DETAILED ACTION
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. JP2019-169475, filed on 09/18/2019.
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Status of the Claims
Claims 1-2 and 6-7 are amended. Claims 3-5 are as previously presented. Therefore, claims 1-7 are currently pending and have been considered below.
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed on June 17, 2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Pages 7-9 filed 02/20/2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-7 under U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of applicant’s amendment regarding the vertical interval capturing for a section in accordance with a classification of a crack to be detected and newly found prior art.
Applicant’s argument that Lange does not include a vertical interval in accordance with a classification of the crack to be detected is persuasive.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-2 and 4-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Okada (JP 2015012015 A) in view of Hirose et al. (WO 2014119114 A1, hereinafter Hirose) and Li (WO 2016081548 A1) and Lange et al. (US 9696264 B2, hereinafter Lange) and Minekawa et al. (KR 101524421 B1, hereinafter Minekawa).
Regarding claim 1, Okada discloses an inspection device (Abstract, “processing method of a wafer capable of determining whether a formation condition of a modified layer is appropriate, before dividing the wafer”, where a control device is able to determine if the formation conditions are appropriate, Page 5, Para. 5, “control device”) comprising:
a stage configured to support a wafer (Page 7, Para. 4 from end, “the modified layer of the wafer held on the chuck table”) having a semiconductor substrate (Page 2, Para. 5, “of the processing method of the present embodiment is a disk-shaped semiconductor wafer”) having a first front surface (Page 4, last Para., “wafer 11 is moved from the back surface 11b side.”) and a second front surface (Page 4, Para. 2 from end, “modified layer 23 toward the surface 11a of the wafer 11”);
a laser irradiation portion configured to irradiate the wafer with laser light (Page 2, Para. 3, “In the modified layer forming step, a laser beam is irradiated from the laser processing head of the laser processing apparatus toward the back side of the wafer to form a modified layer along the street (division planned line).”);
an image capturing portion configured to output light able to penetrate the semiconductor substrate and detect the light propagated through the semiconductor substrate (Page 5, Para. 1, “Since the infrared camera 14 includes an image sensor that detects light in the infrared region, when the wafer 11 is imaged by the infrared camera 14, the internal state of the wafer 11 can be confirmed.”); and
a control portion configured to execute controlling the laser irradiation portion such that one or a plurality of modified regions are formed inside the semiconductor substrate when the wafer is irradiated with the laser light (Page 6, Para. 2, “modified layer forming step, the position of the condensing point (focal point) 42 of the laser beam 40 is changed in the incident direction, and the height is different from that of the modified layer 23 formed in the reference width setting step. The modified layer 23 is formed at the position. That is, in this case, a plurality of modified layers 23 along the streets 17 are formed in the thickness direction of the wafer 11.”), and
imaging a potential upper crack, which is a crack extending from the modified region to the second front surface side of the semiconductor substrate, on the basis of a signal output from the image capturing portion having detected the light (Page 5, Para. 1, “4A and 4B, in the crack determination step, the infrared camera 14 is positioned above the modified layer 23 formed along the street 17, and the wafer 11 is moved from the back surface 11b side. Take an image. The captured image is stored in the storage device of the laser processing device 2.”, and where the crack propagates towards the second front surface side, Page 5, Para. 3, “a crack 25 is generated between the modified layer 23 and the surface 11 a of the wafer 11.”), and
wherein the control portion controls the laser irradiation portion such that the modified region having a formation depth different from formation depths of other lines included in a plurality of lines is formed along each of the plurality of lines in the wafer (Page 2, Para. 6, “The device region 13 on the surface 11a side of the wafer 11 is partitioned into a plurality of regions by streets (division planned lines) 17 arranged in a lattice pattern”, where cracks are formed on the streets, Page 6, Para. 5, “forming the modified layer 23 on an arbitrary street 17 in the modified layer forming step, a crack determining step for determining whether or not the crack 25 is generated on the modified layer 23 may be performed.”).
Okada does not disclose:
deriving a position of a tip of an upper crack on the second front surface side and determining whether or not a crack reaching state where a crack extending from the modified region has reached the first front surface side of the semiconductor substrate has been realized on the basis of the position of the tip of the upper crack on the second front surface side, and
derives a difference between the position of the tip of the upper crack on the second front surface side and a position where the modified region is formed in order from a line having a shallowest formation depth of the modified region or in order from a line having a deepest formation depth of the modified region, and determines whether or not the crack reaching state has been realized on the basis of an amount of change in the difference;
wherein the image capturing portion moves a focal point in a vertical direction to acquire a plurality of images; wherein the control portion detects the position of the tip of the crack based on the plurality of images acquired by the image capturing portion;
sets an image capturing section, an image capturing start position, an image capturing end position, and a vertical interval of image capturing in accordance with a classification of the crack to be detected, and wherein the image capturing portion successively performs image capturing from the image capturing start position to the image capturing end position in the set image capturing section at the set vertical interval.
However, Hirose discloses, in the similar field of monitoring a crack within a substrate (Page 4, Para. 5, “The detection unit 9 detects, for example, the amount of light emitted from the plasma generated in the modified region R to detect cracks generated in the processed object S from the modified region R when the laser beam L is irradiated onto the processed object S.”), where the crack determination step can be done through analyzing the length of a crack and comparing the length to a desired length, where if the detect length exceeds the desired length then a crack reaching state is realized (Page 7, Para. 1, “control unit 10 determines the length of the crack generated in the processing object S from the modified region R when the processing object S is irradiated with the laser light L based on the detection value input from the detection unit 9. Get state. Then, when the length of the crack is out of the desired crack length, the control unit 10 corrects the modulation pattern P .sub.m so that the length of the crack becomes the desired crack length, the corrected modulation pattern P .sub.m input to the spatial light modulator 4. By performing feedback control of the spatial light modulator 4 in this way, when the length of a crack generated from the modified region R that is being formed or formed has deviated from the desired crack length for some reason, the laser beam At least one of the inner diameter ID .sub.m and the outer diameter OD .sub.m of the annular portion Lb of L can be immediately adjusted.”, where the crack reaching state would be situations where the length of the crack exceeds the desired length). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the crack determination step in Okada to analyze the length of the crack as taught by Hirose.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to adjust laser parameters in order to prevent cracks from realizing the crack reaching state, as stated by Hirose, Page 7, Para. 1, “By performing feedback control of the spatial light modulator 4 in this way, when the length of a crack generated from the modified region R that is being formed or formed has deviated from the desired crack length for some reason, the laser beam At least one of the inner diameter ID .sub.m and the outer diameter OD .sub.m of the annular portion Lb of L can be immediately adjusted.”.
Further, Li discloses, in the similar field of monitoring a crack within a substrate (Abstract, “monitor a position of a crack tip), where the crack tip position is continuously monitored through images (Para. 0046, “Imaging of the crack tip occurs in real time such that progress of the crack tip can be determined. For example, successive images of the crack tip can be made at high frequency, producing relatively high spatial resolution tracking of the crack tip location.”), where the position of the crack tip is compared to a surface is continuously compared to the surface (Para. 0045, “feedback control loop in the cutting process based on the position of the crack tip relative to the irradiation zone produced by the laser beam on the surface of the glass substrate.”, where this would allow the crack length to be determined). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the crack detection system in modified Okada to include continuous monitoring of the crack tip location with respect to a surface within the irradiation zone as taught by Li, where that irradiation zone is construed as the modified layer of Okada and where that surface could be any surface including the shallowest or deepest surface. The teaching of Li’s continuous crack tip and crack length monitoring would then be used in combination with the teaching of Hirose to determine if the crack reaching state has been realized based on the crack length.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of reducing crack irregularities through real time continuous monitoring of the crack tip as it progresses within the substrate, as stated by Li, Para. 0006, “Depending on the crack tip position relative to the irradiation zone, the process controller may send a control signal to the laser and a position signal to a laser beam steering device. The control signal may modulate the laser power, for example by varying a control voltage to the laser, thereby enabling the crack tip to propagate at a generally constant distance from the irradiation zone as the irradiation zone traverses a pre-determined cut path on the glass substrate. Such a technique can produce a laser-cut edge that exhibits minimal-to-no strength limiting crack irregularities.”.
Additionally, Lange discloses, in the similar field of detecting defects within semiconductors (Abstract, “inspecting a vertical semiconductor stack of a plurality of layers is disclosed”, and Section 5, lines 9-10, “Defects can occur throughout layers of these stacks and need to be detected to ensure high manufacturing yields”), where multiple images are captured by scanning at different vertical focal points across multiple stacks so that imaging capturing occurs successively from the start to end position of inspection interval of the wafer (Section 9, lines 37-44, “Additionally, multiple 3D stack structures can each be scanned at multiple depths of focus, and when the depths of each of the 3D stack structures have been incrementally scanned, the scans are complete… generate corresponding detection images at the various depths”, where incremental scanning is successively imaging, where the start and end of the interval include the entire wafer), where the focal point is vertically moved (Section 7, lines 64-66, “the inspection system 200 may also include a positioning mechanism 280 for moving the 65 depth position of the focus spot(s) relative to the sample 216”), where the position of a defect can be determined through the plurality of images captured (Section 9, lines 66-70, “Accordingly, the center of the depth of focus that was used to generate the image with the highest brightness level for the defect can be defined as the defect's depth.”; and claim 1, “determining which one of the different depths at which the defect is located in the first vertical stack structure based on the in-focus images.”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the crack tip location monitoring of modified Okada to include the vertical movement of the focal point for multiple images to successively map the entire wafer when the interval for inspection is the entire wafer as taught by Lange; where from the teaching of Li, successive images of the crack tip are done in real-time; in situations where the crack tip is moving through the substrate, there would be a need for a change in the focal position of the images in order to capture the crack tip.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of a defect detector that can penetrate through multiple layers within a semiconductor by moving the focal point of successive images vertically, which benefits the teaching of Li in being able to track the crack tip through multiple vertical layers, as stated by Lange, Section 6, lines 23-26, “a confocal inspection tool may include at least one light source for generating an illumination light beam at longer wavelengths to detect defects at various depths of a vertical semiconductor stack”.
Minekawa discloses, in the similar field of semiconductor inspection for defects (Page 2, Para. 2, “a defect observation method and a defect observation apparatus used for observing semiconductor wafers.”), where an imaging capturing section can be dependent on the classification of crack to be detected (Page 6, last two Para., “Further, the image size, the imaging visual field, and the pixel dimensions are related to each other.”, and Page 7, Para. 5, “Further, when the defect coordinate accuracy is high, it is possible to obtain a high defect detection accuracy even in an image detected with an image pickup condition in which the imaging visual field is narrow (i.e., the image size is small).”, and Page 14, Para. 5, “The imaging visual field are different from each other, the loop 1 of the image acquisition condition in Fig. 3is set in the order of the image size being the smallest to the largest image size In the order from the narrowest imaging visual field to the widest one)”; where the imaging visual field or the interval of image capturing is dependent on the type of crack that is desired to be found, where a larger interval is desired for smaller classification of cracks and a smaller interval is desired for larger classification of cracks). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the vertical imaging of the entire semiconductor wafer to look for defects in modified Okada to include selecting specific visual imaging regions depending on the type of crack desired to be found as taught by Minekawa.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to achieve a high defect detection accuracy while not needing to waste time in performing addition unnecessary imaging, as stated by Minekawa, Page 7, Para. 5, “Further, when the defect coordinate accuracy is high, it is possible to obtain a high defect detection accuracy even in an image detected with an image pickup condition in which the imaging visual field is narrow (i.e., the image size is small).”.
Regarding claim 4, modified Okada teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, as set forth above, discloses wherein the control portion is configured to further execute deriving information related to adjustment of irradiation conditions of the laser irradiation portion on the basis of determination results regarding whether or not the crack reaching state has been realized (Teaching from Hirose, Page 7, Para. 1, “By performing feedback control of the spatial light modulator 4 in this way, when the length of a crack generated from the modified region R that is being formed or formed has deviated from the desired crack length for some reason, the laser beam At least one of the inner diameter ID .sub.m and the outer diameter OD .sub.m of the annular portion Lb of L can be immediately adjusted.”).
Regarding claim 5, modified Okada teaches the apparatus according to claim 4, as set forth above, discloses wherein the control portion estimates a length of the crack on the basis of the determination results and derives information related to adjustment of the irradiation conditions on the basis of the estimated length of the crack (Teaching from Hirose, Page 7, Para. 1, “control unit 10 determines the length of the crack generated in the processing object S from the modified region R when the processing object S is irradiated with the laser light L based on the detection value input from the detection unit 9. Get state. Then, when the length of the crack is out of the desired crack length, the control unit 10 corrects the modulation pattern P .sub.m so that the length of the crack becomes the desired crack length, the corrected modulation pattern P .sub.m input to the spatial light modulator 4.”, where the crack length is corelated to irradiation conditions, such as the modulation pattern).
Regarding claim 2, Okada discloses an inspection device (Abstract, “processing method of a wafer capable of determining whether a formation condition of a modified layer is appropriate, before dividing the wafer”, where a control device is able to determine if the formation conditions are appropriate, Page 5, Para. 5, “control device”) comprising:
a stage configured to support a wafer (Page 7, Para. 4 from end, “the modified layer of the wafer held on the chuck table”) having a semiconductor substrate (Page 2, Para. 5, “of the processing method of the present embodiment is a disk-shaped semiconductor wafer”) having a first front surface (Page 4, last Para., “wafer 11 is moved from the back surface 11b side.”) and a second front surface (Page 4, Para. 2 from end, “modified layer 23 toward the surface 11a of the wafer 11”);
a laser irradiation portion configured to irradiate the wafer with laser light (Page 2, Para. 3, “In the modified layer forming step, a laser beam is irradiated from the laser processing head of the laser processing apparatus toward the back side of the wafer to form a modified layer along the street (division planned line).”);
an image capturing portion configured to output light able to penetrate the semiconductor substrate and detect the light propagated through the semiconductor substrate (Page 5, Para. 1, “Since the infrared camera 14 includes an image sensor that detects light in the infrared region, when the wafer 11 is imaged by the infrared camera 14, the internal state of the wafer 11 can be confirmed.”); and
a control portion configured to execute controlling the laser irradiation portion such that one or a plurality of modified regions are formed inside the semiconductor substrate when the wafer is irradiated with the laser light (Page 6, Para. 2, “modified layer forming step, the position of the condensing point (focal point) 42 of the laser beam 40 is changed in the incident direction, and the height is different from that of the modified layer 23 formed in the reference width setting step. The modified layer 23 is formed at the position. That is, in this case, a plurality of modified layers 23 along the streets 17 are formed in the thickness direction of the wafer 11.”),
imaging a potential upper crack, which is a crack extending from the modified region to the second front surface side of the semiconductor substrate, on the basis of a signal output from the image capturing portion having detected the light (Page 5, Para. 1, “4A and 4B, in the crack determination step, the infrared camera 14 is positioned above the modified layer 23 formed along the street 17, and the wafer 11 is moved from the back surface 11b side. Take an image. The captured image is stored in the storage device of the laser processing device 2.”, and where the crack propagates towards the second front surface side, Page 5, Para. 3, “a crack 25 is generated between the modified layer 23 and the surface 11 a of the wafer 11.”), and
wherein the control portion controls the laser irradiation portion such that the modified region having a formation depth different from formation depths of other lines included in a plurality of lines is formed along each of the plurality of lines in the wafer (Page 2, Para. 6, “The device region 13 on the surface 11a side of the wafer 11 is partitioned into a plurality of regions by streets (division planned lines) 17 arranged in a lattice pattern”, where cracks are formed on the streets, Page 6, Para. 5, “forming the modified layer 23 on an arbitrary street 17 in the modified layer forming step, a crack determining step for determining whether or not the crack 25 is generated on the modified layer 23 may be performed.”).
Okada does not disclose:
deriving a position of a tip of an upper crack on the second front surface side, and determining whether or not a crack reaching state where a crack extending from the modified region has reached the first front surface side of the semiconductor substrate has been realized on the basis of the position of the tip of the upper crack on the second front surface side, and
derives the position of the tip of the upper crack on the second front surface side in order from a line having a shallowest formation depth of the modified region or in order from a line having a deepest formation depth of the modified region, and determines whether or not the crack reaching state has been realized on the basis of an amount of change in the position of the tip;
wherein the image capturing portion moves a focal point in a vertical direction to acquire a plurality of images; wherein the control portion detects the position of the tip of the crack based on the plurality of images acquired by the image capturing portion;
sets an image capturing section, an image capturing start position, an image capturing end position, and a vertical interval of image capturing in accordance with a classification of the crack to be detected, and wherein the image capturing portion successively performs image capturing from the image capturing start position to the image capturing end position in the set image capturing section at the set vertical interval.
However, Hirose discloses, in the similar field of monitoring a crack within a substrate (Page 4, Para. 5, “The detection unit 9 detects, for example, the amount of light emitted from the plasma generated in the modified region R to detect cracks generated in the processed object S from the modified region R when the laser beam L is irradiated onto the processed object S.”), where the crack determination step can be done through analyzing the length of a crack and comparing the length to a desired length, where if the detect length exceeds the desired length then a crack reaching state is realized (Page 7, Para. 1, “control unit 10 determines the length of the crack generated in the processing object S from the modified region R when the processing object S is irradiated with the laser light L based on the detection value input from the detection unit 9. Get state. Then, when the length of the crack is out of the desired crack length, the control unit 10 corrects the modulation pattern P .sub.m so that the length of the crack becomes the desired crack length, the corrected modulation pattern P .sub.m input to the spatial light modulator 4. By performing feedback control of the spatial light modulator 4 in this way, when the length of a crack generated from the modified region R that is being formed or formed has deviated from the desired crack length for some reason, the laser beam At least one of the inner diameter ID .sub.m and the outer diameter OD .sub.m of the annular portion Lb of L can be immediately adjusted.”, where the crack reaching state would be situations where the length of the crack exceeds the desired length). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the crack determination step in Okada to analyze the length of the crack as taught by Hirose.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to adjust laser parameters in order to prevent cracks from realizing the crack reaching state, as stated by Hirose, Page 7, Para. 1, “By performing feedback control of the spatial light modulator 4 in this way, when the length of a crack generated from the modified region R that is being formed or formed has deviated from the desired crack length for some reason, the laser beam At least one of the inner diameter ID .sub.m and the outer diameter OD .sub.m of the annular portion Lb of L can be immediately adjusted.”.
Further, Li discloses, in the similar field of monitoring a crack within a substrate (Abstract, “monitor a position of a crack tip), where the crack tip position is continuously monitored through images (Para. 0046, “Imaging of the crack tip occurs in real time such that progress of the crack tip can be determined. For example, successive images of the crack tip can be made at high frequency, producing relatively high spatial resolution tracking of the crack tip location.”), where the position of the crack tip is compared to a surface is continuously compared to the surface (Para. 0045, “feedback control loop in the cutting process based on the position of the crack tip relative to the irradiation zone produced by the laser beam on the surface of the glass substrate.”, where this would allow the crack length to be determined). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the crack detection system in modified Okada to include continuous monitoring of the crack tip location with respect to a surface within the irradiation zone as taught by Li, where that irradiation zone is construed as the modified layer of Okada and where that surface could be any surface including the shallowest or deepest surface. The teaching of Li’s continuous crack tip and crack length monitoring would then be used in combination with the teaching of Hirose to determine if the crack reaching state has been realized based on the crack length.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of reducing crack irregularities through real time continuous monitoring of the crack tip as it progresses within the substrate, as stated by Li, Para. 0006, “Depending on the crack tip position relative to the irradiation zone, the process controller may send a control signal to the laser and a position signal to a laser beam steering device. The control signal may modulate the laser power, for example by varying a control voltage to the laser, thereby enabling the crack tip to propagate at a generally constant distance from the irradiation zone as the irradiation zone traverses a pre-determined cut path on the glass substrate. Such a technique can produce a laser-cut edge that exhibits minimal-to-no strength limiting crack irregularities.”.
Additionally, Lange discloses, in the similar field of detecting defects within semiconductors (Abstract, “inspecting a vertical semiconductor stack of a plurality of layers is disclosed”, and Section 5, lines 9-10, “Defects can occur throughout layers of these stacks and need to be detected to ensure high manufacturing yields”), where multiple images are captured by scanning at different vertical focal points across multiple stacks so that imaging capturing occurs successively from the start to end position of inspection interval of the wafer (Section 9, lines 37-44, “Additionally, multiple 3D stack structures can each be scanned at multiple depths of focus, and when the depths of each of the 3D stack structures have been incrementally scanned, the scans are complete… generate corresponding detection images at the various depths”, where incremental scanning is successively imaging, where the start and end of the interval include the entire wafer), where the focal point is vertically moved (Section 7, lines 64-66, “the inspection system 200 may also include a positioning mechanism 280 for moving the 65 depth position of the focus spot(s) relative to the sample 216”), where the position of a defect can be determined through the plurality of images captured (Section 9, lines 66-70, “Accordingly, the center of the depth of focus that was used to generate the image with the highest brightness level for the defect can be defined as the defect's depth.”; and claim 1, “determining which one of the different depths at which the defect is located in the first vertical stack structure based on the in-focus images.”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the crack tip location monitoring of modified Okada to include the vertical movement of the focal point for multiple images to successively map the entire wafer when the interval for inspection is the entire wafer as taught by Lange; where from the teaching of Li, successive images of the crack tip are done in real-time; in situations where the crack tip is moving through the substrate, there would be a need for a change in the focal position of the images in order to capture the crack tip.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of a defect detector that can penetrate through multiple layers within a semiconductor by moving the focal point of successive images vertically, which benefits the teaching of Li in being able to track the crack tip through multiple vertical layers, as stated by Lange, Section 6, lines 23-26, “a confocal inspection tool may include at least one light source for generating an illumination light beam at longer wavelengths to detect defects at various depths of a vertical semiconductor stack”.
Minekawa discloses, in the similar field of semiconductor inspection for defects (Page 2, Para. 2, “a defect observation method and a defect observation apparatus used for observing semiconductor wafers.”), where an imaging capturing section can be dependent on the classification of crack to be detected (Page 6, last two Para., “Further, the image size, the imaging visual field, and the pixel dimensions are related to each other.”, and Page 7, Para. 5, “Further, when the defect coordinate accuracy is high, it is possible to obtain a high defect detection accuracy even in an image detected with an image pickup condition in which the imaging visual field is narrow (i.e., the image size is small).”, and Page 14, Para. 5, “The imaging visual field are different from each other, the loop 1 of the image acquisition condition in Fig. 3is set in the order of the image size being the smallest to the largest image size In the order from the narrowest imaging visual field to the widest one)”; where the imaging visual field or the interval of image capturing is dependent on the type of crack that is desired to be found, where a larger interval is desired for smaller classification of cracks and a smaller interval is desired for larger classification of cracks). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the vertical imaging of the entire semiconductor wafer to look for defects in modified Okada to include selecting specific visual imaging regions depending on the type of crack desired to be found as taught by Minekawa.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to achieve a high defect detection accuracy while not needing to waste time in performing addition unnecessary imaging, as stated by Minekawa, Page 7, Para. 5, “Further, when the defect coordinate accuracy is high, it is possible to obtain a high defect detection accuracy even in an image detected with an image pickup condition in which the imaging visual field is narrow (i.e., the image size is small).”.
Regarding claim 6, Okada discloses an inspection method (Abstract, “processing method of a wafer capable of determining whether a formation condition of a modified layer is appropriate, before dividing the wafer”) comprising:
a first step of preparing a wafer (Claim 1, “A wafer processing method for forming a modified layer inside a wafer along a plurality of scheduled division lines”) having a semiconductor substrate (Page 2, Para. 5, “of the processing method of the present embodiment is a disk-shaped semiconductor wafer”) having a first front surface (Page 4, last Para., “wafer 11 is moved from the back surface 11b side.”) and a second front surface (Page 4, Para. 2 from end, “modified layer 23 toward the surface 11a of the wafer 11”) and forming one or a plurality of modified regions inside the semiconductor substrate by irradiating the wafer with laser light (Page 2, Para. 3, “In the modified layer forming step, a laser beam is irradiated from the laser processing head of the laser processing apparatus toward the back side of the wafer to form a modified layer along the street (division planned line).”, where there are multiple streets 17, Page 6, Para. 6 from end, last line, “…modified layer 23 is formed on the other streets 17 (remaining streets 17).”);
a second step of outputting light able to penetrate the semiconductor substrate having the modified region formed therein by the first step and detecting the light propagated through the semiconductor substrate (Page 5, Para. 1, “Since the infrared camera 14 includes an image sensor that detects light in the infrared region, when the wafer 11 is imaged by the infrared camera 14, the internal state of the wafer 11 can be confirmed.”); and
imaging a potential upper crack, which is a crack extending from the modified region to the second front surface side of the semiconductor substrate, on the basis of the light detected in the second step (Page 5, Para. 1, “4A and 4B, in the crack determination step, the infrared camera 14 is positioned above the modified layer 23 formed along the street 17, and the wafer 11 is moved from the back surface 11b side. Take an image. The captured image is stored in the storage device of the laser processing device 2.”, and where the crack propagates towards the second front surface side, Page 5, Para. 3, “a crack 25 is generated between the modified layer 23 and the surface 11 a of the wafer 11.”), and
wherein in the first step, the modified region having a formation depth different from formation depths of other lines included in a plurality of lines is formed along each of the plurality of lines in the wafer (Page 2, Para. 6, “The device region 13 on the surface 11a side of the wafer 11 is partitioned into a plurality of regions by streets (division planned lines) 17 arranged in a lattice pattern”, where cracks are formed on the streets, Page 6, Para. 5, “forming the modified layer 23 on an arbitrary street 17 in the modified layer forming step, a crack determining step for determining whether or not the crack 25 is generated on the modified layer 23 may be performed.”).
Okada does not disclose:
a third step of deriving a position of a tip of an upper crack on the second front surface side and determining whether or not a crack reaching state where a crack extending from the modified region has reached the first front surface side of the semiconductor substrate has been realized on the basis of the position of the tip of the upper crack on the second front surface side, and
wherein in the third step, a difference between the position of the tip of the upper crack on the second front surface side and a position where the modified region is formed is derived in order from a line having a shallowest formation depth of the modified region or in order from a line having a deepest formation depth of the modified region, and it is determined whether or not the crack reaching state has been realized on the basis of an amount of change in the difference;
wherein in the second step a focal point is moved in a vertical direction to acquire a plurality of images; wherein in the third step the position of the tip of the crack is detected based on the plurality of images acquired in the second step; and
wherein the second step includes setting an imaging capturing section, an image capturing start position, an image capturing end position, and a vertical interval of image capturing in accordance with a classification of the crack to be detected, and successively performing image capturing from the image capturing start position to the image capturing end position in the set image capturing section at the set vertical interval.
However, Hirose discloses, in the similar field of monitoring a crack within a substrate (Page 4, Para. 5, “The detection unit 9 detects, for example, the amount of light emitted from the plasma generated in the modified region R to detect cracks generated in the processed object S from the modified region R when the laser beam L is irradiated onto the processed object S.”), where the crack determination step can be done through analyzing the length of a crack and comparing the length to a desired length, where if the detect length exceeds the desired length then a crack reaching state is realized (Page 7, Para. 1, “control unit 10 determines the length of the crack generated in the processing object S from the modified region R when the processing object S is irradiated with the laser light L based on the detection value input from the detection unit 9. Get state. Then, when the length of the crack is out of the desired crack length, the control unit 10 corrects the modulation pattern P .sub.m so that the length of the crack becomes the desired crack length, the corrected modulation pattern P .sub.m input to the spatial light modulator 4. By performing feedback control of the spatial light modulator 4 in this way, when the length of a crack generated from the modified region R that is being formed or formed has deviated from the desired crack length for some reason, the laser beam At least one of the inner diameter ID .sub.m and the outer diameter OD .sub.m of the annular portion Lb of L can be immediately adjusted.”, where the crack reaching state would be situations where the length of the crack exceeds the desired length). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the crack determination step in Okada to analyze the length of the crack as taught by Hirose.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to adjust laser parameters in order to prevent cracks from realizing the crack reaching state, as stated by Hirose, Page 7, Para. 1, “By performing feedback control of the spatial light modulator 4 in this way, when the length of a crack generated from the modified region R that is being formed or formed has deviated from the desired crack length for some reason, the laser beam At least one of the inner diameter ID .sub.m and the outer diameter OD .sub.m of the annular portion Lb of L can be immediately adjusted.”.
Further, Li discloses, in the similar field of monitoring a crack within a substrate (Abstract, “monitor a position of a crack tip), where the crack tip position is continuously monitored through images (Para. 0046, “Imaging of the crack tip occurs in real time such that progress of the crack tip can be determined. For example, successive images of the crack tip can be made at high frequency, producing relatively high spatial resolution tracking of the crack tip location.”), where the position of the crack tip is compared to a surface is continuously compared to the surface (Para. 0045, “feedback control loop in the cutting process based on the position of the crack tip relative to the irradiation zone produced by the laser beam on the surface of the glass substrate.”, where this would allow the crack length to be determined). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the crack detection system in modified Okada to include continuous monitoring of the crack tip location with respect to a surface within the irradiation zone as taught by Li, where that irradiation zone is construed as the modified layer of Okada and where that surface could be any surface including the shallowest or deepest surface. The teaching of Li’s continuous crack tip and crack length monitoring would then be used in combination with the teaching of Hirose to determine if the crack reaching state has been realized based on the crack length.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of reducing crack irregularities through real time continuous monitoring of the crack tip as it progresses within the substrate, as stated by Li, Para. 0006, “Depending on the crack tip position relative to the irradiation zone, the process controller may send a control signal to the laser and a position signal to a laser beam steering device. The control signal may modulate the laser power, for example by varying a control voltage to the laser, thereby enabling the crack tip to propagate at a generally constant distance from the irradiation zone as the irradiation zone traverses a pre-determined cut path on the glass substrate. Such a technique can produce a laser-cut edge that exhibits minimal-to-no strength limiting crack irregularities.”.
Additionally, Lange discloses, in the similar field of detecting defects within semiconductors (Abstract, “inspecting a vertical semiconductor stack of a plurality of layers is disclosed”, and Section 5, lines 9-10, “Defects can occur throughout layers of these stacks and need to be detected to ensure high manufacturing yields”), where multiple images are captured by scanning at different vertical focal points across multiple stacks so that imaging capturing occurs successively from the start to end position of inspection interval of the wafer (Section 9, lines 37-44, “Additionally, multiple 3D stack structures can each be scanned at multiple depths of focus, and when the depths of each of the 3D stack structures have been incrementally scanned, the scans are complete… generate corresponding detection images at the various depths”, where incremental scanning is successively imaging, where the start and end of the interval include the entire wafer), where the focal point is vertically moved (Section 7, lines 64-66, “the inspection system 200 may also include a positioning mechanism 280 for moving the 65 depth position of the focus spot(s) relative to the sample 216”), where the position of a defect can be determined through the plurality of images captured (Section 9, lines 66-70, “Accordingly, the center of the depth of focus that was used to generate the image with the highest brightness level for the defect can be defined as the defect's depth.”; and claim 1, “determining which one of the different depths at which the defect is located in the first vertical stack structure based on the in-focus images.”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the crack tip location monitoring of modified Okada to include the vertical movement of the focal point for multiple images to successively map the entire wafer when the interval for inspection is the entire wafer as taught by Lange; where from the teaching of Li, successive images of the crack tip are done in real-time; in situations where the crack tip is moving through the substrate, there would be a need for a change in the focal position of the images in order to capture the crack tip.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of a defect detector that can penetrate through multiple layers within a semiconductor by moving the focal point of successive images vertically, which benefits the teaching of Li in being able to track the crack tip through multiple vertical layers, as stated by Lange, Section 6, lines 23-26, “a confocal inspection tool may include at least one light source for generating an illumination light beam at longer wavelengths to detect defects at various depths of a vertical semiconductor stack”.
Minekawa discloses, in the similar field of semiconductor inspection for defects (Page 2, Para. 2, “a defect observation method and a defect observation apparatus used for observing semiconductor wafers.”), where an imaging capturing section can be dependent on the classification of crack to be detected (Page 6, last two Para., “Further, the image size, the imaging visual field, and the pixel dimensions are related to each other.”, and Page 7, Para. 5, “Further, when the defect coordinate accuracy is high, it is possible to obtain a high defect detection accuracy even in an image detected with an image pickup condition in which the imaging visual field is narrow (i.e., the image size is small).”, and Page 14, Para. 5, “The imaging visual field are different from each other, the loop 1 of the image acquisition condition in Fig. 3is set in the order of the image size being the smallest to the largest image size In the order from the narrowest imaging visual field to the widest one)”; where the imaging visual field or the interval of image capturing is dependent on the type of crack that is desired to be found, where a larger interval is desired for smaller classification of cracks and a smaller interval is desired for larger classification of cracks). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the vertical imaging of the entire semiconductor wafer to look for defects in modified Okada to include selecting specific visual imaging regions depending on the type of crack desired to be found as taught by Minekawa.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to achieve a high defect detection accuracy while not needing to waste time in performing addition unnecessary imaging, as stated by Minekawa, Page 7, Para. 5, “Further, when the defect coordinate accuracy is high, it is possible to obtain a high defect detection accuracy even in an image detected with an image pickup condition in which the imaging visual field is narrow (i.e., the image size is small).”.
Regarding claim 7, Okada discloses an inspection method (Abstract, “processing method of a wafer capable of determining whether a formation condition of a modified layer is appropriate, before dividing the wafer”) comprising:
a first step of preparing a wafer (Claim 1, “A wafer processing method for forming a modified layer inside a wafer along a plurality of scheduled division lines”) having a semiconductor substrate (Page 2, Para. 5, “of the processing method of the present embodiment is a disk-shaped semiconductor wafer”) having a first front surface (Page 4, last Para., “wafer 11 is moved from the back surface 11b side.”) and a second front surface (Page 4, Para. 2 from end, “modified layer 23 toward the surface 11a of the wafer 11”) and forming one or a plurality of modified regions inside the semiconductor substrate by irradiating the wafer with laser light (Page 2, Para. 3, “In the modified layer forming step, a laser beam is irradiated from the laser processing head of the laser processing apparatus toward the back side of the wafer to form a modified layer along the street (division planned line).”, where there are multiple streets 17, Page 6, Para. 6 from end, last line, “…modified layer 23 is formed on the other streets 17 (remaining streets 17).”);
a second step of outputting light able to penetrate the semiconductor substrate having the modified region formed therein by the first step and detecting the light propagated through the semiconductor substrate (Page 5, Para. 1, “Since the infrared camera 14 includes an image sensor that detects light in the infrared region, when the wafer 11 is imaged by the infrared camera 14, the internal state of the wafer 11 can be confirmed.”); and
imaging a potential upper crack, which is a crack extending from the modified region to the second front surface side of the semiconductor substrate, on the basis of the light detected in the second step (Page 5, Para. 1, “4A and 4B, in the crack determination step, the infrared camera 14 is positioned above the modified layer 23 formed along the street 17, and the wafer 11 is moved from the back surface 11b side. Take an image. The captured image is stored in the storage device of the laser processing device 2.”, and where the crack propagates towards the second front surface side, Page 5, Para. 3, “a crack 25 is generated between the modified layer 23 and the surface 11 a of the wafer 11.”), and
wherein in the first step, the modified region having a formation depth different from formation depths of other lines included in a plurality of lines is formed along each of the plurality of lines in the wafer (Page 2, Para. 6, “The device region 13 on the surface 11a side of the wafer 11 is partitioned into a plurality of regions by streets (division planned lines) 17 arranged in a lattice pattern”, where cracks are formed on the streets, Page 6, Para. 5, “forming the modified layer 23 on an arbitrary street 17 in the modified layer forming step, a crack determining step for determining whether or not the crack 25 is generated on the modified layer 23 may be performed.”).
Okada does not disclose:
a third step of deriving a position of a tip of an upper crack on the second front surface side and determining whether or not a crack reaching state where a crack extending from the modified region has reached the first front surface side of the semiconductor substrate has been realized on the basis of the position of the tip of the upper crack on the second front surface side, and
wherein in the third step, the position of the tip of the upper crack on the second front surface side is derived in order from a line having a shallowest formation depth of the modified region or in order from a line having a deepest formation depth of the modified region, and it is determined whether or not the crack reaching state has been realized on the basis of an amount of change in the position of the tip;
wherein in the second step a focal point is moved in a vertical direction to acquire a plurality of images; wherein in the third step the position of the tip of the crack is detected based on the plurality of images acquired in the second step; and
wherein the second step includes setting an image capturing section, an image capturing start position, an image capturing end position, and a vertical interval of image capturing in accordance with a classification of the crack to be detected, and successively performing image capturing from the image capturing start position to the image capturing end position in the set image capturing section at the set vertical interval.
However, Hirose discloses, in the similar field of monitoring a crack within a substrate (Page 4, Para. 5, “The detection unit 9 detects, for example, the amount of light emitted from the plasma generated in the modified region R to detect cracks generated in the processed object S from the modified region R when the laser beam L is irradiated onto the processed object S.”), where the crack determination step can be done through analyzing the length of a crack and comparing the length to a desired length, where if the detect length exceeds the desired length then a crack reaching state is realized (Page 7, Para. 1, “control unit 10 determines the length of the crack generated in the processing object S from the modified region R when the processing object S is irradiated with the laser light L based on the detection value input from the detection unit 9. Get state. Then, when the length of the crack is out of the desired crack length, the control unit 10 corrects the modulation pattern P .sub.m so that the length of the crack becomes the desired crack length, the corrected modulation pattern P .sub.m input to the spatial light modulator 4. By performing feedback control of the spatial light modulator 4 in this way, when the length of a crack generated from the modified region R that is being formed or formed has deviated from the desired crack length for some reason, the laser beam At least one of the inner diameter ID .sub.m and the outer diameter OD .sub.m of the annular portion Lb of L can be immediately adjusted.”, where the crack reaching state would be situations where the length of the crack exceeds the desired length). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the crack determination step in Okada to analyze the length of the crack as taught by Hirose.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to adjust laser parameters in order to prevent cracks from realizing the crack reaching state, as stated by Hirose, Page 7, Para. 1, “By performing feedback control of the spatial light modulator 4 in this way, when the length of a crack generated from the modified region R that is being formed or formed has deviated from the desired crack length for some reason, the laser beam At least one of the inner diameter ID .sub.m and the outer diameter OD .sub.m of the annular portion Lb of L can be immediately adjusted.”.
Further, Li discloses, in the similar field of monitoring a crack within a substrate (Abstract, “monitor a position of a crack tip), where the crack tip position is continuously monitored through images (Para. 0046, “Imaging of the crack tip occurs in real time such that progress of the crack tip can be determined. For example, successive images of the crack tip can be made at high frequency, producing relatively high spatial resolution tracking of the crack tip location.”), where the position of the crack tip is compared to a surface is continuously compared to the surface (Para. 0045, “feedback control loop in the cutting process based on the position of the crack tip relative to the irradiation zone produced by the laser beam on the surface of the glass substrate.”, where this would allow the crack length to be determined). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the crack detection system in modified Okada to include continuous monitoring of the crack tip location with respect to a surface within the irradiation zone as taught by Li, where that irradiation zone is construed as the modified layer of Okada and where that surface could be any surface including the shallowest or deepest surface. The teaching of Li’s continuous crack tip and crack length monitoring would then be used in combination with the teaching of Hirose to determine if the crack reaching state has been realized based on the crack length.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of reducing crack irregularities through real time continuous monitoring of the crack tip as it progresses within the substrate, as stated by Li, Para. 0006, “Depending on the crack tip position relative to the irradiation zone, the process controller may send a control signal to the laser and a position signal to a laser beam steering device. The control signal may modulate the laser power, for example by varying a control voltage to the laser, thereby enabling the crack tip to propagate at a generally constant distance from the irradiation zone as the irradiation zone traverses a pre-determined cut path on the glass substrate. Such a technique can produce a laser-cut edge that exhibits minimal-to-no strength limiting crack irregularities.”.
Additionally, Lange discloses, in the similar field of detecting defects within semiconductors (Abstract, “inspecting a vertical semiconductor stack of a plurality of layers is disclosed”, and Section 5, lines 9-10, “Defects can occur throughout layers of these stacks and need to be detected to ensure high manufacturing yields”), where multiple images are captured by scanning at different vertical focal points across multiple stacks so that imaging capturing occurs successively from the start to end position of inspection interval of the wafer (Section 9, lines 37-44, “Additionally, multiple 3D stack structures can each be scanned at multiple depths of focus, and when the depths of each of the 3D stack structures have been incrementally scanned, the scans are complete… generate corresponding detection images at the various depths”, where incremental scanning is successively imaging, where the start and end of the interval include the entire wafer), where the focal point is vertically moved (Section 7, lines 64-66, “the inspection system 200 may also include a positioning mechanism 280 for moving the 65 depth position of the focus spot(s) relative to the sample 216”), where the position of a defect can be determined through the plurality of images captured (Section 9, lines 66-70, “Accordingly, the center of the depth of focus that was used to generate the image with the highest brightness level for the defect can be defined as the defect's depth.”; and claim 1, “determining which one of the different depths at which the defect is located in the first vertical stack structure based on the in-focus images.”). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the crack tip location monitoring of modified Okada to include the vertical movement of the focal point for multiple images to successively map the entire wafer when the interval for inspection is the entire wafer as taught by Lange; where from the teaching of Li, successive images of the crack tip are done in real-time; in situations where the crack tip is moving through the substrate, there would be a need for a change in the focal position of the images in order to capture the crack tip.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of a defect detector that can penetrate through multiple layers within a semiconductor by moving the focal point of successive images vertically, which benefits the teaching of Li in being able to track the crack tip through multiple vertical layers, as stated by Lange, Section 6, lines 23-26, “a confocal inspection tool may include at least one light source for generating an illumination light beam at longer wavelengths to detect defects at various depths of a vertical semiconductor stack”.
Minekawa discloses, in the similar field of semiconductor inspection for defects (Page 2, Para. 2, “a defect observation method and a defect observation apparatus used for observing semiconductor wafers.”), where an imaging capturing section can be dependent on the classification of crack to be detected (Page 6, last two Para., “Further, the image size, the imaging visual field, and the pixel dimensions are related to each other.”, and Page 7, Para. 5, “Further, when the defect coordinate accuracy is high, it is possible to obtain a high defect detection accuracy even in an image detected with an image pickup condition in which the imaging visual field is narrow (i.e., the image size is small).”, and Page 14, Para. 5, “The imaging visual field are different from each other, the loop 1 of the image acquisition condition in Fig. 3is set in the order of the image size being the smallest to the largest image size In the order from the narrowest imaging visual field to the widest one)”; where the imaging visual field or the interval of image capturing is dependent on the type of crack that is desired to be found, where a larger interval is desired for smaller classification of cracks and a smaller interval is desired for larger classification of cracks). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the vertical imaging of the entire semiconductor wafer to look for defects in modified Okada to include selecting specific visual imaging regions depending on the type of crack desired to be found as taught by Minekawa.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of being able to achieve a high defect detection accuracy while not needing to waste time in performing addition unnecessary imaging, as stated by Minekawa, Page 7, Para. 5, “Further, when the defect coordinate accuracy is high, it is possible to obtain a high defect detection accuracy even in an image detected with an image pickup condition in which the imaging visual field is narrow (i.e., the image size is small).”.
Claim 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Okada (JP 2015012015 A) in view of Hirose et al. (WO 2014119114 A1, hereinafter Hirose) and Li (WO 2016081548 A1) and Lange et al. (US 9696264 B2, hereinafter Lange) and Minekawa et al. (KR 101524421 B1, hereinafter Minekawa) in further view of Boehme (WO 2014147048 A2).
Regarding claim 3, modified Okada teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, as set forth above, discloses wherein the control portion determines whether or not the crack reaching state (Okada, Page 7, Para. 4 from end, “a crack determination step for determining that a crack extending from the modified layer toward the surface of the wafer is present.”)
Modified Okada does not disclose:
determine whether or not the crack reaching state has been realized also in consideration of the presence or absence of a tip of a lower crack on the first front surface side, which is a crack extending from the modified region to the first front surface side of the semiconductor substrate.
However, Boehme discloses, in the similar field of producing cracks within substrates that can include semiconductor wafers (Abstract, “crack definition step”, and Page 2, Para. 4, “semiconductor wafers”), where cracks are capable of being produced from a surface portion (Page 7, last Para., “interaction with the material produces a single, continuous (viewed in the direction perpendicular to the substrate surface) crack zone in the material along a focal line per laser pulse. For the complete cutting of the material, a sequence of these crack zones per laser pulse is set so close to each other along the desired separation line that a lateral connection of the cracks to a desired crack surface / contour in the material results…a desired, directional cracking begins on the surface along the line of laser spots.”, where from Okada, the first front surface is 11b from Fig. 3 and would be the surface portion). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the crack formation process and crack determination process in modified Okada to include detection of cracks forming from the top surface portion as taught by Boehme.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification in order to gain the advantage of forming cracks from a surface to allow for a complete cutting of the material, as stated by Boehme, Page 7, last Para., “For the complete cutting of the material, a sequence of these crack zones per laser pulse is set so close to each other along the desired separation line that a lateral connection of the cracks to a desired crack surface…directional cracking beings on the surface along the line of laser spots.”.
Conclusion
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/KEVIN GUANHUA WEN/Examiner, Art Unit 3761
11/14/2025
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