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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I (claims 1-6) in the reply filed on 02/18/2026 is acknowledged.
Claim 7 is withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 2/18/26.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 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 of this title, 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.
Claims 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over Otsuka et al (EP 3742474 A1) in view of Sanada et al (JP 2014168089 A).
Regarding claim 1: Otsuka teaches in Fig. 1-5, 9A-9C about a bonding apparatus, comprising:
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a first holder 140 configured to attract and hold a first substrate W1 on a bottom surface thereof;
a second holder 141 disposed under the first holder and configured to attract and hold, on a top surface thereof, a second substrate W2 to be bonded to the first substrate;
a horizontally moving unit (160-164) configured to move the first substrate and the second substrate relative to each other in a horizontal direction (as shown by arrow in horizontal direction);
an elevating unit 166 configured to move the second substrate up and down between a proximate position close to the first substrate and a spaced position farther from the first substrate than the proximate position (Fig. 9B, page 8 teaches although the position adjuster 166 of the present disclosure carries out the position adjustment between the upper wafer W1 and the lower wafer W2 in the vertical direction by moving the lower chuck 141 in the Z-axis direction, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. The way how the position adjuster 166 performs this position adjustment in the vertical direction is not particularly limited as long as the upper chuck 140 and the lower chuck 141 can be moved relatively to each other in the Z-axis direction. By way of example, the position adjuster 166 may perform the position adjustment between the upper wafer W1 and the lower wafer W2 in the vertical direction by moving the upper chuck 140 in the Z-axis direction);
an inclination measuring unit configured to measure an inclination of the second holder; and
a controller 70 (Fig. 1, 11, page 6) configured to control the first holder, the second holder, the horizontally moving unit, the elevating unit and the inclination measuring unit, wherein the controller calculates a position of the second substrate in the horizontal direction based on a measurement result (Fig. 11 teaches the controller calculates based on all available data) of the inclination measuring unit.
Otsuka does not explicitly show an inclination measuring unit configured to measure an inclination of the second holder and therefore wherein the controller calculates a position of the second substrate in the horizontal direction based on a measurement result of the inclination measuring unit.
Sanada teaches in Fig. 9-10 about an inclination measuring unit 302 configured to measure an inclination of the second holder 303 and therefore wherein the controller calculates a position of the second substrate in the horizontal direction based on a measurement result of the inclination measuring unit (for clarification, page 8 teaches in order to make the first joint surface and the second joint surface parallel to each other, a correction angle that is a relative inclination between the first joint surface and the second joint surface is calculated, and the first stage 303 is tilted based on the correction angle and page 10 teaches the control calculation unit that controls the substrate overlaying apparatus 30 acquires this calculation result from the pre-aligner 50. Further, by controlling the transfer robot 40, the first wafer holder 101 holding the first wafer 10 is moved to the first stage 303, and the second wafer holder 201 holding the second wafer 20 is moved to the second stage 304, respectively. Adjust and fix. If comprised in this way, even if it does not measure within the board | substrate superposition | stacking apparatus 30, the 1st stage 303 can be inclined and a 1st joint surface and a 2nd joint surface can be mutually parallel).
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Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the application was filed to use an inclination measuring unit to measure the inclination angle and the controller calculates a position of the second substrate in the horizontal direction based on a measurement result of the inclination measuring unit according to the teachings of Sanada in Otsuka’s substrate bonding apparatus and therefore with such a configuration, parallel processing of the entire system can be promoted, so that improvement in throughput can be expected (Sanada, page 10).
Regarding claim 2: Sanada teaches in Fig. 9 further comprising: a first imaging unit 301 provided at the first holder 304 and configured to image a second alignment mark 22 formed at the second substrate 10 (Fig. 1-2), wherein the controller calculates, based on the measurement result of the inclination measuring unit, a deviation amount between a recognized position of the second alignment mark imaged by the first imaging unit and an actual position thereof (page 10, Fig. 6-8).
Regarding claim 3: As explained in claim 1, Otsuka in view of Sanada teaches wherein the controller calculates a position of the first substrate in the horizontal direction based on the measurement result of the inclination measuring unit.
Regarding claim 4: Sanada teaches in Fig. 9 further comprising: a second imaging unit 302 provided at the second holder 303 and configured to image a first alignment mark 12 (Fig. 1-2)formed at the first substrate, wherein the controller calculates, based on the measurement result of the inclination measuring unit, a deviation amount between a recognized position of the first alignment mark imaged by the second imaging unit and an actual position thereof (page 10, Fig. 6-8)..
Regarding claim 5: Sanada teaches in Fig. 9 and page 8 teaches wherein the inclination measuring unit measures the inclination of the second holder by measuring a height position of the second holder at three or more points (Fig. 7).
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over Otsuka et al (EP 3742474 A1) in view of Sanada et al (JP 2014168089 A) and further in view of Tanaka et al. (CN 103000553 A)
Regarding claim 6: Sanada teaches in Fig. 9 wherein the second holder comprises:
a base member 303 whose inclination is measured by the inclination measuring unit;
a ceiling plate disposed under the base member; and multiple supports provided between the base member and the ceiling plate.
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Otsuka in view of Sanada does not explicitly show multiple supports provided between the base member and the ceiling plate.
Tanaka teaches in Fig. 11 multiple supports 53 provided between the base member 56 and the ceiling plate (As marked).
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Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the application was filed to have the feature as claimed to support the base member using multiple supports for better stability and control.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOHAMMED SHAMSUZZAMAN whose telephone number is (571)270-1839. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7 am -4 pm EST.
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/Mohammed Shamsuzzaman/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2897
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