DETAILED ACTION
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 March 12, 2026 has been entered.
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.
Claim(s) 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by NA et al. (WO 2021046058 A1).
Re Claim 12, NA et al. disclose a semiconductor structure comprising a substrate (see Paragraph [0005]) with a surface comprising a gap feature (Fig. 4) and filling a gap future with molybdenum film (see Figs. 3 and 4).
Furthermore, the process claim that recited in claim 1 has no patentable weight for the device claim.
Even though product-by-process claims are limited by and defined by the process,
determination of patentability is based on the product itself. The patentability of a product
does not depend on its method of production. If the product in the product-by-process
claim is the same as or obvious from a product of the prior art, the claim is unpatentable
even though the prior product was made by a different process.” See In re Thorpe, 777
F.2d 695, 698, 227 USPQ 964, 966 (Fed. Cir. 1985).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 2, 4-11, 13-16, 18-19 and 21 are allowed over prior art of record.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Prior art of record neither anticipates nor renders obvious the claimed subject matter of the instant application as a whole either taken alone or in combination, in particular, prior art of record does not teach “wherein the surface clean comprises providing an etchant comprising a metal chloride to the reaction chamber and wherein the surface clean is performed before the cyclical deposition process,” as recited in claim 1, “wherein the surface cleaning comprises providing an etchant comprising a metal chloride to the reaction chamber and wherein the surface cleaning is performed before the contacting the substrate with the reducing agent,” as recited in claim 13, and “wherein the step of cleaning comprises providing an etchant comprising a metal chloride to the reaction chamber and wherein the cleaning the metal surface and the dielectric surface is performed before the cyclical deposition process,” as recited in claim 18 respectively.
Claims 4-11, 14-16, 19 and 21 are also allowed as being directly or indirectly dependent of the allowed independent base claim.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE NON-FINAL.
Correspondence
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BROOK KEBEDE whose telephone number is 571-272-1862. The examiner can normally be reached Monday Friday 8:00 AM 5:00 PM.
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/BROOK KEBEDE/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2894
/BK/
March 21, 2026
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