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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 03 December 2025 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
Amendments submitted by Applicant on 03 December 2025 are acknowledged. It is acknowledged that claims 1, 3-4, and 12-13 have been amended, and claims 16-19 have been added by Applicant.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1 and 12-13 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
Claim 19 is 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 19 is indefinite because the statement “the outer peripheral surface further from the protrusion than the outer peripheral surface” compares the same surface to itself. The claim fails to identify two distinct surfaces for comparison, rendering the limitation self-referential and logically inconsistent. Consequentially, the scope of the claim cannot be determined with reasonable certainty.
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 1, 3-11, 13 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheutomu (JP-2010034406-A) in view of Ishida (JP-2018160513-A).
Regarding Claim 1, Cheutomu discloses a substrate processing apparatus (see [0001]), comprising:
a substrate holder configured to arrange and hold substrates (a boat as a substrate holder for holding a plurality of wafers; see [0029]);
a reaction tube in which the substrate holder is accommodated (process tube as a reaction tube… process tube includes an inner tube in which a boat described later is accommodated; see [0027]),
wherein the substrate holder includes: a plurality of pillars (the boat… includes… a plurality of columns; see [0030]) installed around the arranged substrates (the columns are arranged such that the holding grooves face each other. By inserting the outer peripheral of the wafer into the respective holding grooves…; see [0030] and Figs. 1 and 3 parts 200 and 217a) and extending in a direction substantially perpendicular to the substrates (“wafers stacked horizontally”; see [0029] and “columns vertically installed”; see [0030]);
a top plate configured to fix one ends of the plurality of pillars to each other (end plates at the top and bottom, and a plurality of columns vertically installed between them; see [0030]) and having an opening at a center of the top plate (the upper end opening; see [0031]); and
a bottom plate configured to fix other ends of the plurality of pillars to each other (end plates at the top and bottom; see [0030]), wherein the reaction tube includes an inner tube configured to accommodate the substrate holder (The process tube 205 includes an inner tube 204 in which a boat 217 described later is accommodated; see [0027]), wherein the inner tube includes a ceiling terminating an upper portion of the inner tube (top plate of inner tube 204; see [0034]).
Cheutomu does not explicitly teach a protrusion or peripheral surfaces. However, Ishida discloses the reaction tube including a protrusion protruding inward in a shape corresponding to a shape of the opening of the top plate and having a flat leading end (a portion of the ceiling portion 5a is formed in a U-shaped cross section in the center portion of the lower surface of the ceiling portion 5a or protruding downward in a downward direction and an engaging convex portion 5c extending from the engaging convex portion 5c; see [0021] and Fig. 1), wherein the top plate comprises an inner peripheral surface and an outer peripheral surface (see first annotated Fig. 1 below), and wherein the protrusion is installed to be inserted into the opening of the top plate (the engaging convex portion 5c is inserted into the supporting hole 6b; see [0023]) in a state where the substrate holder is accommodated in the reaction tube (The tube body 5 described above is installed so as to surround the wafer boat 3; see [0023] and Fig. 1), and is configured to be closer to a substrate arranged closest to the top plate of the substrate holder than the top plate (see Fig. 1 parts 5c and 5a), wherein a height of the protrusion is set such that a distance between the protrusion and the substrate arranged closest to the top plate on the substrate holder is substantially equal to a distance between the substrates adjacent to each other on the substrate holder (see Fig. 1, Parts 5c and 2), wherein the protrusion is installed at the ceiling (engaging protrusions 5c may be formed on the ceiling 5a; see [0029]), and wherein a distance from the top plate to the ceiling (see second annotated Fig. 1 below, where “B” represents this distance) is smaller than a first length from a side surface of the protrusion to the inner peripheral surface (see second annotated Fig. 1 below, where “A” represents this distance; it is evident by the annotated figure that distance B is smaller than distance A).
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Cheutomu and Ishida are both considered to be analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of substrate processing apparatuses. Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cheutomu by incorporating the teachings of Ishida and providing a protrusion. Doing so would restrict the horizontal swinging of the upper flange plate (see e.g. Ishida [0023]). Further, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to design the protrusion height in efforts to manipulate the relative distance between the protrusion and the wafers, and place the protrusion in the claimed position. Doing so is an engineering design choice that controls the conductance in certain regions of the apparatus (see e.g. Cheutomu [0088]-[0092]) and allows the tube to engage with the boat and prevent the lateral vibration of the wafer boat (see Ishida [0028]), respectively. Further, increased lateral spacing would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention because it may prevent the wafer boat from colliding with the inner surface of the tube body, which may cause breakage of the wafer boat (see Ishida [0008]).
Regarding Claim 3, Cheutomu and Ishida together disclose the substrate processing apparatus of claim 1. Cheutomu further discloses the reaction tube including an outer tube (and an outer tube 203; see [0027]) having a pressure-resistant structure (…outer tube are each made of a heat-resistant non-metallic material such as quarts or silicon carbide; see [0027]) and configured to accommodate the inner tube (outer tube surrounding the inner tube; see [0027]).
Regarding Claim 4, Cheutomu and Ishida together disclose the substrate processing apparatus of claim 3. Cheutomu further discloses the apparatus comprising: a nozzle (a vaporized gas nozzle 233a as a first gas nozzle and a reaction gas nozzle 233b as a second gas nozzle; see [0039]) extending parallel to an arrangement direction of the substrates (disposed (extended) in the preparatory chamber 201a along the direction in which the wafers 200 are stacked; see [0039]) and configured to supply a gas to each of the substrates (the vaporized gas generated in the vaporizer 260 is supplied into the inner tube 204 through the vaporized gas nozzle 233a; see [0042]), wherein the inner tube further includes a bulging portion formed by bulging outward on a side surface of the inner tube (the vaporized gas jet port 248a and the reaction gas jet port 248b are provided at positions projecting radially outward of the inner tube 204 with respect to the side wall of the inner tube 204; see [0040]) and configured to accommodate the nozzle in the bulging portion (vaporized gas jet ports 248 a and reactive gas jet ports 248 b are respectively provided… of the vertical portion of the vaporized gas nozzle 233a and the reactive gas nozzle 233b; see [0040]).
Regarding Claim 5, Cheutomu and Ishida together disclose the substrate processing apparatus of claim 1. Cheutomu further discloses the apparatus comprising: a rotary shaft (a rotating shaft 255; see [0036]) configured to rotatably support the substrate holder (By rotating the rotation shaft 255 by the rotation mechanism 267, the boat 217 on which the plurality of wafers 200 are mounted can be rotated in the inner tube 204; see [0036]), wherein the opening and the protrusion are formed in a circular shape concentric with the rotary shaft (The rotating shaft 255 is provided to penetrate the center of the seal cap 219; see [0036] and Fig. 5).
Regarding Claim 6, Cheutomu and Ishida together disclose the substrate processing apparatus of claim 1. Cheutomu further discloses the apparatus comprising a cover (gas penetration preventing cylinder; see [0086]) configured to surround a plurality of arrangement positions including an arrangement position closest to the bottom plate among arrangement positions of the substrates on the substrate holder, from an upper surface and a side surface of the plurality of arrangement positions (region below the region in which the wafers are stacked in the boat is surrounded by the gas penetration preventing cylinder; see [0086]), wherein the substrate holder is configured to hold a plurality of product substrates or monitoring substrates at a plurality of arrangement positions between the cover and the top plate without holding the plurality of product substrates and the monitoring substrates at the plurality of arrangement positions surrounded by the cover (prevent the gas supplied into the inner tube from flowing into the region below the region in which the wafers are stacked in the boat; see Cheutomu [0086] and Fig. 3 Part 271f and 200)).
Regarding Claim 7, Cheutomu and Ishida together disclose the substrate processing apparatus of claim 4. Cheutomu further discloses the apparatus comprising: a cover configured to surround a plurality of arrangement positions including an arrangement position closest to the bottom plate among arrangement positions of the substrates on the substrate holder, from an upper surface and a side surface of the plurality of arrangement positions (see Claim 6 rejection) wherein the nozzle includes a plurality of gas supply ports at positions corresponding to a plurality of product substrates or monitoring substrates held at a plurality of arrangement positions between the cover and the top plate (The vaporized gas jet port 248 a and the reaction gas jet port 248 b are opened at positions (height positions) respectively corresponding to the plurality of wafers 200; see [0040] and Fig. 3) without having gas supply ports at positions corresponding to the plurality of arrangement positions surrounded by the cover (it is possible to prevent the gas supplied into the inner tube from flowing into the region below the region in which the wafers are stacked; see [0086] and Fig. 3).
Regarding Claim 8, Cheutomu and Ishida together discloses the substrate processing apparatus of claim 3. Cheutomu further discloses the entire inner surface of the ceiling of the inner tube being formed along a shape of the top plate of the substrate holder (see Fig. 1 Parts 204 and 217c).
Regarding Claim 9, Cheutomu and Ishida together disclose the substrate processing apparatus of claim 1. Cheutomu further discloses a lid configured to close an opening through which the substrate holder is loaded into and unloaded from a process vessel constituted by the reaction tube (a lid for air-tightly closing the lower end of the process furnace when the boat elevator is elevated; see [0017]); a rotation mechanism installed on the lid to hold the substrate holder in the reaction tube (a rotation shaft configured to pass through the lid and support the substrate holder from below; see [0135]); and a sealing member configured to seal a gap between the reaction tube and the lid without allowing the reaction tube to directly contact the lid (a sealing member such as an O-ring for air-tightly sealing the inside of the inner tube is provided between the lower end of the manifold and the seal cap; see [0027]).
Regarding the limitation claiming, “a height of the protrusion is set such that, when the sealing member is capable of being crushed by a predetermined crushing distance, a distance between the protrusion and the substrate arranged closest to the top plate is substantially equal to a distance between the substrates adjacent to each other in the substrate holder”, Ishida discloses the distance between the protrusion and the top substrate as being equal to the distance between substrates in Fig. 1, as previously explained. All O-rings are capable of being crushed by a predetermined crushing distance, and that particular phrase of the limitation does not define a state or position of a sealing member, but rather a property of a sealing member – the property being present, by nature, in all O-rings. The claim language seems to indicate that the claimed relative distances occur due to the sealing member being in a certain state or position, but the state/position being claimed is a necessary property of the sealing member and not actually a state/position. No manipulation of the apparatus has to occur in order for the sealing member to be “capable of being crushed”, and stating that the specified distances occur when the sealing member is capable of being crushed by a predetermined crushing distance indicates that a sealing member that is not capable of being crushed by a predetermined crushing distance can be used, and if this type of sealing member is used, then the protrusion is not required to have a height set such that the claimed distances are present. The apparatus taught by Cheutomu and modified by Ishida has the capability of sealing, has a sealing member that is capable of being crushed by a predetermined crushing distance, and teaches the distance between the protrusion and the top substrate as being equal to the distance between substrates, and is therefore capable of maintaining or achieving that distance when the sealing member is capable of being crushed by a predetermined crushing distance.
Regarding Claim 10, Cheutomu and Ishida together disclose the substrate processing apparatus of claim 1. Cheutomu further discloses a lid configured to close an opening through which the substrate holder is loaded into and unloaded from a process vessel constituted by the reaction tube (a lid for air-tightly closing the lower end of the process furnace when the boat elevator is elevated; see [0017]); a rotation mechanism provided on the lid to hold the substrate holder in the reaction tube (a rotation shaft configured to pass through the lid and support the substrate holder from below; see [0135]), and a sealing member configured to seal a gap between the reaction tube and the lid without allowing the reaction tube to directly contact the lid (a sealing member such as an O-ring for air-tightly sealing the inside of the inner tube is provided between the lower end of the manifold and the seal cap; see [0027]).
Regarding the limitation claiming, “the height of the protrusion is set such that, when the sealing member is capable of being crushed by a predetermined crushing distance, the distance between the protrusion and the substrate arranged closest to the top plate is sufficiently smaller than the distance between the substrates adjacent to each other in the substrate holder and larger than a variation of the predetermined crushing distance”, Cheutomu discloses the distance between the top plate and the top of the reaction tube as being smaller than the distance between adjacent substrates (see [0034]). All O-rings are capable of being crushed by a predetermined crushing distance, and that particular phrase of the limitation does not define a state or position of a sealing member, but rather a property of a sealing member – the property being present, by nature, in all O-rings. The claim language seems to indicate that the claimed relative distances occur due to the sealing member being in a certain state or position, but the state/position being claimed is a necessary property of the sealing member and not actually a state/position. No manipulation of the apparatus has to occur in order for the sealing member to be “capable of being crushed”, and stating that the specified distances occur when the sealing member is capable of being crushed by a predetermined crushing distance indicates that a sealing member that is not capable of being crushed by a predetermined crushing distance can be used, and if this type of sealing member is used, then the protrusion is not required to have a height set such that the claimed distances are present. The apparatus taught by Cheutomu and modified by Ishida has the capability of sealing, has a sealing member that is capable of being crushed by a predetermined crushing distance, and teaches the claimed relative distances, and is therefore capable of maintaining or achieving that distance when the sealing member is capable of being crushed by a predetermined crushing distance.
Regarding Claim 11, Cheutomu and Ishida together discloses the substrate processing apparatus of claim 6. Cheutomu further discloses the substrate holder being configured to hold the plurality of product substrates or the monitoring substrates at a plurality of arrangement positions between the cover and the top plate excluding the arrangement position closest to the top plate (see [0086] and “inserting the outer peripheral portion of the wafer 200 into the respective holding grooves”; see [0030]). The wafers are loaded into holding grooves. The apparatus of Cheutomu is clearly capable of holding a wafer in any holding groove, or excluding a wafer in any holding groove, depending on the choice of the engineer.
Regarding Claim 12, the limitations of this claim do not exceed those of claim 1. Please refer to the claim 1 rejection as the rejection of claim 12 follows the same rationale.
Regarding Claim 13, Cheutomu discloses a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device (a substrate processing process; see [0064]), comprising: accommodating a substrate holder, which is configured to arrange and hold substrates (the boat holding a plurality of wafers; see [0065]) and includes a plurality of pillars (the boat… includes… a plurality of columns; see [0030]) installed around the arranged substrates (the columns are arranged such that the holding grooves face each other. By inserting the outer peripheral of the wafer into the respective holding grooves…; see [0030] and Figs. 1 and 3 parts 200 and 217a) and extending in a direction substantially perpendicular to the substrates (“wafers stacked horizontally”; see [0029] and “columns vertically installed”; see [0030]); a top plate configured to fix one ends of the plurality of pillars to each other (end plates at the top and bottom, and a plurality of columns vertically installed between them; see [0030]) and having an opening at a center of the top plate (the upper end opening; see [0031]); and a bottom plate configured to fix other ends of the plurality of pillars to each other (end plates at the top and bottom; see [0030]) into a reaction tube (The process tube 205 includes an inner tube 204 in which a boat 217 described later is accommodated; see [0027]), and processing the substrates in the reaction tube (see [0064]).
Cheutomu does not explicitly teach a protrusion. However, Ishida discloses the reaction tube including a protrusion protruding inward in a shape corresponding to a shape of the opening of the top plate and having a flat leading end (a portion of the ceiling portion 5a is formed in a U-shaped cross section in the center portion of the lower surface of the ceiling portion 5a or protruding downward in a downward direction and an engaging convex portion 5c extending from the engaging convex portion 5c; see [0021] and Fig. 1); wherein, while accommodating the substrate holder, the protrusion is inserted into the opening of the top plate (the engaging convex portion 5c is inserted into the supporting hole 6b; see [0023]) and is brought closer to a substrate arranged closest to the top plate of the substrate holder than the top plate (see Fig. 1 parts 5c and 5a), and wherein a height of the protrusion is set such that a distance between the protrusion and the substrate arranged closest to the top plate on the substrate holder is substantially equal to a distance between the substrates adjacent to each other on the substrate holder (see Fig. 1, Parts 5c and 2). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cheutomu by incorporating the teachings of Ishida and providing a protrusion. Doing so would restrict the horizontal swinging of the upper flange plate (see e.g. Ishida [0023]). Further, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to design the protrusion height in efforts to manipulate the relative distance between the protrusion and the wafers. Doing so is an engineering design choice that controls the conductance in certain regions of the apparatus (see e.g. Cheutomu [0088]-[0092]).
The additional limitations, namely those claiming, “the top plate comprising an inner peripheral surface and an outer peripheral surface, wherein the reaction tube includes an inner tube configured to accommodate the substrate holder, wherein the inner tube includes a ceiling terminating an upper portion of the inner tube, wherein the protrusion is installed at the ceiling, and wherein a distance from the top plate to the ceiling is smaller than at least one of a first length from a side surface of the protrusion to the inner peripheral surface and a second length from the outer peripheral surface to an inner peripheral surface of the inner tube” are addressed in the claim 1 rejection. Please refer to the claim 1 rejection as the rejection of these limitations follows the same rationale.
Regarding Claim 15, Cheutomu and Ishida together disclose the substrate processing apparatus of claim 3. The remaining limitations of this claim do not exceed those of claim 1. Please refer to the claim 1 rejection, as the rejection of claim 15 follows the same rationale.
Regarding Claim 16, Cheutomu and Ishida together disclose the substrate processing apparatus of claim 1. The limitation claiming “wherein a distance from the top plate to the ceiling is smaller than the first length” is addressed in the claim 1 rejection. Please refer to the rejection of claim 1 for the associated rationale. Cheutomu further discloses wherein a distance from the top plate to the ceiling (Part C in annotated Fig. 3 below) is smaller than the second length (Part D in annotated Fig. 3 below).
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Regarding Claim 17, Cheutomu and Ishida together disclose the substrate processing apparatus of claim 1. Cheutomu further discloses wherein the ceiling (see Fig. 3, top plate of inner tube 204) is directly above the top plate (see Fig. 3, end plate 217c).
Regarding Claim 18, Cheutomu and Ishida together disclose the substrate processing apparatus of claim 1. Ishida further discloses wherein the inner peripheral surface is closer to the protrusion than the outer peripheral surface (see annotated Fig. 1 under claim 1 rejection near the beginning of this office action). Increased lateral spacing would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention because it may prevent the wafer boat from colliding with the inner surface of the tube body, which may cause breakage of the wafer boat (see Ishida [0008]).
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheutomu (JP-2010034406-A) in view of Ishida (JP-2018160513-A) and Miyahara (US-20180033608-A1).
Regarding Claim 14, Cheutomu and Ishida together disclose the method of claim 13.
Cheutomu discloses a controller to perform the method (the operation of each part constituting the substrate processing apparatus is controlled by the controller; see [0064]), but Cheutomu modified by Ishida does not explicitly teach a non-transitory recording medium. However, Miyahara discloses a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a program that causes, by a computer, a substrate processing apparatus to perform required methods (see Miyahara [0011]).
Cheutomu and Miyahara are both considered analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of substrate processing apparatuses. Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cheutomu by incorporating the teachings of Miyahara and providing a non-transitory recording medium. Doing so would enable automated control of the apparatus (see Miyahara [0011]).
Conclusion
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/A.L.K./Examiner, Art Unit 1774
/CLAIRE X WANG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1774