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 1):
A method of removing a polysilicon layer from a wafer, the method comprising:\n providing a wafer having a polysilicon layer; flowing an etchant including a hydrogen-based species and a fluorine-based species into a remote plasma source, wherein a concentration of the hydrogen-based species is greater than a concentration of the fluorine-based species; generating a remote plasma in the remote plasma source, wherein the remote plasma includes radicals of the hydrogen-based species and the fluorine-based species; and exposing the wafer to the remote plasma to remove the polysilicon layer, wherein the wafer is maintained under processing conditions so that the wafer is substantially free of solid byproduct residue during exposure to the remote plasma and during 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): 0.915039484357784
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5832172053045825
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8818572564524638
- Mean Citation Score: 334.965102
- Max Citation Score: 445.25433
- Similarity Product: 436.52504772673126

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