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 .
The response of the applicant has been read and given careful consideration. Rejections of the previous office action, not repeated below are withdrawn. Responses to the arguments are presented after the first rejection to which they are directed.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
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 1,8,9,12,15-16 and 18-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being fully anticipated by Koeda et al. JP 06-174907.
Koeda et al. JP 06-174907 teaches the sinusoidal pattern being transferred from the resist to the metal layer [0003]. In example 1, a quartz glass substrate (1) is coated gold metal layer (2) and the resist (3) is exposed holographically (see figure 2a) and developed to form a half sine pattern (figures 2b,3b), which is then transferred to the gold layer by etching (figure 3c).
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The sinusoidal language is held to be met by the half sinewave (figure B) of the resist (3) on the gold layer (2), which as a metal is reflective. The resist absorbs at least the wavelength.
The sinusoidal language is also held to be met by the half sinewave (figure C) of the gold layer (2) on the quartz glass substrate, which as a metal is reflective. This embodiment is able to pattern EUV radiation based upon the difference in the reflectance of the glass and gold.
The resist and gold inherently have both absorption and phase shift optical characteristics and therefore form attenuated phase shift masks.
The applicant argue that it is not clear what part of the gold layer is reflective. This arguments is entirely without merit as gold is a lustrous metal, which means it is reflective in the visible and UV regions (think gold jewelry). Glass is transparent in the visible.
Gold absorbs and shifts the phase of EUV light and is the patterning material for EUV masks, while the glass substrate reflects some EUV light. The difference in the EUV light reflected by the gold and glass areas allow it to function as an EUV mask.
Conventionally, the reflective areas of EUV masks are formed by interferometric multilayers (Mo/Si) coated on a substrate, but the claims lack any such recitation. The applicant is trying to have the claim language cover a wider/broader range of embodiments (UV masks, EUV masks, reflective masks, transmissive masks, etc) than it can while distancing itself from the prior art. The claims do not specify the difference in reflectivity or transmittance, so any difference meets the claims.
Claims 1,8,9,12,15-16,18-22,24,26 and 28-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being fully anticipated by Arai et al. JP 2005-202179.
Arai et al. JP 2005-202179 (machine translation attached) in comparative example 2 uses figure 7 to show a cross sectional view including the light-shielding body pattern 107 is reduced in film thickness, and the line width is thicker than that of the electron beam irradiation pattern 114 and the shape is changed to a round shape. In addition, there is a slight difference in film thickness between the light shielding element patterns. For this reason, the mask in-plane CD at this time was as large as 55.0 nm. The (resist) features absorb 248 nm radiation and are formed on a glass substrate as in example 1 [0039,0032].
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The shapes illustrated are within the language of the claims.
The resist inherently has both absorption and phase shift optical characteristics in the UV and therefore form attenuated phase shift masks.
Claims 1,8,9,12,15-16 and 18-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being fully anticipated by Ishigame et al. JP 2004-309903.
Ishigame et al. JP 2004-309903 (machine translation attached) illustrates in figure 2, a grating of a conductive material (2A) on a transparent substrate [0016]. The transparent substrate can be glass or quartz glass [0036]. The conductive materials can be gold, silver, chromium , aluminum or the like [0025,0048].
The metals inherently have both absorption and phase shift optical characteristics in the EUV, UV and visible and therefore form attenuated phase shift masks.
Claims 1,8,9,12,15-16 and 18-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being fully anticipated by Kawano JP 2004021160.
Kawano JP 2004021160 (machine translation attached) teaches forming a mask which is magnetic, using wet etching, where the wet etching is a method in which a mask base having a photoresist layer corresponding to the above-described magnetization pattern is immersed in an etchant, and the exposed portion of the light shielding layer is corroded and dissolved. According to this method, the corrosion proceeds almost isotopically, and the cross section of the light shielding layer pattern is formed in a semicircular shape [0058].
The metal inherently has both absorption and phase shift optical characteristics in the UV and therefore form attenuated phase shift masks.
Claims 1,8,9,12,15-16 and 18-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being fully anticipated by Umeki et al. JP 2002-107942.
Umeki et al. JP 2002-107942 (machine translation attached) teaches with respect to figure 6B, a quartz glass substrate (21), coated with a Cr layer (23) and a hemispherical patterned resist (25a). The resist pattern is transferred by etching into the Cr layer in figure 6C.
The sinusoidal language is held to be met by the hemispherical resist (25a) on the chromium layer (23), which as a metal is reflective. The resist absorbs at least the wavelength which it is sensitive to.
The sinusoidal language is also held to be met by the half sinewave (figure C) of the chromium layer (23) on the quartz glass substrate in figure 6C. This embodiment is able to pattern EUV radiation based upon the difference in reflectivity of the glass and gold.
The resist and chromium inherently have both absorption and phase shift optical characteristics in the UV and EUV and therefore form attenuated phase shift masks.
Claims 1,8,9,12,15-16 and 18-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Mangat et al. 20020039923, in view of Domke et al. 20090097004, Shih et al. 20150138524, Kirchauer et al. 6479195 and Kuroda et al. 20060110693.
Mangat et al. 20020039923 teaches with respect to figure 7, an EUV mask with a substrate (10), an reflective multilayer (20) and a patterned attenuating phase shift layer [0023]. Other materials than those described above may be used for the layers on the attenuated phase shifting mask 100. For example, the reflective layer 20 may include a multi-layer stack of beryllium and molybdenum or any other layer or layers with suitable reflective. The attenuated phase shifting layer 30 can include ruthenium and germanium or can include multiple layers. For example, the phase shifting layer 30 can be a chrome oxide or chromium oxide layer over a chrome or chromium layer. Any refractory metal-containing material, such as tantalum silicon oxide, tantalum nitride, tungsten, titanium nitride or the like, can be used for the repairable layer 50 [0026].
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Domke et al. 20090097004 teaches EUV masks with sloped sidewalls as in figure 3A. Figure 3B describes masks with sidewall angles of 84, 81 and 78 degree. These are used in exposure systems where the illumination is non-telecentric (includes non-telecentric aberrations) [0002,0004]. Non-telecentric illumination is illustrated in figure 1A [0025-0029].
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Other figures show symmetric and asymmetric structures including:
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Kirchauer et al. 6479195 teaches that the prior art EUV masks with upper corners which are sharp with respect to figures | and 6 (col 2/lines 3-5 & 18-20). Figure 2 illustrates the embodiment where the substrate (210), is coated with a reflective multilayer (235,225), a capping layer (240), a buffer layer (250) and an absorber layer (260). The corners of the absorber (260) are rounded or smooth (angled), which reduces/relaxes the phase correlation between the light reflected off the reflective multilayer and that reflected off the upper surface of the absorber as illustrated in figure 7 (2/45-4/15).
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Kuroda et al. 20060110693 illustrates in figure 7, a mask with a transparent substrate (503) and a light blocking film (706) with rounded edges (no sharp edges) which reduces diffraction [0075].
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Shih et al. 20150138524 teaches with respect to figure 7 periodic phase sensitive grating blocks (PhSGBs) with a triangular profile [0032]. The light reflected off the mask is diffracted into different orders including 0,+1,-1 [0017].
Mangat et al. 20020039923 does not teach the sloped sidewalls or curved phase shifting features.
With respect to claims 1-5,8,9,12,15,16 and 18-31, it would have been obvious to modify the mask illustrated in figure 7 of Mangat et al. 20020039923 by forming the attenuating phase shifting elements (35) of symmetric cross-sections with sloped sidewalls to account for different incident angles across the exposure field as taught by Domke et al. 20090097004 including some with features which are narrow at the top as in figures 5B and 5C of Domke et al. 20090097004 with a reasonable expectation of these forming useful EUV phases shifting features based upon the use of tapered features in figure 7 of Shih et al. 20150138524 and rounding the top surface and the transition from the peak/top surface to the sidewalls reduce the phase correlation between the light reflected off the reflective multilayer and that reflected off the upper surface of the absorber as illustrated in figure 7 as taught in Kirchauer et al. 6479195 at (2/45-4/15) which will inherently reduce diffraction at the edges in the same manner taught in Kuroda et al. 20060110693.
The examiner holds that rounding the tops of the symmetric EUV patterning features of Domke et al. 20090097004 to reduce the diffraction at these edges taught by the combination of references Kirchauer et al. 6479195 at (2/45-4/15) and Kuroda et al. 20060110693forms the symmetric structures with the rounded distal end.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kaplan 5254202 illustrates dielectric masks with tapered/sloped walls.
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Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Martin J Angebranndt whose telephone number is (571)272-1378. The examiner can normally be reached 7-3:30 pm EST.
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MARTIN J. ANGEBRANNDT
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1737
/MARTIN J ANGEBRANNDT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1737 November 12, 2025