PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15877219
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-01
Publication Date: 2019-07
Patent Classification: ["257", "316000"]

Abstract:
A three-dimensional memory device includes semiconductor devices located on a semiconductor substrate, lower interconnect level dielectric layers embedding lower interconnect structures, an alternating stack of insulating layers and electrically conductive layers overlying the lower interconnect level dielectric layers and including stepped surfaces, memory stack structures vertically extending through the alternating stack, and contact via structures extending downward from the stepped surfaces through underlying portions of the alternating stack to the lower interconnect structures. Each of the contact via structures laterally contacts an electrically conductive layer located at the stepped surfaces, and provides electrical interconnection to an underlying semiconductor device. A top portion of each contact via structures contacts an electrically conductive layer, and is electrically isolated from other underlying electrically conductive layers.

Claim (Index 14):
The method of  claim 13 , further comprising:\n applying a trimmable mask layer over the alternating stack; and repeating a set of processing steps multiple times to form the stepped surfaces and to remove the upper portions of the sacrificial contact opening pillars, wherein: the step of processing steps comprises a first step of removing an uppermost pair of layers that includes one of the insulating layers and one of the sacrificial material layers within each area that is not covered by the trimmable mask layer, and removing each portion of the sacrificial contact opening pillars from above a physically exposed horizontal surface within each area that is not covered by the trimmable material layer, and a second step of trimming the trimmable mask layer to provide an additional area that is not covered by the trimmable mask layer.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 26.0
- Percentile: 86.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.29825
- Patent Class: 257.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15489050', '15269294', '15632983', '15269041', '15638672']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.9428606920024388
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5437708787092281
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.9029517106731176
- Mean Citation Score: 437.393132
- Max Citation Score: 450.66562000000016
- Similarity Product: 255.6464183383847

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