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
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.
Claim 5 is 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. Regarding claim 5, there is inadequate written description as to what is meant by a heater control resolution and any numeric value associated therewith.
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.
Claims 1, 5, as far as it is described, 6, 7, and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsujimoto et al. (JP2015162586) in view of Sambu et al. (20210074561) and Koyama (JP2022050156). Regarding claims 1, 5, and 9, Tsujimoto et al. discloses a substrate processing apparatus and method thereof comprising: a processing container 10 in which a substrate (wafer W) is processed; a plurality of heaters 116a-116c configured to control a temperature of the substrate accommodated in the processing container 10; and a controller 100 configured to control an operation of the plurality of heaters 116a-116c, wherein the controller 100 is configured to control the plurality of heaters 116a-116c to a set temperature set in advance for each of the plurality of zones, thereby performing a processing on the substrate (wafer W) accommodated in the processing container 10, determine whether an abnormality determination condition is satisfied (paragraph [0006]), including that an output value of at least one heater of the plurality of heaters is equal to or less than a heater control resolution (paragraph [0058]). Tsujimoto et al. does not disclose processing a plurality of substrates and issuing a warning for the set temperature for each of the plurality of zones based on a result of the determining.
Sambu et al. teaches for a substrate processing apparatus that (claims 1 and 9) has a plurality of heaters 66 for controlling the temperature of a plurality of substrates 12 (paragraph [0015] and [0022]) for each of a plurality of zones 64 for the purposes of reducing thermal damage to the furnace opening assembly. See Sambu et al. paragraphs [0004]-[0006].
Koyama teaches for a substrate processing apparatus and that (claims 1 and 9) an alarm 41 (warning) is output when the state of each heater is not within the normal range (paragraphs [ 0085],[0087 ] - [0088]) for the purposes of controlling a set temperature of the heater. See Koyama paragraph [0033]).
Since Tsujimoto et al., Sambu et al. and Koyama are all in the same field of endeavor the purposes disclosed by Sambu et al. and Koyama would have been recognized in the pertinent art of Tsujimoto et al. It would have been obvious at a time before the invention was effectively filed to a person having ordinary skill in the art to modify the substrate processing apparatus of Tsujimoto et al. to include processing a plurality of substrates and issuing a warning for the set temperature for each of the plurality of zones based on a result of the determining for the purposes of reducing thermal damage to the furnace opening assembly and controlling a set temperature of the heater.
Regarding claim 6, Sambu et al. teaches for a substrate processing apparatus 10 with a boat 34 that is configured to accommodate the plurality of substrates 12 within the processing container 48 in a vertical direction, wherein the set temperature for each of the plurality of zones 64 is set for each of the plurality of zones 64 in the vertical direction of the boat 34, and the controller 70 adjusts the temperature of the plurality of heaters 66 to the set temperature for each of the plurality of zones 64 in the vertical direction of the boat 34.
Regarding claim 7, Tsujimoto et al. discloses that the controller 100 determines whether the abnormality determination condition is satisfied (paragraph [0058]) after the processing on the substrate (wafer W).
Prior Art
Prior art made of record but not relied upon is considered pertinent to Applicant's disclosure for showing other substrate processing apparatus with a plurality of substrates, heaters, and heating zones.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4 and 8 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. The improvements comprise that (claim 2) the controller is further configured to calculate an appropriate value of the set temperature for each of the plurality of zones based on a center temperature among the set temperatures of the plurality of zones, and display the calculated set temperature for each of the plurality of zones, (claim 3) the controller determines whether the abnormality determination condition is satisfied based on a ratio of a time during which the output value of the at least one heater is equal to or less than the heater control resolution to a processing time of the plurality of substrates, and (claim 4) the controller determines whether the abnormality determination condition is satisfied based on a total time or continuous time during which the output value of the at least one heater is equal to or less than the heater control resolution, during a processing time of the plurality of substrates.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communication from the examiner should be directed to Thomas Lazo whose telephone number is (571) 272-4818. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor Nathaniel Wiehe, can be reached on (571) 272-8648. The fax phone number for this Group is (571) 273-8300.
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/THOMAS E LAZO/Primary Examiner,
Art Unit 3745
August 8, 2026
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