PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16016945
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-06
Publication Date: 2018-10
Patent Classification: ["438", "239000"]

Abstract:
A gate structure is formed over a substrate. The gate structure includes a gate electrode and a hard mask located over the gate electrode. The hard mask comprises a first dielectric material. A first interlayer dielectric (ILD) is formed over the gate structure. The first ILD comprises a second dielectric material different from the first dielectric material. A first via is formed in the first ILD. Sidewalls of the first via are surrounded by spacers that comprise the first dielectric material. A second ILD is formed over the first ILD. A via hole is formed in the second ILD. The via hole exposes the first via. A protective layer is formed in the via hole. A bottom segment of the protective layer is removed. Thereafter, an etching process is performed. A remaining segment of the protective layer prevents an etching of the spacers during the etching process.

Claim (Index 20):
The semiconductor device of  claim 19 , further comprising:\n a mask layer disposed over the gate electrode; and an etching-stop layer disposed over the mask layer; wherein: the fourth via vertically extends through the mask layer and the etching-stop layer; and at least one of the mask layer and the etching-stop layer has a same material composition as the spacers.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 2.0
- Percentile: 94.0
- Lexical Diversity: 3.03704
- Patent Class: 438.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15364488', '15610981', '13491857', '15282836', '15649909']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8462995121899337
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5032383902986094
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8119934000008013
- Mean Citation Score: 179.034514
- Max Citation Score: 219.03624
- Similarity Product: 135.2537308758688

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