PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16364797
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2019-03
Publication Date: 2019-07
Patent Classification: ["438", "712000"]

Abstract:
Provided are methods and apparatuses for removing a polysilicon layer on a wafer, where the wafer can include a nitride layer, a low-k dielectric layer, an oxide layer, and other films. A plasma of a hydrogen-based species and a fluorine-based species is generated in a remote plasma source, and the wafer is exposed to the plasma at a relatively low temperature to limit the formation of solid byproduct. In some implementations, the wafer is maintained at a temperature below about 60° C. The polysilicon layer is removed at a very high etch rate, and the selectivity of polysilicon over the nitride layer and the oxide layer is very high. In some implementations, the wafer is supported on a wafer support having a plurality of thermal zones configured to define a plurality of different temperatures across the wafer.

Claim (Index 11):
The method of  claim 10 , further comprising:\n applying a plurality of different temperatures in the thermal zones of the electrostatic chuck during exposure of the wafer to the remote plasma for improved uniformity of removal of the polysilicon layer.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 44.0
- Percentile: 99.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.0411
- Patent Class: 438.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['14938635', '13916497', '13916387', '14577977', '15390955']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.916041008927087
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5768690984274923
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8821238178771276
- Mean Citation Score: 334.965102
- Max Citation Score: 445.25433
- Similarity Product: 385.61378858742

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