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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Species I, with claims 1-4 and 7 indicated by Applicant to read thereon, in the reply filed on 10/1/2025 is acknowledged.
Claims 5-6 and 8-13 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected species/invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 10/1/2025.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ghosh et al., US Patent No. 10,490,436 B2.
Re claim 1. Ghosh et al. disclose a lift pin comprising: a body 120 (e.g., fig. 1)/202 (e.g., fig. 2A/2E) inserted into a through hole 118 (e.g., fig. 1) formed in a susceptor 110 (e.g., fig. 1); and a head 204 (e.g. fig. 2E) provided at one end of the body 120 to come into contact with a rear surface of a wafer 101 (e.g., fig. 1), wherein an upper surface of the head 204 (e.g., fig. 2E) is formed to have a concavo-convex structure 234/203 (e.g., fig. 2E, especially col. 5, lines 46-62 “The projections 234 may be any suitable shape such as rectangular, rhombus, square, hemispherical, hexagonal, triangular protrusions or mixtures of differently shaped protrusions”), see figs. 1- 3 and cols. 1-8 for more details.
Re claim 2. The lift pin according to claim 1, Ghosh et al. disclose wherein the upper surface of the head 204 forms a curved surface (e.g., fig. 2E, hemispherical, hexagonal, triangular protrusions or mixtures of differently shaped protrusions) configured to be convex towards the rear surface of the wafer (fig. 1/2E).
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.
Claims 3-4 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ghosh et al., US Patent No. 10,490,436 B2.
Ghosh et al. disclosed above, and in particular col. 4, lines 45-50 shows the top surface 203 having a surface roughness of about 1.0 microns or less and col. 5, lines 54-60 shows having a diameter of about 0.03 to about 0.06 inches and a height “T” of about 0.002 inches. Although the exact recitations “the curved surface has a radius of curvature of 8 to 15 mm” and “height of 0.5 to 1.5µm” of the instant claims 3 and 4 are not explicitly stated by Ghost et al. in the related text.
However, the radius range of claim 3 and the height range of claims 4 are considered to involve routine optimization while has been held to be within the level of ordinary skill in the art. As noted in In re Aller, the selection of reaction parameters such as temperature, thickness and concentration etc. would have been obvious:
“Normally, it is to be expected that a change in temperature, or in concentration, or in both, would be an unpatentable modification. Under some circumstances, however, changes such as these may impart patentability to a process if the particular ranges claimed produce a new and unexpected result which is different in kind and not merely degree from the results of the prior art...such ranges are termed Acritical ranges and the applicant has the burden of proving such criticality.... More particularly, where 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 105 USPQ233, 255 (CCPA 1955). See also In re Waite 77 USPQ 586 (CCPA 1948); In re Scherl 70 USPQ 204 (CCPA 1946); In re Irmscher 66 USPQ 314 (CCPA 1945); In re Norman 66 USPQ 308 (CCPA 1945); In re Swenson 56 USPQ 372 (CCPA 1942); In re Sola 25 USPQ 433 (CCPA 1935); In re Dreyfus 24 USPQ 52 (CCPA 1934).
Therefore, one of ordinary skill in the requisite art before the invention was made would have used any radius range and the height range suitable to the device of Ghost et al. in order to optimize the device.
Although the exact recitations “glassy carbon” of the instant claims 7 are not explicitly stated by Ghost et al. in the related text. Col. 3, lines 60-65 shows using stainless steel, which typically might contain a small amount of carbon. In addition, using the glassy carbon (Re claim 7) material for the lift pine have been well-known in the semiconductor art. The selection of a known material based on its suitability for its intended use supported a prima facie obviousness determination in Sinclair & Carroll Co., Inc. v. Interchemical Corp. , 325 U.S. 327, 65 USPQ 297 (1945). "Reading a list and selecting a known compound to meet known requirements is no more ingenious than selecting the last piece to put in the last opening in a jig - saw puzzle." 65 USPQ at 301.).
Therefore, the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the invention was made to use any suitable material for the lift pin in the device of Ghost et al. in order to enhance the thermal conductivity etc.
Conclusion
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/JACK S CHEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2893