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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election without traverse of claims 1-18 in the reply filed on 06/19/26 is acknowledged.
Claims 19-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 03/28/23 was/were received by the Examiner before the issuance/mailing date of the first office action. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement(s) has/have been considered (except for anything in foreign language non-accompanied by an English translation) by the Examiner.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the “plurality of vertical metal fins” recited in at least claim 1, and the “plurality of metal fins” recited in claim 16, must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Objections
Claims 11 and 16 are objected to because of the following informalities: claim 11 recites “wherein the fin-like three-dimensional MIM capacitor region with one or more fin-like three-dimensional MIM capacitors, wherein the one or more three-dimensional MIM capacitors on a backside interlayer dielectric material connect be a third frontside contact to a frontside BEOL interconnect wiring and a second backside contact connects to the backside BEOL interconnect wiring.” (emphasis added). Claim 11 does not appear to be properly formulated to be understood. The Examiner believes that “with” should be replaced with “has” and ”connect be a third frontside contact to” should modified as “connect a third frontside contact to” (i.e. “be” should be deleted). Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1-7 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4 and 7 each recites “plurality of vertical metal fins” and claim 16 recites “plurality of metal fins”. There is nothing in the drawing that is labeled and called “plurality of vertical metal fins” or “plurality of metal fins”, or even “metal fin” so that one can unmistakenly know what is being claimed when reading the claims in light of the specification. This lack of specific description is not helpful to understand the invention and consequently, those metal fins or vertical metal fins being claimed can’t be left to guessing.
Claim 2 recites “the semiconductor structure is a three-dimensional metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor; and the plurality of vertical metal fins provide: a plurality of vertical contact areas of the high-k dielectric material with portions of the backside metal plate and portions of the frontside metal plate; and a plurality of horizontal contact areas of the high-k dielectric material with portions of the backside metal plate and portions of the frontside metal plate on a top surface of each of the vertical metal fins” (emphasis added). This claim is not understood. The “provide” is in what sense? It is unclear how the plurality of vertical metal fins can provide a plurality of vertical contact areas of the high-k dielectric material and a plurality of horizontal contact areas of the high-k dielectric material while the plurality of vertical metal fins were not disclosed to be an integral part of the high-k dielectric material. An item A cannot provide a contact area of an item B if item A is not an integral part of item B. Besides, there is no vertical contact areas of the high-k dielectric material (123 on fig. 20) with portions of the backside metal plate (192), and there is no horizontal contact areas of the high-k dielectric material (123) with portions of the backside metal plate (192). So, claim 2 is not descriptive of the invention.
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 13 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 13 recites “the bottom dielectric isolation”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8-12, 14-15 and 17 are marked as objected to on the PTO 326 form but would be allowable assuming the objection issue with claim 11, the 112 2nd issue with claim 13 and the 112 1st issue with claim 16 are resolved.
Claims 1-7 would be allowable assuming the 112 1st issue with claims 1 and 2 are resolved without changing the scope of the claims, especially for claim 1.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Tan et al. (US 2013/0256834), Keeth et al. (US 6,465,331), Kim (US 6,297,090), Kao et al. (US 2022/0278095) and Li et al. (US 2022/0293513) disclose structures similar to the claimed invention.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PENIEL M GUMEDZOE whose telephone number is (571)270-3041. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 9:00AM - 5:30PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Dale Page can be reached at 5712707877. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PENIEL M GUMEDZOE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2899
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