PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16003916
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-06
Publication Date: 2018-10
Patent Classification: ["438", "005000"]

Abstract:
A system and method for performing a wet etching process is disclosed. The system includes multiple processing stations accessible by a transfer device, including a measuring station to optically measure the thickness of a wafer before and after each etching steps in the process. The system also includes a controller to analyze the thickness measurements in view of a target wafer profile and generate an etch recipe, dynamically and in real time, for each etching step. In addition, the process controller can cause a single wafer wet etching station to etch the wafer according to the generated etching recipes. In addition, the system can, based on the pre and post-etch thickness measurements and target etch profile, generate and/or refine the etch recipes.

Claim (Index 1):
A method for wet etching a wafer using a single wafer wet etching processing system that includes a plurality of stations to produce a wafer having a target final wafer thickness profile, comprising the steps of:\n providing, at a process controller including a memory and a processor configured by executing instructions in the form of code therein, wafer profile data including a prescribed etch offset and a target final wafer thickness profile that defines a target final thickness parameter for each of a plurality of radial locations on a surface of the wafer after the second etch step; measuring, at a measurement station, an initial thickness of the wafer at a plurality of points across the surface of the wafer; calculating, using the configured processor, a first etch profile according to the etch offset, the target final wafer thickness parameter of each radial location and the measured initial thickness of each radial location; generating, using the configured processor, an etch recipe for the first etch step according to the first etch profile; etching the wafer using a first etchant that has a first etch rate, wherein the wafer is etched according to the first etch recipe; measuring, at the measurement station, a post-etch thickness of the wafer at a plurality of points across the wafer; determining, using the configured processor, that the post-etch thickness of the wafer matches the final wafer thickness profile; etching the wafer using a second etchant that has a second etch rate, wherein the wafer is etched according to a second etch recipe; wherein the first and second etchants comprise different chemical compositions.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 41.0
- Percentile: 94.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.0
- Patent Class: 438.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['14928079', '13780657', '15903799', '15477863', '12043714']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8666942528348297
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5865468008925718
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.838679507640604
- Mean Citation Score: 387.76418
- Max Citation Score: 503.84976
- Similarity Product: 414.5054670403004

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