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 response of the applicant has been read and given careful consideration. Rejection of the previous action not repeated below are withdrawn based upon the amendment and arguments of the applicant. Responses to the arguments of the applicant are presented after the first rejection they are directed to.
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
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.
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Claims 1-6 and 8-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al. KR 10237706, in view of Kaneko JP 2006195202
Lee et al. KR 102377406 (machine translation attached) in preparation example 1, describes coating a quartz substrate with a CrON layer formed by sputtering form a Cr target in an atmosphere of 21%Ar/11%N2/32% CO2/36% He at a power of 1.84 kW for 250 seconds. A CrN layer was then coated form the Cr target by sputtering in a 57% Ar/43% No at a power of 1.5 kW for 25 seconds. This was then heated at 250 degrees C for 15 minutes, stabilized in an atmosphere at 40 degrees C for 2 minutes and cooled using a cooling plate for 5-20 minutes [0227-0282]. Examples 2-6 are similar [0283-0287] and table 1 at [0320]. The sputtering conditions are the same as the first example of the instant specification, but the heating and cooling differ slightly (see [0184-0190]).
Kaneko JP 2006195202 in example 1 coats quartz substrate with a 70.0 nm CrON light shielding layer and a 30.0 CrON antireflection layer where the substrate temperature began at 23 degrees C and ended at 42 degrees C (see table 1).
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Example 3 formed a MoSiON phase shift layer on the quartz glass substrate, this was heated to 80 degrees C and exposed to a flashlamp , the substrate was then cooled to 23 degrees C, a 70 nm CrON light shielding layer and 30 nm antireflection layer were then coated. The temperature at the end of the deposition was 43 degrees C. [0044-0048]. The temperature of the object to be sputtered during sputtering of the chromium-based material film is room temperature or higher, and is preferably 10 ° C. or higher, particularly 20 ° C. or higher, depending on the manufacturing environment [0019]. The temperature of the sputtered product is controlled to 100 ° C. or lower, preferably 80 ° C. or lower [0016]. The composition of this chromium-based material film is selected according to its function and the wavelength of exposure light. Specifically, chromium (Cr), chromium oxide (CrO), chromium nitride (CrN), chromium Examples thereof include chromium compounds such as carbide (CrC), chromium oxynitride (CrON), chromium oxycarbide (CrOC), chromium oxynitride carbide (CrONC), etc., particularly chromium oxynitride (CrON), chromium oxynitride carbide (CrONC) is preferred. In addition, as for the suitable content rate of each element in chromium oxynitride (CrON), Cr is 20-95 atomic%, especially 30-85 atomic%, O is 0-60 atomic%, especially 5-50 atomic%, N 0 to 30 atomic%, suitable content of each element in chromium oxynitride carbide (CrONC), Cr is 20 to 95 atomic%, especially 30 to 85 atomic%, O is 0 to 60 atomic%, especially 5 50 atomic%, N is 0 to 30 atomic%, and C is 0 to 30 atomic% [0022]. Furthermore, depending on the formed semi-permeable film, the film stress may be too high in the state where the film is formed by sputtering. In this case, the film stress is reduced before the chromium-based material film is formed ( It is preferable to relax. Specific examples of the method for reducing the film stress include a hot plate, a heater, a halogen lamp, an infrared lamp, a furnace, a rapid thermal processor (RTP), and the like, but a process using a flash lamp is more preferable (Patent Document 4). The film stress of the semi-transmissive film can be reduced by irradiating the formed semi-transmissive film with flash lamp light after the semi-permeable film is formed. The irradiation energy given to the semi-transmissive film by this flash lamp light needs to be adjusted by the light absorption spectrum of the semi-transmissive film, but the irradiation energy is usually 3 to 40 J / cm .sup.2 and can be irradiated in 1 second or less. It is preferable to select the most preferable irradiation dose that relaxes the film stress within this range [0035]. To provide a manufacturing method of photomask blank capable of stably manufacturing a photomask blank, which can prevent the warping due to a change of film stress before and after manufacturing the photomask blank by depositing a chromium based material film and before and after forming a film pattern by working the chromium based material film because the chromium based material film having extremely low film stress by sputtering when the chromium based material film is deposited on a substrate and permits high-precision exposure. <P>SOLUTION: In the manufacturing method of photomask blank, the photomask blank is made by depositing the chromium based material film on a transparent substrate and the chromium based material film is deposited by sputtering by controlling the temperature of an object to be sputtered upon the sputtering to 100°C or less (abstract) In such a photomask blank in which a semi-transmissive film and a chromium-based material film are provided in order, the chromium-based material film to be formed has a light-shielding pattern in the photomask and an exposure region where the semi-transmissive film pattern is formed. In this case, the chromium-based material film is required to have both a light shielding function for exposure light and an antireflection function. Therefore, the material and film thickness of the chromium-based material film are designed so that the optical density k with respect to the exposure light is preferably 2.5 or more. There are many known examples of the structure of such a chromium-based material film (for example, Patent Document 2: JP-A-11-249283), and the present invention can be applied to any structure [0034].
Lee et al. KR 102377406 does not describe the resistance to scumming or the deposition temperature of the substrate.
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art top modify the process of Lee et al. KR 102377406 by controlling the temperature of the substrate during deposition of the light shielding layers to 10-80 degrees C to reduce the stress formed in these layer as taught by Kaneko JP 200619520 at (abstract and [0016,0019]) with a reasonable expectation of forming a useful mask blank and after patterning, a mask useful in a lithographic process.
The compositions of the layers (which are formed under the same sputtering gasses and sputtering powers as the examples of the instant application) meet the compositional limitations of claims 3,7,8, the thickness limitations of claim 9 and inherently meet the etch characteristics of claims 4-6.
In the response of 2/13/2026, the applicant argues that the scum formation is a measurable property tied to microstructure control, not mere composition. The examples points out that the sputtering condition and the heating in the atmosphere in Lee et al. are the same as in the examples of the instant application and that temperature of the substrate during deposition taught in Kaneko JP 200619520, so not only are the composition the same, they should have the same microstructure and there is motivation in Kaneko JP 200619520 to reduce the stress formed in the light shielding layers.
While Lee et al. does not teach the temperature of the substrate, the rejection is based upon the combination of Lee et al. KR 10237706 and Kaneko JP 2006195202 and Kaneko JP 2006195202 is relied upon for this teaching. In response to applicant's arguments against the references individually, one cannot show nonobviousness by attacking references individually where the rejections are based on combinations of references. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981); In re Merck & Co., 800 F.2d 1091, 231 USPQ 375 (Fed. Cir. 1986).
The applicant argues that the range of 10-80 degrees in Kaneko JP 2006195202 is too broad to (inherently) result in the microstructure yielding the low scumming. The applicant has not established this in the supporting data. The comparative examples are at 120 degrees and the applicant has not established the criticality of the 10-40 degrees C argued.
The applicant argues that the final thermal treatment at 250 destroys the low grain boundary. The examiner notes that the final heating at 250 degrees C a for 15 minutes, followed by rapid cooling in Lee et al. KR 102377406 is similar to the heating at 250 degrees C for 10 minutes used in example 1 of the instant specification (see prepub at 0175] and is within the 150-350 range for at least 5 minutes in the presence of air/oxygen discussed in the instant specification as improving light stability (anti-oxidation), which is at least related to scumming while minimizing the degradation of the etch resistance (see prepub at [0158-0160]).
Claims 1-6 and 8-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee et al. KR 10237706, in view of Kaneko JP 2006195202, further in view of Inazuki et al. 20180224737.
Inazuki et al. 20180224737 teaches in example 1, a MoSiON film with 6% transmittance coated to a thickness of 75 nm, which is then coated with a CraoOsoN1o layer with a thickness of 44 nm. The composition of the Cr target was determined. This was inspected for defects [0092- 0095]. Comparative example 1 was formed similarly and the composition of the Cr target used was determined using glow discharge mass spectrometry (GD-MS). The Cr target composition in table | is reproduced below.
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Also, since iron (Fe) is a metal contained in the raw material for metallic chromium, the metallic chromium target contains a certain content of iron. Although iron is not the metal impurity that positively induces migration as mentioned above, it is recommended that the iron content be so low as not to affect the optical and physical properties of a chromium-containing film to be deposited on a transparent substrate. Therefore, the iron content of the metallic chromium target is preferably up to 30 ppm, more preferably up to 20 ppm [0079]. Among metal impurities in the metallic chromium target, the contents of lead (Pb), copper (Cu), tin (Sn) and gold (Au) are preferably up to 1 ppm, more preferably up to 0.1 ppm, even more preferably up to 0.01 ppm. Lead (Pb) and tin (Sn) are metal impurities in the metallic chromium target although they are not transition metals. These four species of metals are susceptible to migration (as mentioned above) and precipitate on the silicon-containing film. For preventing these metal impurities from precipitation, it is more effective to reduce the contents of these metals in the metallic chromium target at or below the predetermined level [0078].
Neither of Lee et al. KR 10237706 or Kaneko JP 2006195202 does not describe the composition of the Cr target.
The examiner holds that Cr films formed in the processes rendered obvious by the combination of Lee et al. KR 10237706 and Kaneko JP 2006195202 as the chromium target includes as trace elements at least some of Sc, Ti, V, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Y, Zr, Nb, Mo, Tc, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag, Cd, La, Hf, Ta, W, Re, Os, Ir, Pt, Au, Hg, Ac and cites Inazuki et al. 20180224737 to support this position
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 Martin J Angebranndt whose telephone number is (571)272-1378. The examiner can normally be reached 7-3:30 pm EST.
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MARTIN J. ANGEBRANNDT
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1737
/MARTIN J ANGEBRANNDT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1737 March 6, 2026
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