PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15887819
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-02
Publication Date: 2019-05
Patent Classification: ["257", "384000"]

Abstract:
The present disclosure relates generally to techniques for forming a continuous adhesion layer for a contact plug. A method includes forming an opening through a dielectric layer to an active area on a substrate. The method includes performing a first plasma treatment along a sidewall of the opening. The method includes performing an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process to form a metal nitride layer along the sidewall of the opening. The ALD process includes a plurality of cycles. Each cycle includes flowing a precursor to form a metal monolayer along the sidewall and performing a second plasma treatment to treat the metal monolayer with nitrogen. The method includes depositing a conductive material on the metal nitride layer in the opening to form a conductive feature.

Claim (Index 10):
A structure comprising:\n an active region on a substrate, the active region comprising a source/drain region, the active region comprising a semiconductor material; an interlayer dielectric (ILD) over the active region; a nitrogen treated region along opposing sidewalls of the ILD and a surface of the active region, the sidewall extending to the active region, the nitrogen treated region having a first titanium concentration at a first location and a second titanium concentration at a second location, the second location being at the opposing sidewalls of the ILD, the first location being opposite of the second location, the second titanium concentration being greater than the first titanium concentration; a metal nitride layer on the nitrogen treated region along the opposing sidewalls of the ILD and the surface of the active region, the metal nitride layer having a first nitrogen concentration at a third location, a second nitrogen concentration at a fourth location, the fourth location being at an interface between the metal nitride layer and the nitrogen treated region, the fourth location being opposite of the third location, the first nitrogen concentration being greater than the second nitrogen concentration, the metal nitride layer having a third titanium concentration at the third location, a fourth titanium concentration in a bulk region interposed between the third location and the fourth location, and a fifth titanium concentration at the fourth location the fourth titanium concentration being greater than each of the third titanium concentration and the fifth titanium concentration; and a conductive material on the metal nitride layer.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 50.0
- Percentile: 88.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.19672
- Patent Class: 257.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15815059', '15802729', '15613485', '15825533', '15691871']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.9101174452949892
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.4903324846251031
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8681389492280005
- Mean Citation Score: 181.240564
- Max Citation Score: 199.15573
- Similarity Product: 135.2277180482602

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