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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
The amendment filed August 28, 2025 has been received and entered. With the entry of the amendment, claims 2, 5-6 and 8 are canceled, claims 10-11 are withdrawn, and claims 1, 3-4, 7 and 9 are pending for examination.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I, claims 1-9, in the reply filed on June 28, 2023 is acknowledged.
Claims 10-11 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on June 28, 2023.
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 3, 4 and 9 are 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.
Claim 3, “the temperature of the liquid film is reduced to the second temperature before an opening portion of the recess is closed” is confusing and indefinite as worded. Does applicant mean (1) the step of reducing to the second temperature starts before the opening portion is closed, since in parent claim 1, step d) continues until the entire recess is filled with metal (so opening portion closed), or (2) after the step d) the entire recess is not filled with metal, which would broaden the claim improperly? For the purpose of examination, it is understood that option (1) applies but applicant should clarify what is intended, without adding new matter.
Clam 4, this claim provides for a heating of the liquid film to a third temperature. However, this is vague and indefinite as worded, since claim 1 now requires a “first and only heating step” to heat to a first temperature, so it is unclear how there can be a further heating step to heat to a third temperature. Furthermore, if there was a second heating step, it would appear that there would also need to be a second temperature reducing step, since for use, there would be a stopping of heating, which would provide for cooling back to room temperature. For the purpose of examination, it is understood that for claim 4, step c) is not the only heating step allowed, and step d) is not the only cooling step applied, but rather the second heating and cooling steps indicated by claim 4 are also allowed, but applicant should clarify what is intended, without adding new matter.
Claim 9, it is confusing and indefinite as to where, when there are only one heating and one cooling temperature, the electroless plating would be provided during the reducing step, where the supplying is indicated as occurring at step b). For the purpose of examination, it is understood that for claim 9, plating liquid can also be supplied during step d), but applicant should clarify what is intended, without adding new matter.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(d):
(d) REFERENCE IN DEPENDENT FORMS.—Subject to subsection (e), a claim in dependent form shall contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and then specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to incorporate by reference all the limitations of the claim to which it refers.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, fourth paragraph:
Subject to the following paragraph [i.e., the fifth paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112], a claim in dependent form shall contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and then specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to incorporate by reference all the limitations of the claim to which it refers.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(d) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, 4th paragraph, as being of improper dependent form for failing to further limit the subject matter of the claim upon which it depends, or for failing to include all the limitations of the claim upon which it depends.
In claim 4, this claim provides for a heating of the liquid film to a third temperature. However, this would be not further limiting of claim 1, since claim 1 now requires a “first and only heating step” to heat to a first temperature, having a further heating step to heat to a third temperature would be not further limiting of claim 1.
Applicant may cancel the claim(s), amend the claim(s) to place the claim(s) in proper dependent form, rewrite the claim(s) in independent form, or present a sufficient showing that the dependent claim(s) complies with the statutory requirements.
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1, 3-4, 7 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Han et al (US 2008/0102632) in view of Marumo (US 2005/0196523), Hamada et al (US 2016/0276379), Japan 2011-94238 (hereinafter ‘238), and Canestaro et al (US 4554184).
Claim 1: Han teaches a substrate liquid processing method (note 0033-0034, with electroless plating from a bath). The process includes preparing a substrate having a surface including a recess on which a seed layer is stacked (note figure 2, 0013, 0021, 0033-0034). An electroless plating liquid/bath is supplied onto the surface of the substrate to fill the recess with the electroless plating liquid (this would be at least suggested by the providing of an electroless plating bath that fills the recess with copper (metal), so the plating bath/liquid would fill the recess to provide the copper) (note 0033). The electroless copper would precipitate on the seed layer and fill the trench starting with a bottom portion of a recess, such that a void is not formed therein (note figure 2 as compared to figures 1D, 1E, where the prior process of 1D, 1E forms a void, note 0018, 0019, 0021).
As to providing the step c) heating step using a cover member having a heater above the surface of the substrate at a lower position, and step d) having the temperature reduction step with moving the cover member higher than the lower position to reduce the temperature of the liquid film from a first temperature to a second lower temperature (that is room temperature, and suppresses plating) and continuing until the entire recess is filled with the metal, and the supplying of inert gas as claimed,
Marumo further describes how a wafer substrate can be provided on pedestal, and electroless plating liquid applied onto a surface of the substrate with recesses from a nozzle to fill recesses and form a film, and the plating solution can be further heated to accelerate the reaction (providing plating) (note figures 1, 3, note 0012-0013), and where the heating can be provided by different methods including heating with an upper plate/cover containing a heater placed above the surface of the substrate (note 0125-0126, 0067-0068, 0072, figure 3), or by heating with radiation heat (note 0127-0128).
Hamada further describes how a wafer substrate can be provided on a pedestal and treatment liquid applied to a surface of a substrate and a cover member (8) can be provided over the substrate, and the cover member 8 is heated with a heater and the temperature of the liquid applied to the surface to substrate is adjusted as a distance between the surface of the substrate and cover/heater 8 is changed so temperature changed by adjusting distance, not temperature of the heater 8 (note figures 1-5, 0028, 0025-0026, 0045).
‘238 further describes how a wafer substrate can be provided on a pedestal and electroless plating liquid applied onto a surface of the substrate and a cover member (such as 110) can be provided over the substrate (note figures 2, 6, 10, abstract, and note page 6 of the translation) and during the electroless plating, an inert gas is supplied into a gap between the surface of the substrate and the cover member, which gives gas flow over the substrate and out of the system (and thus with the flow would replace gas with oxygen in the gap with the supplied inert gas, and also jet inert gas to the substrate) (note figures 6, 10, pages 2-7 and 9 of the translation, and flow during plating indicated as the gas is stopped from flowing after the plating stops, note page 6, translation). The use of the inert gas helps prevents the plating solution from taking in oxygen from normal air, which deteriorates the growth of plating, giving a uniform coating (note page 7, translation), where the gas can be not heated (and simply give dissolved oxygen separation) or heated, and where it is indicated that room temperature gas can act to work to lower the temperature of the plating solution (note page 7, translation).
Canestaro describes how electroless plating can be provided using an electroless plating bath, where the electroless plating bath can be for plating copper (note column 1, lines 5-15). Canestaro describes how the bath can be provided at an initial “sub-plating” temperature such as about 25 to about 65 degrees C, during which plating will not occur (note column 2, lines 40-60, column 5, lines 1-20), and then the bath can be heated to a first temperature at which plating occurs, such as about 70-80 degrees C for the copper plating bath (note column 5, lines 1-20, claim 1), and thereafter the bath material can be cooled to the lower temperature (note column 5, lines 50-60). Canestaro further describes how when the bath is provided at the lower, sub-plating/non-plating temperature, it is at a temperature capable of deplating (note column 4, lines 20-30), and it is specifically described how the lower temperature bath (below the plating temperature) can etch/remove or dissolve copper which has been plated out (note column 6, lines 30-60, claim 18). The Examiner would take Official Notice that the about 25 to about 65 degrees C range would include room temperature (such as about 25 to 30 degrees C, and as this position from the Office Action of November 30, 2023 has not been traversed, it is understood to be agreed to).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Han by supplying the electroless plating liquid on the surface of the substrate to fill the recess with electroless plating liquid while forming a liquid film of the electroless plating on the surface at a temperature of room temperature, then in a first and only heating step placing a cover member having a heater above the surface of the substrate at a lower position to adjust the temperature of the liquid film to a first temperature at which a plating reaction of the electroless plating liquid proceeds and a metal is precipitated on the seed layer, and then, in a first and only temperature reducing step, place the cover member at an upper position higher than the lower position, thereby reducing the temperature of the liquid to a second, lower temperature of room temperature to fill the recess with metal starting from a bottom portion of the recess, such that a void is not formed therein, and during the temperature reducing step an inert gas is supplied into a gap between the surface of the substrate and the cover member such that a gas in the gap is replaced by the supplied inert gas, and the temperature of the liquid film is reduced by evaporation of the electroless plating liquid which is facilitated by jetting the inert gas to the substrate, and the plating reaction of the electroless plating liquid is suppressed at the second temperature compared to the first temperature, and temperature reducing step continues until the entire recess is filled with the metal, as suggested by Marumo, Hamada, ‘238 and Canestaro to provide a desirable plating, where Han indicates how it is known to provide substrates with recesses in which a seed layer is stacked, and filling the recesses with copper using an electroless plating bath, where the recesses are filled from the bottom and are without voids, and further as to supplying the electroless plating liquid on the surface of the substrate to fill the recess with electroless plating liquid while forming a liquid film of the electroless plating on the surface at a temperature of room temperature, this would be suggested by Marumo and Canestaro, for example, where Marumo indicates how substrates with recesses to be filled can be provided in wafer form that is rotated with supplied electroless plating solution to spread the plating solution and fill with the liquid plating solution where the plating temperature is low at this point (note 0104-0106) and Canestaro also indicates how plating can be supplied at a low temperature range (such as about 25-65 degrees C, that can be optimized from, and such optimization would provide room temperature) to plating areas (cells) (note column 5, lines 5-20, column 2, lines 50-60), thus giving suggested supply conditions for a known wafer substrate use; and furthermore, as to then in a first and only heating step placing a cover member having a heater above the surface of the substrate at a lower position to adjust the temperature of the liquid film to a first temperature at which a plating reaction of the electroless plating liquid proceeds and a metal is precipitated on the seed layer, this would be suggested by Marumo, Hamada and Canestaro, where Marumo indicates to heat the applied coating liquid to a desired temperature range (which would be above room temperature) to desirably accelerate reaction/provide plating (so precipitate metal on the seed layer), where the heating can be provided using a cover member/upper plate having a heater above the surface of the substrate, and Hamada further indicates that heating of a wafer with liquid can be provided using a heater in a cover member, where higher heat would be provided with a lower position and lower heat with a higher position (note 0045) indicating providing a controlled position to give a desired heat, and Canestaro indicates to provide heating to a higher plating temperature (with only one heating needed) to provide plating; and furthermore, as to then, in a first and only temperature reducing step, placing the cover member at an upper position higher than the lower position, thereby reducing the temperature of the liquid to a second, lower temperature of room temperature to fill the recess with metal starting from a bottom portion of the recess, such that a void is not formed therein, and during the temperature reducing step an inert gas is supplied into a gap between the surface of the substrate and the cover member such that a gas in the gap is replaced by the supplied inert gas, and the temperature of the liquid film is reduced by evaporation of the electroless plating liquid which is facilitated by jetting the inert gas to the substrate, and the plating reaction of the electroless plating liquid is suppressed at the second temperature compared to the first temperature, and temperature reducing step continues until the entire recess is filled with the metal, this would be suggested by Hamada, ‘238 and Canestaro, where as indicated by Canestaro, to finish by reducing plating bath temperature to 25-40 degrees C, temperatures below which plating does not precipitate, and which from optimization would be room temperature, where furthermore, heating would also be stopped on the substrate to allow finish and use of the product, where Hamada indicates how cooling of liquid on a wafer can occur by raising the position of the cover member (note 0045), and ‘238 further indicates inert gas can be supplied between the surface of the substrate and a cover member during processing with jetting the inert gas to the substrate, which would replace initial gas in the gap between the substate and cover member, which gas providing helps give desirable suppression of oxygen uptake in plating liquid, and as well, ‘238 indicates that temperature of the gas can also affect the heating of the plating liquid, and this gas providing would occur during the adjusting/reducing of the temperature to the second temperature, since occurs during plating as a whole, and as well, it would be suggested to be provided to allow low temperature gas at this time to give additionally temperature reducing of the plating solution given the desire for temperature lowering as discussed above, along with to prevent oxygen uptake during this period, and as to filling the entire recess during this period, Han shows to fill the entire recess (note figure 2) from the bottom and without void, and the cooling from the high temperature to the low second temperature where plating does not occur would take a period of time, and it would be suggested to optimize the conditions and time so that the plating efficiently finishes during the cooling period, so that wasted extra plating does not occur at this point. The evaporation of the plating liquid further reducing temperature of the liquid film is understood to occur as claimed because the same providing of inert gas with jetting to the substrate to give such results would be provided. Where the claimed and prior art products are identical or substantially identical in structure or composition, or are produced by identical or substantially identical processes, a prima facie case of either anticipation or obviousness has been established. In re Best, 562 F.2d 1252, 1255, 195 USPQ 430, 433 (CCPA 1977).
Note also As to the specific use of room temperature as the second temperature, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Han in view of Marumo, Hamada, ‘238 and Cenestaro to optimize the second temperature based on the specific solution used noting the temperature range suggested by Canestaro as possible non-plating temperatures, giving a value of room temperature, since Marumo and Canestaro would include lowering the temperature to a second non-plating temperature, and Canestaro would indicate possible such temperatures. Also note MPEP 2144.05(II)(A): Generally, differences in concentration or temperature will not support the patentability of subject matter encompassed by the prior art unless there is evidence indicating such concentration or temperature is critical. "[W]here the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, it is not inventive to discover the optimum or workable ranges by routine experimentation." In re Aller, 220 F.2d 454, 456, 105 USPQ 233, 235 (CCPA 1955).
Claim 3: it is understood that the if desired the temperature reducing can occur before the opening portion closed/filled, since the deposition would finish during cooling (note the 35 USC 112 rejection above).
Claim 4: it would have been an obvious matter of duplication of parts to repeat the steps as desired to provide more build up of metal as desired to form a multilayer system, for example, note MPEP 2144.04(VI)(B). Note the 35 USC 112 rejection above.
Claim 7: the temperature of the film would be reduced as the distance between he substrate and heater is changed as suggested by Hamada (note 0037).
Claim 9: as to the plating liquid with a temperature lower than the first temperature applied to the surface of the substrate during the reducing of the temperature of the liquid film, this would have been obvious with an expectation of predictably acceptable results as a further cooling method, where as discussed for claim 1 above, supplying the plating liquid can be provided at a lower temperature than the first temperature, and further supplying of plating liquid would give more liquid already in use in plating allowing additional material for plating precipitation if needed.
Note that Shipley Material Safety Data sheet indicates that CUPOSIT 250 is an electroless copper solution (note page 1, and material of section 14 at page 6). Branchick et al (US 4399020) describes electroless plating with copper, and how “room temperature” can be considered as 15-30 degrees C (column 9, lines 40-50). Hongo et al (US 2004/0234696) also indicates providing inert gas between a cover member (head section) and plating fluid on a substrate to prevent air contacting the plating solution (note 0022).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed August 28, 2025 have been fully considered.
(A) Note the adjustment to the rejections, including the new 35 USC 112 rejections, and the new primary reference to Han, due to the amendments to the claims.
(B) Applicant has argued as to the 35 USC 103 rejections that Dordi should be removed due to the amendments.
The Examiner has removed the rejection using Dordi due to the amendments to the claims, but provided a new set of rejections using Han as the primary reference that would provide the features of the claims as discussed in the rejections above.
Conclusion
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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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 mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KATHERINE A BAREFORD whose telephone number is (571)272-1413. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 6:00 am -3:30 pm, 2nd F 6:00 am -2:30 pm.
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/KATHERINE A BAREFORD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1718