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
Claims 19 and 20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 11/20/25.
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 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, 2, 11 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by, or in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent 9,385,318 to Henri.
Regarding Claim 1, Henri teaches a sacrificial passivation film deposition method using a low-temperature atomic layer deposition (ALD) process, comprising: depositing a primary sacrificial passivation film (109) on an entire surface of a substrate using a thermal ALD (T-ALD) process (Col. 8, Lines 39-47 and Col. 12, Lines15-67); and additionally depositing a secondary sacrificial passivation film (110) on an upper surface and at least a portion of a side surface of an upper portion of the primary sacrificial passivation film using a plasma-ALD (P-ALD) process (Col. 13, Line 1 - Col. 14, Line 22)
Regarding Claim 1, Henri teaches the method of the invention substantially as claimed with sufficient specificity, however, it further would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to perform the first forming step with thermal ALD (T-ALD) process and the second forming step with plasma-ALD (P-ALD) process in order to suitably form the layers while protecting the underlying material with predictable results.
Regarding Claim 2, Henri teaches the depositing of the primary sacrificial passivation film and the depositing of secondary sacrificial passivation film are performed at a low-temperature of 150°C or less (Col. 12, Lines 31-34 and Col. 13, Lines 21-24) with sufficient specificity, however, it further would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the claimed invention to perform the first forming step with thermal ALD (T-ALD) process and the second forming step with plasma-ALD (P-ALD) process at a low-temperature of 150°C or less in order to suitably form the layers while protecting the underlying material with predictable results.
Regarding Claim 11, Henri teaches depositing a target layer on a substrate, etching a portion of the target layer and completing etching of the target layer (Fig 2A-2E) wherein the etching of the portion of the target layer includes: depositing a primary sacrificial passivation film (109) on an entire surface of the target layer using a thermal ALD (T-ALD) process (Col. 8, Lines 39-47 and Col. 12, Lines15-67); and additionally depositing a secondary sacrificial passivation film (110) on an upper surface and a side surface of an upper portion of the primary sacrificial passivation film using a plasma-ALD (P-ALD) process (Col. 13, Line 1 - Col. 14, Line 22).
Regarding Claim 11, Henri teaches the method of the invention substantially as claimed with sufficient specificity, however, it further would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to perform the first forming step with thermal ALD (T-ALD) process and the second forming step with plasma-ALD (P-ALD) process in order to suitably form the layers while protecting the underlying material with predictable results.
Regarding Claim 12, Henri teaches (Fig 2A-2F) the primary sacrificial passivation film and the secondary sacrificial passivation film are deposited on the target layer of which the portion is etched.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-10 and 13-18 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.
Conclusion
The Prior Art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US Publication 2016/0163561 to Hudson et al. teaches a method of forming a recessed feature in dielectric material on a semiconductor substrate. Separate etching and deposition operations are employed in a cyclic manner. Each etching operation partially etches the feature. Each deposition operation forms a protective coating on the sidewalls of the feature to prevent lateral etch of the dielectric material during the etching operations. The protective coating may be deposited using methods that result in formation of the protective coating along substantially the entire length of the sidewalls. The protective coating may be deposited using particular reactants and/or reaction mechanisms that result in substantially complete sidewall coating at relatively low temperatures without the use of plasma.
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/ROBERTS P CULBERT/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1716