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 .
The response of the applicant has been read and given careful consideration. Rejection of the previous action not appearing below are withdrawn based upon the arguments and amendments of the applicant. Responses to the arguments of the applicant appear after the first rejection they are directed to.
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 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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
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.
Claims 1,5,17 and 20-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being fully anticipated by Suda 20070190434.
Suda 20070190434 teaches with respect to figures 3A, 9A and 12A phase shift masks including a light shielding background (102) with openings (103), and auxiliary openings (104) which are phase shifted 180 degrees from the main openings.
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The examiner holds that the auxiliary features and main features of the photomasks illustrated in figures 3A, 5A, 9A, and 12A meet the limitations of the claims , specifically that the length of the sist features are at least equal to the sum of the length of the main pattern and the distance between the main pattern and the respective auxiliary feature.
In the response of 4/24/2026, the applicant argues that the length of the auxiliary feature between the main features is not equal to or greater than the sum of the size of the main feature and the spacing between the main feature and the second/outer auxiliary feature. The examiner disagrees and has measured the illustrations and found that the length is equal to the sum of these distances/dimensions in at least the illustration 9A and 12A. The applicant has not evidenced the argued criticality in this length for the full scope of the first auxiliary feature having a range of various widths located between the main features and separated from the first main feature at a range of different spacings.
Claims 1-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Suda 20070190434, in view of Imashita et al. KR 20160010322 and Imashiki JP 2018151618
Imashiki JP 2018151618 (machine translation attached) teaches with respect to figures 1a and 1b, photomask useful in forming displays comprising a substrate (10), a patterned phase shift film (11) and a light blocking film (12), where the main pattern is an opening down to the substrate and the phase shift auxiliary pattern (5) is where there are openings in the light shielding layer,, but the phase shift layer (11) is intact.
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Figures 10 and 11 show changes in the auxiliary features with different separation between the main patterns.
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The octagonal assist feature can be considered to be 8 segments as in figure 8 [0062]. The phase shift can be 120-240 degrees [0056]. Figure 15 is the prior art.
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The use of the masks in an exposure process to form a display using i-line, h-line or g-line exposure sources is disclosed [0121-0124]. The use of the exposure to form contact holes on the display panel substrate is disclosed [0023].
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illustrate the patterned phase shift layer overcoated with the patterned light shielding layer.
Imashita et al. KR 20160010322 (machine translation attached) illustrates in figure 2, different masks for forming display devices with different auxiliary features including circles, octagons, and four bars.
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As described above, the main pattern of the photomask shown in Fig. 1 is square, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, as illustrated in Fig. 2, the main pattern of the photomask may be a rotationally symmetrical shape, including an octagon or a circle. Then, the center of the rotational symmetry can be set as the center of the reference point P. The shape of the auxiliary pattern of the photomask shown in Fig. 1 is an octagonal band, but the present invention is not limited to this. It is preferable that the shape of the auxiliary pattern is a shape in which a constant width is imparted to the shape of the object to be rotated three or more times symmetrically with respect to the center of the hole pattern. 2 (a) to 2 (f), and the design of the main pattern and the design of the auxiliary pattern are different from each other in FIGS. 2 (a) to 2 (f) . For example, it is exemplified that the outer periphery of the auxiliary pattern is a regular polygon (preferably a regular 2n square, where n is an integer of 2 or more) or a circle such as a square, a hexagonal shape, a square octagonal shape or a regular octagonal shape. As the shape of the auxiliary pattern, it is preferable that the outer and inner peripheries of the auxiliary pattern are substantially parallel, that is, a shape such as a regular polygonal or circular band having a substantially constant width. This band-like shape is also referred to as a polygonal band or a circular band. As the shape of the auxiliary pattern, it is preferable that the regular polygonal band or the circular band surrounds the periphery of the main pattern. At this time, since the balance between the amount of light transmitted through the main pattern and the amount of light transmitted through the auxiliary pattern can be made substantially equal, it is easy to obtain a light interaction for obtaining the operation and effect of the present invention. Particularly, when the photomask of the present invention is used as a photomask for manufacturing a display device, that is, when the photomask of the present invention is used in combination with a photoresist for producing a display device, It is possible to reduce the resist loss in the portion where the resist is formed. Alternatively, the shape of the auxiliary pattern may be such that the polygonal band or a part of the ring-shaped band is partially missing without completely surrounding the periphery of the main pattern. The shape of the auxiliary pattern may be a shape in which the corner portion of the rectangular band is missing, for example, as shown in Fig. 2 (f). In addition to the main pattern and the auxiliary pattern of the present invention, other patterns may be used as long as the effect of the present invention is not impaired [0106-0111]. Example 2 exposes hole patterns on a display substrate [0174-0184].
Suda 20070190434 does not form the mask patterns with a patterned phase shift layer on the substrate and a patterned light shielding layer on the phase shift layer, describe the use of multi-segment auxiliary features with a 45 degree angle between the segments.
With respect to claims 1,5 and 17-25, it would have been obvious to modify the masks illustrated in figures 5A, 9Aor 12A of Suda 20070190434 (reproduced below) by forming the mask with a phase shift layer patterned with an opening in the main pattern region and the light shielding layer formed on the phase shift layer patterned with openings in the light shielding layer corresponding to the main patterns and the auxiliary features as is known in the art as evidenced in Imashita et al. KR 20160010322 and Imashiki JP 2018151618 with a reasonable expectation of forming a useful photomask.
With respect to claims 1-17 and 20-23, it would have been obvious to modify the mask of figure 12A of Suda 20070190434 (reproduced below)
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by replacing each of the 3 outer rectangular auxiliary features with a single partial octagon auxiliary feature as in figure 11i
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of Imashiki JP 2018151618, noting the direction away from the linear auxiliary features of figure 15 of Imashiki JP 2018151618 and the recognized equivalence of the four linear auxiliary features in figure 2f and the single octagonal auxiliary feature of figure 2b of Imashita et al. KR 20160010322 with a reasonable expectation of forming a useful photomask.
With respect to claims 1-17 and 20-23, it would have been obvious to modify the mask of figure 12A of Suda 20070190434 (reproduced below)
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by replacing each of the 3 outer rectangular auxiliary features with a single partial octagon auxiliary feature as in figure 11i
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of Imashiki JP 2018151618, noting the direction away from the linear auxiliary features of figure 15 of Imashiki JP 2018151618 and the recognized equivalence of the four linear auxiliary features in figure 2f and the single octagonal auxiliary feature of figure 2b of Imashita et al. KR 20160010322.
With respect to claims 1-25, it would have been obvious to modify the mask of figure 12A of Suda 20070190434 (reproduced below)
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by replacing each of the 3 outer rectangular auxiliary features with a single partial octagon auxiliary feature as in figure 11i of Imashiki JP 2018151618, noting the direction away from the linear auxiliary features of figure 15 of Imashiki JP 2018151618 and the recognized equivalence of the four linear auxiliary features in figure 2f and the single octagonal auxiliary feature of figure 2b of Imashita et al. KR 20160010322, lengthening the first auxiliary feature between the printing features based upon surrounding the entire feature in 2a taught as equivalent to the segmented features of figure 2f of Imashita et al. KR 20160010322, the forming the mask with a phase shift layer patterned with an opening in the main pattern region and the light shielding layer formed on the phase shift layer patterned with openings in the light shielding layer corresponding to the main patterns and the auxiliary features as is known in the art as evidenced in Imashita et al. KR 20160010322 and Imashiki JP 2018151618.
In response to the arguments of 4/24/2026, the applicant has not evidenced the argued criticality in this length for the full scope of the first auxiliary feature having a range of various widths located between the main features and separated from the first main feature at a range of different spacings. Imashita et al. KR 20160010322 establishes the equivalence of segmented auxiliary features in 2f and the longer (connected) auxiliary features. The applicant is invited to submit evidence to support the argued criticality of the length and for a range of auxiliary feature widths and spacings and amend the claims to be commensurate with the showing.
Claims 1-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Suda 20070190434, in view of Imashita et al. KR 20160010322 and Imashiki JP 2018151618, further in view of Ahn et al. 20060139504.
Ahn et al. 20060139504 illustrates in figure 7B, a patterned photoresist (168) over a substrate (150), a patterned metal/conductive gate lines (101/101)gate insulating film (152), an amorphous silicon layer (105), a doped amorphous silicon layer (107), source/drain metal layer (109) coated with a patterned resist (168), which was patterned by exposure through a photomask with a fully transmissive part, a light shielding part and a phase shifted part to form a pattern in the resist corresponding to contact holes. These contact holes are then etched down to the gate lines. As in figure 7C [0055-
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The combination of Suda 20070190434, Imashita et al. KR 20160010322 and Imashiki JP 2018151618 describes the use of photomasks masks to form contact holes in display devices, but does not describe the display substrate being patterned as having a patterned conductive layer on the substrate, overlaid with an insulating layer and a resist.
In addition to the basis above, it would have been obvious top one skilled in the art to use the masks with transparent main features and phase shifted assist patterns rendered obvious by the combination of Suda 20070190434, Imashita et al. KR 20160010322 and Imashiki JP 2018151618 in the contact hole formation process described with respect to figures 7A-C of Ahn et al. 20060139504 with a reasonable expectation of forming a useful display devices based upon the disclosure of the use of the mask in forming contact holes in Imashita et al. KR 20160010322 and Imashiki JP 2018151618 and the resultant masks having the light shielding regions, fully transparent patterns and phase shifted patterns as discussed in Ahn et al. 20060139504 at [0056].
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Cheng CN 110687746 (machine translation attached), teaches with respect to figure 2a, a main pattern (21), surrounded by auxiliary patterns (221, 222)
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Misaka 20070184361 illustrates in figure 14B, printing patterns which are openings (111,112,113,114,115) surrounded by sub resolution patterns (105,104) having a different phase as they pass through a semitransparent portion [0178-0179].
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Moukara et al. 20030232255 teaches in figures 3A and 3B, the effect of pattern spacing between main patterns (12,22) on the placement and number of auxiliary structures (14,24). The equivalence of segmented and continuous auxiliary features is also taught.
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Tanaka et al. in figure 10 and 10B illustrates transparent regions (41a, 41b), auxiliary halftone region (42) and auxiliary pattern (43), where the thicknesses of the layers (122,124) within the auxiliary features inherently shift the phase of the light.
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THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 Martin J Angebranndt whose telephone number is (571)272-1378. The examiner can normally be reached 7-3:30 pm EST.
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, Mark F Huff can be reached at 571-272-1385. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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MARTIN J. ANGEBRANNDT
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1737
/MARTIN J ANGEBRANNDT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1737 May 7, 2026
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