DETAILED ACTION
This office action is responsive to the amendment filed on 12/09/25. As directed by the amendment: claims 3, 5, and 7 have been amended; claims 2 and 6 have been cancelled; and no claims have been added. Thus, claims 1, 3-5, and 7-9 are presently pending in this application.
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1, 3-5, and 7-9 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
With regard to claim 1, the claim recites “based on a change in the temperature of the substrate to be treated measured in the step (B) over time”, the limitation “over time” is unclear with regard to what time is being claimed, and neither the claim nor the written description provides a clear standard for ascertaining the requisite degree of the claimed “over time”, and it is submitted that one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. Appropriate correction is required.
With regard to claim 5, “based on a change in the temperature of the substrate to be treated measured with the thermometer over time” , the limitation “over time” is unclear with regard to what time is being claimed, and neither the claim nor the written description provides a clear standard for ascertaining the requisite degree of the claimed “over time”, and it is submitted that one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. Appropriate correction is required.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 12/09/25 have been fully considered and are addressed hereafter. The rejection(s) have been adapted as appropriate in view of the newly presented claim amendment(s).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 3-5, and 7-9 would be allowed assuming the above rejection(s) were overcome.
The prior art of record by itself or in combination does not disclose the structural and functional limitations as recited in the claims. Specifically, the prior art does not disclose a temperature control method of controlling a temperature of a substrate to be treated with heat using light emitted from a light source part including a plurality of solid-state light sources including the steps of a step (A) of repeated switching between a light-on and light-off state, a step (B) of measuring the temperature of the substrate by observing infrared light radiated from the substrate while the light source part is in a light-off state in step (A), a step (C) of controlling the level of electricity supplied to the light source part in the next round of the light-on state by a proportional control and an integral control, in which the proportional control is based on a difference between the temperature of the substrate in the step (B) and the target temperature, and the integral control is based on a change in the temperature of the substrate measured in the step (B) over time as recited in Claim 1. Claim 5 is directed to a temperature control device for controlling a temperature of a substrate to be treated with heat and includes the same limitations to those of claim 1 which is directed to a method, whereas claim 5 is directed toward a device. Accordingly, the comments presented over claim 1 are equally applicable to claim 5.
The closest prior art references of record are Kubo (JP 2006066452) and Gouda (US 20200013645). While Kubo does disclose a rapid heat treatment apparatus and method which includes performing a PID control of lamp power during the “continuous irradiation mode” (S7), a period when the lamp intensity is continuously on. In PID control, the substrate temperature is measured in comparison with the target temperature, this substrate temperature is the measured temperature during the period when the continuous irradiation mod is performed. Further, Kubo at para. [0026]-[0027] that intermittent irradiation mode, lamp power control is not performed using only PID control, and even the output signal from the temperature sensor is not used for this purpose. Accordingly, Kubo does not disclose the claimed proportional control and integral control as claimed in the independent claims of the instant patent application. While Gouda does teach an LED lamp for heating and wafer heating device including the same, Gouda does not remedy the aforementioned deficiencies of the primary prior art citation. Since none of the prior art references of record alone or in combination disclose all the limitations of the applicant's independent claims, and since the prior art of record does not teach and render obvious of having the aforementioned limitations, thus the independent claims read over the prior art of record and are considered to have allowable subject matter.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOSEPH W ISKRA whose telephone number is (313) 446-4866. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F: 09:00-17:00 EST.
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/JOSEPH W ISKRA/Examiner, Art Unit 3761
/IBRAHIME A ABRAHAM/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3761