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 .
The Applicant’s amendment filed on June 18, 2026 was received. Claims 1-4 and 8 were amended and claim 9 was newly added.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S.C. code not included in this action can be found in the prior Office actions issued January 12, 2026 and May 5, 2026.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 June 18, 2026 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 and 103
The claim rejections under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Morisawa et al. (US 2008/0306615) on claims 1-5 and 8 are maintained. The rejections are restated below.
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Morisawa et al.
Regarding claim 1: Morisawa et al. discloses a control device for a substrate processing apparatus, the control device having ROM (205) and RAM (210) storage, an equipment controller (200) with a number of different circuitry functions, including an input unit (250) which is a registration reception circuitry receives information input from the user via a keyboard (705) and/or touch panel (710), the information containing the ID of a process recipe stored in the storage, which can be considered process log information being performed under certain process conditions, the recipe data including temperature, time and flow rate of gasses for each step, a process recipe determination unit (260) which is an identification circuitry that identifies the proper recipe info based on the entered registration ID and name information sent by the input unit (250), a temperature acquisition unit (265) which is a process condition acquisition circuitry that identifies and acquires a process condition (such as temperature, but this is only one example) from the recipe data for each desired step, which is a portion of the recipe, a correction unit (290) which is an optimization circuitry that optimizes the chosen recipe data based on real-time processing conditions, and a communication unit (280) which is an output circuitry that outputs the newly corrected recipe data to process module controller (300) as well as an output unit (285) which outputs the information to a monitor (715) (pars 69-71, 77-78, 81-82, 117, 120-122, 124-125, figures 6, 10-12).
While recipe data is functionally the same as log data such that it reads on the claim, Morisawa et al. does fail to explicitly disclose that the controller (200) performs these functions with log data. However, Morisawa et al. does explicitly state that the controller (200) receives real-time process data and stores historical records of the recipes used (par. 42-43) such that it would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to try using log data rather than just recipe data, because Morisawa et al. suggests that the historical record data should correspond to the recipe data (par. 42-43) such that either set of data would be identical and therefore equivalent to the other, and substituting functional equivalents is not considered to be a patentable advance (MPEP 2143, 2144.06).
Regarding claims 2-4: Morisawa et al. discloses that the recipe data which the registration information points to can include a number of different types of data including process gas flow rate data (par. 13) such that the recipe determination unit (260) identifies the relevant recipe having the same process gas data, and Morisawa et al. further teaches that the input unit also includes process recipe name data (par. 71) which would indicate the process type.
Regarding claim 5: Morisawa et al. discloses that this control device can be used with film formation deposition processes or etching processes (par. 56).
Regarding claim 8: Morisawa et al. discloses that the temperature acquisition unit (265) can acquire the stage heater temperature for an entire recipe or for each individual timed step of a recipe such that it acquires the desired step based on time between subsequent steps (par. 117, figure 6).
Regarding claim 9: Morisawa et al. discloses that the temperature acquisition unit (265) identifies and acquires the process conditions based on either temperature, pressure data, gas flow rate data or plasma application power data (par. 13, 78).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed June 18, 2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant primarily argues that Morisawa et al. does not teach identifying one or more specific steps from the log information, as newly added to claim 1.
In response:
Applicant is incorrect- paragraph 117 of Morisawa et al. teaches that the process condition (i.e. temperature in this case) can be set to be constant for each recipe such that the conditions are acquired before the recipe starts, or alternatively the condition can be specified at each separate step of the recipe such that the conditions are acquired on a step-by-step basis, which meets the instant claim limitations, particularly because Morisawa et al. teaches that these conditions are different based on the process gas used (figure 6) and can indeed correspond to flow information about the process gas (par. 78).
Conclusion
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/S.A.K/
Stephen KittExaminer, Art Unit 1717
9/1/2026
/Dah-Wei D. Yuan/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1717
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