DETAILED ACTION
This Office action is in response to the Request for Continued Examination (RCE) and the Amendment filed on 06 August 2026. Claims 1, 3, 4, and 9-12 are pending in the application. Claims 2, 5-8 and 13-22 have been cancelled.
This application is a divisional of application Serial No. 15/520,330, filed on 19 April 2017, now US Patent 10,316,407, which is a national stage application under 35 U.S.C. 371 of PCT/US2015/027045, filed on 23 October 2015, which claims benefit of provisional application 62/068,248, filed on 24 October 2014.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 06 August 2026 has been entered.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. 15/520,330, filed on 19 April 2017.
Terminal Disclaimer
The terminal disclaimer filed on 14 January 2021 disclaiming the terminal portion of any patent granted on this application which would extend beyond the expiration date of US Patent 10,316,407 has been reviewed and is accepted. The terminal disclaimer has been recorded.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 11 and 12 are again rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Scantlin et al., the article entitled “The Borane-Catalyzed Condensation of Trisilazane and N-Methyldisilazane”, in view of Sanchez et al., US 2016/0237099, both of record.
Scantlin et al. disclose a composition comprising a silicon precursor selected from the group of bis(disilylamino)silane (N,N’-disilyltrisilazane), see “Borane-Catalyzed Condensations” on page 3082 and Table I on page 3083.
Claim 11 requires the silicon precursor contain greater than, or equal to, 3 ppm, and less than 5 ppm, of halide ions. Although Scantlin et al. are silent about whether or not the bis(disilylamino)silane (N,N’-disilyltrisilazane) contains halide ions, Sanchez et al. teach the synthesis of silicon precursors containing less than 5 ppm of halide ions by using starting reactants, catalyst and optional solvents which are halogen free, see paragraph [0045]. Sanchez et al. disclose the solvent can be alkanes such as C.sub.5 to C.sub.20 linear, branched or cyclic alkanes and mixtures thereof; alkenes such as 1-octadecene, cyclooctadiene and cyclohexene; chloroalkanes such as methylene chloride and ethylene chloride; arenes such as toluene, xylene, mesitylene and naftalene and heterocycles such as quinoline and pyridine and mixtures thereof, see paragraph [0057]. Alkanes with 5 to 20 carbon atoms can be linear, branched, or cyclic, depending on their structure, but they are all alkyl hydrocarbons if they contain only carbon and hydrogen atoms with only single bonds. Sanchez et al. also disclose that the solvent should be non-reactive, anhydrous, and should be selected such that its boiling point differs from the boiling point of the product compound by about 10° C. In light of the disclosure of Sanchez in paragraph [0057], it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that the solvent could have been an alkyl hydrocarbon.
The method of Sanchez et al. provides trisilylamine and tridisilylamine compounds containing less than 5 ppm of halide ions, thereby yielding a silicon nitride film which is not contaminated with chlorine or aminohalogens, see paragraphs [0002]-[0005]. Therefore, in order to obtain a high-quality silicon nitride film, it would have been obvious to the skilled artisan that the precursor used in the composition for depositing the silicon nitride film should contain less than 5 ppm of halide ions.
Claim 11 requires a solvent, wherein the solvent has a boiling point and wherein the difference between the boiling point of the solvent and that of the silicon precursor compound is 30oC or less. Sanchez et al. disclose halogen free amine substituted trisilylamine and tridisilylamine compounds and a method of their preparation. Furthermore, Sanchez et al. disclose that the solvent is selected so that its boiling point differs from the boiling point of the silicon precursor compound by about 10° C, see paragraph [0057]. In light of the teachings of Sanchez, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that the silicon precursor disclosed by Sanchez et al. could have been used in the known reaction of Scantlin et al., thereby yielding a composition comprising a solvent (used in the synthesis process of Sanchez et al.), wherein the difference between the boiling point of the solvent and that of the silicon precursor compound is 30oC or less, since solvents are known to effect reaction rates, thereby providing control over the chemical reaction of Scantlin et al.
With respect to claim 12, in light of the teachings of Sanchez et al., it would have been obvious to the skilled artisan that the halide ions could comprise chloride ions, see paragraph [0045] of Sanchez et al.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 3, 4, 9, and 10 are allowable over the prior art of record.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 06 August 2026 with respect to claims 11 and 12 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant has argued that independent claim 11 has been amended to require “the solvent is selected from the group consisting of an ether, a tertiary amine, an alkyl hydrocarbon, a tertiary aminoether, and combinations thereof”. Sanchez et al. disclose the solvent can be alkanes such as C.sub.5 to C.sub.20 linear, branched or cyclic alkanes and mixtures thereof, see paragraph [0057]. Alkanes with 5 to 20 carbon atoms can be linear, branched, or cyclic, depending on their structure, but they are all alkyl hydrocarbons if they contain only carbon and hydrogen atoms with only single bonds. Sanchez et al. also disclose that the solvent should be non-reactive, anhydrous, and should be selected such that its boiling point differs from the boiling point of the product compound by about 10° C. In light of the disclosure of Sanchez in paragraph [0057], it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that the solvent could have been an alkyl hydrocarbon. Therefore, amending claim 11 to require ““the solvent is selected from the group consisting of an ether, a tertiary amine, an alkyl hydrocarbon, a tertiary aminoether, and combinations thereof” is not deemed to patentably distinguish Applicant’s claimed composition from that of Scantlin et al. in view of Sanchez et al.
Conclusion
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MARY A. WILCZEWSKI
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2898
/MARY A WILCZEWSKI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2898
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