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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Status of the Claims
Claims 1-9 are pending in the current application.
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s amendment of 9/12/25 does not render the application allowable.
Status of the Rejections
All rejections from the previous office action are maintained.
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.
Claim(s) 1-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li (US 20100047450) in view of Burrows (US 20080314311) and Ripley (US 20140120257).
As to claim 1, Li discloses a reaction device for epitaxial growth improvement (abstract) comprising:
A reaction cavity for epitaxial growth containing a main inject port on one side and an exhaust port on the other side opposite the main inject port (figure 4: injection 407, exhaust 403; figure 6: injection 607, exhaust 609);
A base between the main inject port and exhaust port (figure 4: base [susceptor] 406; figure 6: wafer carrier 606);
Additional injection ports above the path of the main flow between the main injection port and exhaust port (figure 4: second gas inlet 404; figure 6: gas injector plate 604).
Li, while disclosing a main injection and exhaust path with a secondary injection source showerhead above, is silent as to the secondary injection comprising two linear injection pipes.
Burrows discloses an epitaxial vapor deposition system in which a showerhead gas injection system is provided over a substrate support (abstract; figure 1). Burrows also discloses knowledge in the art of providing the showerhead type system as first and section injection pipes arranged linearly extending from a central feed, the first and second pipes extending to a radius of the support and containing multiple holes (figure 4: showing unlabeled tubes over substrate support extending to radial length of support; figure 5A: details of tubes 259, each tube comprising a pair of linear tubes extending from central feed 257 and having holes 255), the tubes extending perpendicular to a direction of gas exhaust at opposing ends of the chamber (figure 2: tube orientation vs exhausts 236) the system allowing for control over gas distribution and greater uniformity of deposition (paragraph 34).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use linearly extending tube pairs, as disclosed by Burrows, for the showerhead system of Li, because this allows for increased control and deposition uniformity.
Li, while disclosing a plurality of substrate placed around a carrier, is silent as to a substrate placed coaxially with the substrate carrier.
Ripley discloses an epitaxial gas deposition system with linear injection pipes (abstract; paragraph 3, 18, figures 5 [various pipe orientation embodiments]). Ripley also discloses knowledge in the art of processing a single coaxially placed wafer on a substrate support (figure 4, 5: substrate 410 on support 406).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use a coaxially placed single substrate, in the system of Li, because single wafer processing is a known effective alternative to batch processing with increased control.
As to claims 2-3, Burrows discloses a plurality of holes, with holes at the central, middle and edge regions (figure 5a: tubes 259 containing greater than 3 holes 255 across entire radial orientation, the claim only requiring 3 and not precluding additional).
As to claim 4, Burrows illustrates equally spaced holes (figure 5a).
As to claim 5, Burrows discloses introduction of reactive gas from sets of tubes (paragraph 30; figure 2: reactive gas 216).
As to claim 6, the material or article worked upon does not generally further limit or impart patentability to an apparatus claim. Additionally, Li discloses knowledge of operation on wafers (paragraph 2) and therefore may be used with wafers intended to form specific transistors. Further, Burrows discloses knowledge in the art of forming layers to form transistors (paragraph 4-5) and therefore it would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to form specific structures including PMOS and NMOS devices.
As to claim 7, Burrows discloses use of HCl (paragraph 29) and gas flow rates of 5-1000 sccm (paragraph 32).
As to claim 8, Burrows discloses flow of inert gases including nitrogen at 0.-10 slm (paragraph 32).
As to claim 9, Burrows discloses operation at temperatures of 350-900° (paragraph 27) and pressures of down to 100 torr (paragraph 28).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the substrate being coaxial to the substrate support are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection, as discussed above.
Applicant additionally argues that Li does not disclose the linearly extending first and second pipes extending to a radius of the base. While this is true, as discussed above, Burrows is relied upon for its disclosure of this feature. Additionally, although not required or relied upon in the rejections, newly added reference Ripley discloses linearly extending pipes with pipes extending linearly and having injection holes extending the radius of the base (see embodiments of figure 5).
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 JASON BERMAN whose telephone number is (571)270-5265. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 8-4.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, James Lin can be reached at (571) 272-8902. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JASON BERMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1794
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