PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16039488
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-07
Publication Date: 2018-11
Patent Classification: ["216", "084000"]

Abstract:
An upper processing liquid nozzle moves back and forth between a processing position above a substrate held on a spin chuck and a standby position outside a processing cup. Before a processing liquid is discharged from the upper processing liquid nozzle having moved to the processing position, a camera takes a discharge standard image of an imaging region including the tip of the upper processing liquid nozzle. Then, multiple monitor target images of the imaging region taken successively by the camera are compared sequentially to the discharge standard image to determine discharge of a processing liquid from the upper processing liquid nozzle. The discharge standard image is obtained for each process on a new target substrate. This eliminates influence of a substrate surface to appear as a background both of the monitor target image and the discharge standard image. Thus, discharge of a processing liquid can be detected reliably.

Claim (Index 1):
A substrate processing method of discharging a processing liquid to a substrate, comprising the steps of:\n (a) holding a new target substrate with a substrate holder; (b) after said new target substrate is held by said substrate holder, moving a nozzle from which a processing liquid is discharged from a standby position outside a cup surrounding said substrate holder toward a processing position above said substrate held by said substrate holder; (c) taking an image of an imaging region including a tip of said nozzle placed in said processing position with an imaging part; and (d) determining discharge of a processing liquid from said nozzle by comparing a first standard image and a monitor target image, said first standard image being an image of said imaging region taken by said imaging part before a processing liquid is discharged from said nozzle having moved to said processing position, said monitor target image being an image of said imaging region taken thereafter by said imaging part, wherein in said step (c), said first standard image is obtained each time said substrate holder holds a new target substrate and said nozzle moves to said processing position.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 8.0
- Percentile: 95.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.16438
- Patent Class: 216.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['15343911', '14854235', '15208085', '15665956', '12582860']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7669840471615395
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.4821832583551479
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7385039682809003
- Mean Citation Score: 225.931564
- Max Citation Score: 244.2157
- Similarity Product: 200.93923214946983

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 0
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 0
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test