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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 April 2, 2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 11-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Fukazawa; Atsuki et al. (US 20180119283 A1). Fukazawa teaches a film forming apparatus (Figure 1-7), comprising: a processing container (3; Figure 1; [0051]) in which a substrate is accommodated; a gas supply (21,22; Figure 1; [0051]) configured to supply a raw material gas and a reactive gas into the processing container (3; Figure 1; [0051]); a radio frequency power (1kHz < f < 100MHz; [0030]) supply (25; Figure 1; [0051]) configured to output radio frequency power (1kHz < f < 100MHz; [0030]) for generating plasma inside the processing container (3; Figure 1; [0051]); and a controller (40; Figure 2-7; [0044]), wherein the controller (40; Figure 2-7; [0044]) controls the gas supply (21,22; Figure 1; [0051]) and the radio frequency power (1kHz < f < 100MHz; [0030]) supply (25; Figure 1; [0051]) to form a titanium (“metal-based precursor...Ti”; [0032]) film on the substrate is performed by an atomic layer deposition method ((i)-(iv); [0022]) that alternately (Figure 3,5; [0064]) performs an adsorption operation (PEALD; [0022]) of adsorbing the raw material gas onto a surface of the substrate by supplying the raw material gas into the processing container (3; Figure 1; [0051]) in which the substrate is accommodated, and a reaction operation ((v); [0022]) of supplying the reactive gas into the processing container (3; Figure 1; [0051]) to plasmarize the reactive gas and causing the plasmarized reactive gas to react with the raw material gas adsorbed onto the surface of the substrate, and wherein in the reaction operation ((v); [0022]), the reactive gas is plasmarized with the radio frequency power (1kHz < f < 100MHz; [0030]) having a frequency of 50 MHz or more and 60 MHz or less, as claimed by claim 1
Fukazawa further teaches:
The film forming apparatus (Figure 1-7) of Claim 11, wherein the gas supply (21,22; Figure 1; [0051]) supplies TiCl4 as the raw material gas and supplies H2 ([0033]) as the reactive gas, as claimed by claim 12. Fukazawa states in [0032] that Si can be replaced by Ti in the precursor equation:
H
a
S
i
b
R
c
where R is a “halogen”, a,b,c are “integers” which supports the use of titanium chloride by Fukazawa
The film forming apparatus (Figure 1-7) of Claim 12, further comprising an exhauster (“vacuum pump”; [0028]) configured to exhaust an interior of the processing container (3; Figure 1; [0051]), wherein the controller (40; Figure 2-7; [0044]) controls the gas supply (21,22; Figure 1; [0051]) and the exhauster (“vacuum pump”; [0028]) so that an internal pressure of the processing container (3; Figure 1; [0051]) in the process of forming the titanium (“metal-based precursor...Ti”; [0032]) film becomes 500 mTorr (66 kPa) or more and 5 Torr (666 kPa) or less, as claimed by claim 13. Fukazawa teaches the process pressure range of 112Torr (15kPa) < p < 600Torr (80kPa) – [0028] and 0.5kPa < P < 30kPa = 3.75Torr < P < 225Torr [0070]
The film forming apparatus (Figure 1-7) of Claim 11, further comprising an exhauster (“vacuum pump”; [0028]) configured to exhaust an interior of the processing container (3; Figure 1; [0051]), wherein the controller (40; Figure 2-7; [0044]) controls the gas supply (21,22; Figure 1; [0051]) and the exhauster (“vacuum pump”; [0028]) so that an internal pressure of the processing container (3; Figure 1; [0051]) in the process of forming the titanium (“metal-based precursor...Ti”; [0032]) film becomes 500 mTorr (66 kPa) or more and 5 Torr (666 kPa) or less, as claimed by claim 14. Fukazawa teaches the process pressure range of 112Torr (15kPa) < p < 600Torr (80kPa) – [0028] and 0.5kPa < P < 30kPa = 3.75Torr < P < 225Torr [0070].
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed April 2, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant states:
“
Specifically, the Examiner asserted that paragraph [0030] of Fukazawa discloses a frequency range of 1 MHz < f < 50 MHz, and also stated that Applicant is welcomed to amend the claims to remove Fukazawa's overlapping range (see page 7 of the Office Action).
As discussed above, amended Claim 11 recites a frequency range of "50 MHz or more and 60 MHz or less," which does not overlap with the frequency range of Fukazawa. Further, Fukazawa does not disclose or recognize the effects of the presently claimed frequency range as discussed in, for example, paragraphs [0039]-[0043] of the specification as filed.
“
In response, the Examiner’s previously cited range in Fukazawa is reffered by Fukazawa as a “prefferable” range. However, Fukazawa discloses a larger range of 1kHz < f < 100MHz in [0030] that anticipates all points in the amended claimed range.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. PEALD is supported by references such as US 20150203967 A1; US 20250046599 A1; US 20190385815 A1.
All claims are identical to or patentably indistinct from, or have unity of invention with claims in the application prior to the entry of the submission under 37 CFR 1.114 (that is, restriction (including a lack of unity of invention) would not be proper) and all claims could have been finally rejected on the grounds and art of record in the next Office action if they had been entered in the application prior to entry under 37 CFR 1.114. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL even though it is a first action after the filing of a request for continued examination and the submission under 37 CFR 1.114. See MPEP § 706.07(b). 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 Examiner Rudy Zervigon whose telephone number is (571) 272- 1442. The examiner can normally be reached on a Monday through Thursday schedule from 8am through 6pm EST. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Any Inquiry of a general nature or relating to the status of this application or proceeding should be directed to the Chemical and Materials Engineering art unit receptionist at (571) 272-1700. If the examiner cannot be reached please contact the examiner's supervisor, Parviz Hassanzadeh, at (571) 272- 1435.
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/Rudy Zervigon/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1716
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