DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 09/08/2026 has been entered.
Claim(s) 1-2, 7-8, 11 and 16-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a1).
Claim(s) 3-6, 9-10, 12-15 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 09/08/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding the applicant’s arguments that the prior art fails to disclose at least one attenuation function defined in the Fourier or spatial frequency domain, the Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Attention is brought to Section 2, of the reference to Latychevskaia, which explicitly discloses equations 1-6, wherein equation 3 is “a vibration function” which explicitly represents the mechanical vibrations of elements, resulting in reduced, i.e. attenuated, contrast of the interference pattern, and leads to a “blurred reconstruction of the object”. A vibration-free hologram may be obtained by a deconvolution algorithm (equation 5, equation 6), wherein the deconvolution algorithm includes a function defined by the Fourier transform of the vibration function (FT{V(x,y)}). Therefore, Latychevskaia is understood to explicitly disclose determining an attenuation function defined in the Fourier or spatial frequency domain (Equations 5-6; (FT{V(x,y)})), and utilizing that Fourier function to provide a corrected, vibration-free hologram.
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) 1-2, 7-8, 11 and 16-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a1) as being anticipated by “Resolution enhancement in in-line holography by numerical compensation of vibrations” by Latychevskaia et al. (provided by applicant).
Regarding claims 1-2, 7-8, 11 and 16-17 Latychevskaia discloses and shows a method comprising:
determining at least one attenuation function due to motion blur from a holographic image, the at least one attenuation function defined in the Fourier or spatial frequency domain (abstract; Sections 2, 3.2, 3.4; wherein equation 3 represents a vibration function of mechanical vibrations of elements, and equations 5 and 6 represent a deconvolution function which includes the Fourier transform of the vibration function); and
correcting the holographic image, or a portion thereof, using the at least one attenuation function (Equations 5-6; Figures 1-7);
[claim 2] wherein the determining at least one attenuation function comprises: transforming the holographic image to a spatial frequency domain to obtain a transformed holographic image (Section 2; wherein equations 4-6 include Fourier transforms of the vibration and shift functions); and determining the at least one attenuation function for at least one portion of the transformed holographic image (Section 2; wherein equation 5 represents a vibration function and equation 6 represents a deconvolution function);
[claim 7] wherein the determining at least one attenuation function comprises:
determining a time-dependent displacement field of a metrology stage used in obtaining the holographic image, the time-dependent displacement field characterizing a stage disturbance of the metrology stage (abstract; Sections 2, 3.2, 3.4; wherein equations 1-7 include vibration function and terms associated with the lateral shift of the sample); and
determining the at least one attenuation function from the time-dependent displacement field (abstract; Sections 2, 3.2, 3.4; wherein equations 1-7 include vibration function and terms associated with the lateral shift of the sample),
wherein the stage disturbance of the metrology stage comprises one or more selected from: a vibration of the metrology stage, a drift of the metrology stage, a vibration of a detector used in capturing the holographic image, a vibration of a movable lens used in obtaining the holographic image, or a step disturbance from a fabrication plant used for manufacture of a substrate measured to obtain the holographic image (abstract; Sections 2, 3.2, 3.4; wherein equations 1-7 include vibration function and terms associated with the lateral shift of the sample);
[claim 8] wherein the time-dependent displacement field is modeled as an analytic function of time parametrized by one or more stage disturbance parameters (abstract; Sections 2, 3.2, 3.4; wherein equations 1-7 include vibration function and terms associated with the lateral shift of the sample);
[claim 11] a processing device, comprising an and associated program storage, the program storage comprising instructions for execution by a processor to cause the processor to perform at least the method (Abstract; Section 5);
[claim 16] wherein the determining at least one attenuation function comprises: determining at least one field drift vector related to stage drift of a metrology stage used in obtaining the holographic image (abstract; Sections 2, 3.2, 3.4; wherein equations 1-7 include vibration function and terms associated with the lateral shift of the sample); and determining the at least attenuation function from the at least one field drift vector (abstract; Sections 2, 3.2, 3.4; wherein equations 1-7 include vibration function and terms associated with the lateral shift of the sample);
[claim 17] wherein the determining at least one field drift vector comprises determining an object field drift vector (abstract; Sections 2, 3.2, 3.4; wherein equations 1-7 include vibration function and terms associated with the lateral shift of the sample).
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.
Claim(s) 3-6, 9-10, 12-15 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Latychevskaia, in view of “Diffraction-based overlay metrology using angular-multiplexed acquisition of dark-field digital holograms” by Messinis et al. (provided by applicant).
Regarding claims 3-6, 9-10 and 12-15, Latychevskaia differs from the method in that it is silent to:
[claim 3] wherein the step of determining at least one attenuation function comprises determining a sideband attenuation function for a sideband of the transformed holographic image;
[claim 4] wherein the correcting step comprises deconvolving the sideband attenuation function from a sideband of the transformed holographic image to obtain a corrected sideband;
[claim 5] the step of determining at least one attenuation function comprises determining a center band attenuation function for a center band of the transformed holographic image; and the correcting step comprises deconvolving the center band attenuation function from the center band of the transformed holographic image to obtain a corrected center band;
[claim 6] further comprising transforming the corrected sideband and/or corrected center band to real space and converting it to a corrected image;
[claim 9] wherein the determining a time-dependent displacement field comprises fitting the one or more said stage disturbance parameters over a region corresponding to a central band in the spatial frequency domain, so as to satisfy a relationship between the sideband and a central band of the transformed holographic image in the presence of stage disturbance;
[claim 10] comprising performing off-axis holography to obtain the holographic image;
[claim 12] a dark field digital holographic microscope configured to determine a characteristic of interest of a structure, the microscope comprising:
an illumination branch configured to provide illumination radiation to illuminate the structure;
a detection arrangement configured to capture object radiation resulting from diffraction of the illumination radiation by the structure;
a reference branch configured to provide reference radiation for interfering with the object beam to obtain a holographic image;
[claim 13] the dark field digital holographic microscope configured as an off-axis dark field digital holographic microscope;
[claim 14] a metrology apparatus for determining a characteristic of interest of a structure on a substrate, the metrology apparatus comprising the dark field digital holographic microscope;
[claim 15] an inspection apparatus for inspecting a structure on a substrate, the inspection apparatus comprising the dark field digital holographic microscope.
However, Messinis teaches and shows in Figure 5, an off-axis dark-field digital holographic microscopy system comprising a light source, a detector and a reference optical path to provide an interferometer configuration, which may be utilized as a metrology tool (Figure 5) (Section 2.2). Further, the off-axis configuration obtains and analyzes the side-bands and the center-band of the object wave distributions, with Fourier transforms and inverse Fourier transforms (Section 2) (Equations 5-8).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention, to modify Latychevskaia to include the off-axis dark-field holographic microscope configuration discussed above for the advantage of acquiring multiple parallel holograms and improving the processing of semiconductor devices, with a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claims 18-20, Latychevskaia differs from the limitations in that it is silent to the method further comprising:
[claim 18] wherein the determining at least one field drift vector comprises determining a reference field drift vector;
[claim 19] wherein the determining at least one field drift vector comprises, for each field drift vector, fitting one or more stage drift parameters describing the field drift vector over a region corresponding to a central band in the spatial frequency domain, so as to satisfy a relationship between a sideband and a central band of the transformed holographic image in the presence of stage drift and reference drift;
[claim 20] wherein the relationship approximates the stage drift and reference drift as comprising a constant speed for each reference field drift vector and object field drift vector during an acquisition time during which the holographic image was acquired.
However, Messinis teaches and shows in Figure 5, an off-axis dark-field digital holographic microscopy system comprising a light source, a detector and a reference optical path to provide an interferometer configuration, wherein the reference path has a variable delay to set an imaging depth (Figure 5) (Section 2.2). Further, the off-axis configuration obtains and analyzes the side-bands and the center-band of the object wave distributions with Fourier transforms and inverse Fourier transforms (Section 2) (Equations 5-8).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the effective filing date of the invention, to modify Latychevskaia to include the off-axis dark-field holographic microscope configuration discussed above for the advantage of acquiring multiple parallel holograms and improving the processing of semiconductor devices, with a reasonable expectation of success.
Conclusion
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JONATHAN M. HANSEN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2877
/JONATHAN M HANSEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2877
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