DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-13 are pending before the Office for review.
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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Election/Restrictions
Claims 6-12 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.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 April 9, 2026.
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I (claims 1-5) in the reply filed on April 9, 2026 is acknowledged.
Claim Objections
Claim 5 is objected to because of the following informalities: Claim 5 is dependent to claim 9. However, pursuant to the interview conducted with Chi-yuan Chen on June 11, 2026 and Applicant’s original filed claims in parent application 16711942, claims 10-14, it appears the dependency to claim 9 is a typographical error. For the purpose of Examination claim 5 will be interpreted as depending from claim 1 and is properly placed in Group I . Appropriate correction is required.
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 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over RICE et al (U.S. Patent Application Publication 2019/0131167) in view of HOSEK et al (U.S. Patent Application Publication 2013/0071218).
With regards to claim 1, Rice discloses a method for operating a semiconductor multi-station processing chamber (400) having multiple stations (100) communicating with each other, and the stations being separated and concentric with respect to a center of said chamber (Figure 17), said chamber further including multiple arms (432, 431) radially arranged with respect to the center and configured to rotate to pass through the stations, the method comprising (Figure 17 Paragraphs [0093]-[0099] discloses a processing platform 400 with a transfer station 410 which can have a plurality of sides wherein each side include a plurality of processing station 110; wherein the robot 430 has a plurality of arms 431, 432 for transferring the wafers independent of each other wherein the embodiments including a third and fourth arm): wherein the wafers may be transferred from a cassette holding the wafers to the processing chamber until he wafers are processed and transferred out of the cluster tool (Paragraphs [0095]-[0101]).
Rice does not explicitly disclose moving the arms to a first waiting position and receiving a first pair of substrates by a first pair of stations of said chamber; moving the arms to a first pickup position to transfer the first pair of substrates from the first pair of stations onto the corresponding arms; moving the arms to a second waiting position and receiving a second pair of substrates by the first pair of stations; moving the arms to a second pickup position to transfer the second pair of substrates from the first pair of stations onto the corresponding arms; moving the arms to a third waiting position and receiving a third pair of substrates by the first pair of stations; moving the arms to a third pickup position to transfer the first pair of substrates and the second pair of substrates from the arms onto a second pair of stations and a third pair of stations respectively; and moving the arms to a fourth waiting position until processes performed by said chamber end.
Hosek discloses a method for operating a semiconductor multi station processing chamber having multiple stations with process modules 1614, vacuum chamber 1615 with transfer arm 1626 wherein two substrate holders 1628A, 1628B are connected for dual substrate moving (Paraph [0087]) wherein any suitable number of arms may be provided (Paragraph [0057]) wherein two substate are picked up and placed at the same time between processing chambers (Paragraph [0096]). Rice discloses wherein the arms are provide in a first waiting position to pick up the wafer from the cassette of wafer; moving the arms to a second position from the first position to place the substrate in processing substrate 110; and subsequent wafer can be moved into different process stations 110 and process conditions wherein two or four wafers can be processed at the same time wherein two wafers may be processed between four process stations wherein the wavers may be moved in a clockwise or counter clockwise direction between stations (Paragraphs [0106]-[0114] Figures 18A-18I). As such Rice as modified by Hosek renders obvious moving the arms to a first waiting position and receiving a first pair of substrates by a first pair of stations of said chamber; moving the arms to a first pickup position to transfer the first pair of substrates from the first pair of stations onto the corresponding arms; moving the arms to a second waiting position and receiving a second pair of substrates by the first pair of stations; moving the arms to a second pickup position to transfer the second pair of substrates from the first pair of stations onto the corresponding arms; moving the arms to a third waiting position and receiving a third pair of substrates by the first pair of stations; moving the arms to a third pickup position to transfer the first pair of substrates and the second pair of substrates from the arms onto a second pair of stations and a third pair of stations respectively; and moving the arms to a fourth waiting position until processes performed by said chamber end.
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention to modify the method of Rice to include the pair of substrate processing s rendered obvious by Hosek teaches that the dual end effects allows for the picking up and placing two substrate at a time for fast swap at each module (Paragraph [0096]) and one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the invention would have had a reasonable expectation of predictably achieving the desired substrate processing using the pair of substrate processing as rendered obvious by Hosek. MPEP 2143D
With regards to claim 2, the modified teachings of Rice renders obvious wherein the first waiting position, the second waiting position and the third waiting position are different from each other while the first pickup position, the second pickup position and the third pickup position are different from each other (Hosek Paragraphs [0096] discloses wherein a dual arm robot wherein the arms have a dual end effectors for allowing pickup or placing of two substrates; wherein the two substrate may be loaded into a process module; and rotated between process chambers while loading or stacking in load locks additional two substrates; where in the position of each pair is different from each other).
With regards to claim 3, the modified teachings of Rice renders obvious wherein receiving the first pair of substrates by the first pair of stations of said chamber, including supporting the first pair of substrates by plural lift pins of the first pair of stations. (Rice Paragraph [0038] discloses for wafer loading the rotatable structure could be lowered so that a vacuum robot could pick up finished wafers and place unprocessed wafers on lift pins located above each wafer heater).
With regards to claim 4, the modified teachings of Rice renders obvious wherein to transfer the first pair of substrates from the first pair of stations onto the corresponding arms, including transfer the first pair of substrates from the lift pins onto the corresponding arms. (Rice Paragraph [0038] discloses for wafer loading the rotatable structure could be lowered so that a vacuum robot could pick up finished wafers and place unprocessed wafers on lift pins located above each wafer heater).
With regards to claim 5, the modified teachings of Rice renders obvious wherein the number of stations is a multiple of two (Rice Paragraphs [0095]-[0097] discloses that the transfer station can have a plurality of sides with a number of processing stations wherein each side has two processing stations 110 Hosek Paragraph [0087] Figure 16C discloses stations 1614 in pairs to process two substrates side by side).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Fujino (U.S. Patent Application Publication 2017/0110349); Boitnott et al (U.S. Patent 5,863,170).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to STEPHANIE P. DUCLAIR whose telephone number is (571)270-5502. The examiner can normally be reached 9-6:30 M-F.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Joshua Allen can be reached at 571-270-3176. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/STEPHANIE P DUCLAIR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1713
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