps are performed:\n masking of the first gate pattern with a masking layer, \n removal of the modified zones of the layer containing SiN located on the second gate pattern selectively with respect to the non-modified zones located on the second gate pattern, and \n removal of the masking layer in so as to expose the layer containing SiN located on the first gate pattern.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 53.0
- Percentile: 91.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.43548
- Patent Class: 438.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: none
- Component Type: 0
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['15390077', '15185446', '15267624', '15627713', '15361260']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8424525916836396
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5020257321273636
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8084099057280121
- Mean Citation Score: 190.587142
- Max Citation Score: 198.57967
- Similarity Product: 131.55138987864257

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

Dataset: test