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 .
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(s) 1, 3, 6 and 8-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Amara (US 2017/0313889; IDS, 08/23/2023).
Amara discloses compositions (including antireflective coating compositions or “ARCs”) that can reduce reflection of exposing radiation from a substrate back into an overcoated photoresist layer and/or function as a planarizing, conformal or via-fill layer. (Para, 0002). Amara discloses coating compositions of the invention also may optionally comprise an acid or acid generator compound (e.g. photoacid generator and/or thermal acid generator) to facilitate reaction of composition component(s) during lithographic thermal processing of an applied composition coating layer. (Para, 0020). This disclosure teaches the limitation of claim 6.
Amara discloses a coating composition may be provided by an admixture of a reaction component and/or a component that comprises a hydroxyl-naphthoic group (which may include a single material e.g. a resin that comprises together with one or more optional components as discussed above in a solvent component. (Para, 0022). Amara discloses the solvent component suitably may be one or more organic solvents such as one or more alcohol solvents e.g. ethyl lactate, propylene glycol methyl ether (1-methoxy-2-propanol), methyl-2-hydroxyisobutyrate, and the like, and/or one more non-hydroxy solvents such as ethyl ethoxy propionate, propylene glycol methyl ether acetate (1-methoxy-2-propanol acetate), and the like. (Para, 0022). These disclosures teach the limitation of claim 1, ‘A resist underlayer film-forming composition comprising a polymer and a solvent…’
Amara discloses, the underlying coating compositions comprise reaction product component that is a reaction product of a diene and a dienophile. (Para, 0038). Amara discloses the underlying coating compositions comprise a reaction product component that is a Diels Alder reaction product and suitably, reaction product components are resins, including both homopolymers as well as higher order polymers such as copolymers, terpolymers, tetrapolymers and pentrapolymers. (Para, 0038). Amara explains organic coating compositions are provided, particularly antireflective coating compositions, that comprise a component comprising a hydroxyl-naphthoic group, such as a 6-hydroxy-2-naphthoic group. (Para, 0039). Amara discloses that preferred hydroxyl-naphthoic groups include the following structures. (Para, 0040).
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Amara discloses preferred resins that comprise hydroxyl-naphthoic groups for use in an underlying coating composition include resins that comprise the following structure such as a pentapolymer. (Para, 0040)
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These disclosures and illustrations teach the limitation of claim 1, ‘ A resist underlayer film-forming composition…the polymer comprising a unit structure (A) represented by formula (1) below
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and a unit structure (B) containing an aliphatic ring in a side chain and differing from the unit structure (A), wherein, in formula (1), R' denotes a hydrogen atom or a C1-C6 alkyl group; and Lt denotes an optionally substituted aliphatic ring, a C6-C40 aryl group, or a heterocyclic ring.’
Amara also discloses the underlying coating includes one or more photoacid-labile group which can undergo a cleavage or deprotection reaction to provide functional group(s) which promote aqueous alkaline-developer solubility, such as carboxy, fluorinated alcohol, phenols, imides, sulfonamides, and other such moieties. (Para, 0052). Amara discloses upon image-wise exposure and post-exposure bake of an overcoated photoresist layer, the photoacid-labile groups of the reaction component(s) and/or component(s) that comprises a hydroxyl-naphthoic group of the underlying coating composition can react and liberate functional group(s) which promote aqueous alkaline-developer solubility. (Para, 0052). These disclosures teach the limitation of claim 3.
Amara discloses preferred methods of the invention may include: applying a coating layer of a composition that comprises one or more reaction components and/or components that comprises a hydroxyl-naphthoic group as discussed above over a variety of substrates including a microelectronic wafer. (Para, 0026). Amara discloses the applied composition coating layer is thermally treated to remove casting solvent of the coating composition and render that composition layer substantially insoluble in photoresist casting solvents such as ethyl lactate, propylene glycol methyl ether acetate, 2-heptanone, and the like. (Para, 0027). These disclosures teach the limitations of claim 8 as well as the limitation of claim 9, ‘A method for producing a patterned substrate, comprising the steps of: applying the resist underlayer film forming composition according to claim 1 onto a semiconductor substrate and baking the applied composition to form a resist underlayer…’ and the limitation of claim 10, ‘ A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device, comprising the steps of: forming on a semiconductor substrate a resist underlayer film of the resist underlayer film-forming composition according to claim 1…’
Amara discloses a photoresist composition coating layer over the thermally baked underlying composition coating layer which is then exposed to activating radiation such as radiation having a wavelength of below 300 nm such as 248 nm, or below 200 run such as 193 nm, typically through a photomask to form a patterned image in the resist layer. (Para, 0028). Amara discloses the exposed photoresist may be thermally treated as needed to enhance or form the latent image. (Para, 0028). These disclosures teach the limitations of claim 9, ‘A method for producing a patterned substrate comprising the steps of: …applying a resist film onto the resist underlayer film and baking the applied resist to form a resist film; exposing the semiconductor substrate coated with resist underlayer film and the resist…’ These disclosures also teach the limitations of claim 10, ‘ Amara discloses the exposed photoresist layer is then treated with a developer solution, such as an aqueous, alkaline developer solution, which can remove the image defined in the resist layer as well as matching region of the underlying coating composition layer, i.e. where a relief image is defined through both the photoresist layer and the underlying coating composition layer. (Para, 0029). These disclosures teach the limitation of claim 9, ‘ A method for producing a patterned substrate the method comprising: … developing the exposed resist film and performing patterning.’ These disclosures also teach the limitations of claim10, ‘A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device, comprising the steps of: … forming a resist film on the resist underlayer film; forming a resist pattern by applying a light or electron beam to the resist film followed by development; forming a pattern in the resist underlayer film by etching the resist underlayer film through the resist pattern formed…’ As discussed by Amara the purpose of pattering the resist is to use the developed resist pattern as a relied image that is used to selectively process a substrate. (Para, 0003). This disclosure and the disclosures of Amara as discussed above teach the limitation of claim 10, ‘ A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device comprising the steps of: ….and processing the semiconductor substrate through the pattern in the resist underlayer film.’
Therefore, the recitations of claims 1, 3, 6 and 8-10 are anticipated by the disclosures and illustrations of Amara as discussed above.
Claim(s) 1-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Nagai (US 2018/0284615).
Nagai is directed to a resist underlayer film forming composition, patterning process and method of forming resist underlayer film. Nagai discloses the composition comprises a polymer comprising repeating units, polyphenol compound and an organic solvent. (Para, 0020). This disclosure teaches the limitation of claim 1, ‘ A resist underlayer film-forming composition comprising a polymer and a solvent…’ Nagai discloses an example of the polymer and the various repeating units which may comprise the polymer as Polymer (A1-3). (Para, 0220).
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These disclosures and illustrations of Nagai teach the limitations of claim 1, ‘ A resist underlayer film-forming composition…the polymer comprising a unit structure (A) represented by formula (1) below
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and a unit structure (B) containing an aliphatic ring in a side chain and differing from the unit structure (A), wherein, in formula (1), R' denotes a hydrogen atom or a C1-C6 alkyl group; and Lt denotes an optionally substituted aliphatic ring, a C6-C40 aryl group, or a heterocyclic ring.’ Moreover, these disclosures and the polymer illustrated as A1-3 teach the limitation of claims 2-5. In table 2, Nagai also outlines various compositions for the resist underlayer film, where the various examples may also include, a polymer such as A1-3, a polyphenol compound, an acid generator and in some examples such as UL-7, the composition includes a cross-linking agent, plasticizer, pigment as well as solvent. (Para, 0229; Table 2). These disclosures teach the limitation of claims 6-7.
Nagai also discloses a patterning process, wherein the patterning process is to form a pattern on a substrate to be processed and comprises: (I-1) forming a resist underlayer film on the substrate to be processed by using the resist underlayer film composition; forming a resist upper layer film on the resist underlayer film by using a photoresist composition; forming a pattern on the resist upper layer film by developing the resist upper layer film by using a developer after the resist upper layer film is pattern-exposed, and transcribing the pattern to the resist underlayer film by dry etching using as a mask the resist upper layer film formed with the pattern. (Para, 0039-0043). These disclosures teach the limitations of claim 9, ‘A method for producing a patterned substrate, comprising the steps of: applying the resist underlayer film forming composition according to claim 1 onto a semiconductor substrate…applying a resist film onto the resist underlayer film and baking the applied resist to form a resist film; exposing the semiconductor substrate coated with resist underlayer film and the resist…developing the exposed resist film…’
Nagai discloses another embodiment of the patterning process, wherein the patterning process comprises: forming a resist underlayer film on the substrate to be processed by using the resist underlayer film composition, forming a resist intermediate film on the resist underlayer film, forming a resist upper layer film on the resist intermediate film by using a photoresist composition, forming a pattern on the resist upper layer film by developing the resist upper layer film by using a developer after the resist upper layer film is pattern-exposed, transcribing the pattern to the resist intermediate film by dry etching using as a mask the resist upper layer film formed with the pattern, and transcribing the pattern to the resist underlayer film by dry etching using as a mask the resist intermediate film transcribed with the pattern. (Para, 0045-0050). These disclosures teach the limitations of claim 10, ‘ A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device, comprising the steps of: forming on a semiconductor substrate a resist underlayer film of the resist underlayer film-forming composition according to claim 1; forming a resist film on the resist underlayer film; forming a resist pattern by applying a light or electron beam to the resist film followed by development; forming a pattern in the resist underlayer film by etching the resist underlayer film through the resist pattern formed…’
Nagai discloses after step(s) (I-4), (II-6), or (III-7) step, the patterning process of the present invention may be further added with a step in which the substrate to be processed is pattern-processed by an ion implantation using as a mask the resist underlayer film transcribed with the pattern. (Para, 0069). This disclosure teaches the limitation of claim 9, ‘ A method for producing a patterned substrate, comprising the steps of: … and performing patterning.’ Moreover, this disclosure teaches the limitation of claim 10, ‘ A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device, comprising the steps of: … and processing the semiconductor substrate through the pattern in the resist underlayer film.’
Nagai also discloses in some cases it is preferable the resist underlayer film be formed by applying the resist underlayer film composition onto the substrate to be processed followed by heat-treatment thereof in a temperature 100° C. or more and 300° C. or less, both ends inclusive, for a period of in a range of 10 to 600 seconds. (Para, 0070). This disclosure teaches the limitation of claim 8 and the limitation of claim 9, ‘ A method for producing a patterned substrate, comprising the steps of: …baking the applied composition to form a resist underlayer film…’
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Amara as applied to claims 1, 3, 6 and 8-10 in paragraph 4 above, and further in view of Mizutani (EP 0989463).
The disclosures of Amara as discussed above do teach a step of baking the underlying film forming composition once coated on a substrate and baking the substrate to drive out solvent; however, the disclosures of Amara still fail to disclose the limitation of claim 7, ‘ The resist underlayer film-forming composition according to claim 1, further comprising a crosslinking agent.’ However, the disclosures of Amara further in view of Mizutani provide such teachings.
Mizutani also discloses a resist underlayer film or anti-reflective film forming composition which includes a polymer…a thermal crosslinking agent which is activated by can acid to react with the polymer to form a crosslinked structure, a sulfonic acid ester which is decomposed to generate an acid when heat is applied and an organic solvent. (Para, 0014). The disclosures of Amara further in view of these disclosures of Mizutani teach and/or suggest the limitation of claim 7.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing of the present application by Applicant to modify the disclosures of Amara further in view of Mizutani because both Amara and Mizutani are directed to analogous photoresist underlayer or anti-reflective layer compositions which aim to solve the issues with reflection in patterning photoresist layers and Mizutani demonstrates that is common to include a crosslinking agent in the underlayer composition so that intermixing of the underlayer and the photoresist layer to be patterned can be prevented.
Conclusion
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/CALEEN O SULLIVAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2899
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