PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15945578
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-04
Publication Date: 2018-08
Patent Classification: ["257", "401000"]

Abstract:
Provided are approaches for forming merged gate and source/drain (S/D) contacts in a semiconductor device. Specifically, one approach provides a dielectric layer over a set of gate structures formed over a substrate; a set of source/drain (S/D) openings patterned in the dielectric layer between the gate structures; a fill material formed over the gate structures, including within the S/D openings; and a set of gate openings patterned over the gate structures, wherein a portion of the dielectric layer directly adjacent the fill material formed within one of the S/D openings is removed. The fill material is then removed, selective to the dielectric layer, and a metal material is deposited over the semiconductor device to form a set of gate contacts within the gate openings, and a set of S/D contacts within the S/D openings, wherein one of the gate contacts and one of the S/D contacts are merged.

Claim (Index 22):
A semiconductor device, comprising:\n a substrate; a set of fins formed over the substrate; a set of gate structures formed over the set of fins; a dielectric layer formed over the set of fins and over and between the set of gate structures; a set of source/drain (S/D) openings patterned in the dielectric layer between the set of gate structures and to at least one fin of the set of fins; and a set of gate openings patterned in the dielectric layer over the set of gate structures, wherein at least one of the set of gate openings and at least one of the set of S/D openings are merged.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 5.0
- Percentile: 91.0
- Lexical Diversity: 3.11321
- Patent Class: 257.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['14282089', '14261823', '14949481', '14258488', '13894513']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.927219125060306
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5490101536376634
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8893982279180417
- Mean Citation Score: 326.11507
- Max Citation Score: 412.6339
- Similarity Product: 362.5151074857473

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