DETAILED ACTION
This Office action is in response to the Amendment filed on 12 December 2025. Claims 1-9 and 11-13 are pending in the application. Claim 12 has been cancelled.
Examiner’s Comment
In the Amendment filed on 12 December 2025, Applicant presented claim 12 with the claim identifier “New”. However, dependent claim 12 was already pending in the application, see the Preliminary Amendment filed on 14 July 2023. Hence, the listing of claims in the Amendment filed on 12 December 2025 does not include the text of pending claim 12.
The newly-presented claim 12 should properly be numbered as claim 13, since the numbering of claims is not in accordance with 37 CFR 1.126 which requires the original numbering of the claims to be preserved throughout the prosecution of a patent application. When claims are canceled, the remaining claims must not be renumbered. When new claims are presented, they must be numbered consecutively beginning with the number next following the highest numbered claims previously presented (whether entered or not). Accordingly, newly-presented claim 12 is misnumbered and has been properly renumbered as claim 13.
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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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 12 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 12 depends from claim 9 and requires “the interval of the laser light is set such that a laser processing time of the combined substrate becomes a required laser processing time”. However, amended independent claim 9 no longer recites “an interval”. Therefore, there is insufficient antecedent basis for "the interval of the laser light” in line 3 of dependent claim 12. It is suggested that in response to this Office action, claim 12 be cancelled.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-9, 11, and 13 are allowable.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
With respect to independent claim 1, none of the references of record teach or suggest a substrate processing apparatus comprising a controller and a storage storing a computer program, wherein the storage and the computer program are configured, with the controller, to control the laser radiating unit and the moving mechanism: and a thickness information obtaining unit configured to obtain thickness information related to a thickness of the laser absorbing layer, wherein the controller sets an interval a pitch of the laser light radiation, which corresponds to a distance between adjacent laser radiation spots radiated to within the laser absorbing layer, based on the thickness information of the laser absorbing layer.
With respect to independent claim 5, none of the references of record teach or suggest a substrate processing method comprising obtaining thickness information comprising a thickness of the laser absorbing layer; setting a pulse pitch and an index pitch of the laser light radiation within the laser absorbing layer based on the thickness of the laser absorbing layer, the pulse pitch corresponding to a distance in a circumferential direction between adjacent laser radiation spots, and the index pitch corresponding to a distance in a radial direction between adjacent laser radiation spots; and radiating the laser light to the laser absorbing layer at the pulse pitch and the index pitch of the laser light radiation.
With respect to claim 9, none of the references of record teach or suggest a substrate manufacturing method comprising setting a thickness of the laser absorbing layer based on a pulse pitch and an index pitch of the laser light radiation radiated to within the laser absorbing layer, the pulse pitch corresponding to a distance in a circumferential direction between adjacent laser radiation spots, and the index pitch corresponding to a distance in a radial direction between adjacent laser radiation spots, wherein the thickness of the laser absorbing layer is set based on a correlation between the thickness of the laser absorbing layer and the pulse pitch and the index pitch of the laser light radiation, which enables the separation of the first substrate and the second substrate.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 MARY A WILCZEWSKI whose telephone number is (571)272-1849. The examiner can normally be reached M-TH 7:30 AM-5:00 PM.
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MARY A. WILCZEWSKI
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2898
/MARY A WILCZEWSKI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2898