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 .
In the IDS, US 20020011500 does not list Gupta as an inventor and is lined through. The examiner adds US 20020115000 to the record.
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.
Claims 16 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being fully anticipated by Hosoya JP 2007273656.
Hosoya JP 2007273656 (machine translation attached) in example 1 teaches EUV mask (blank/unpatterned) formed by coating a substrate with a reflective Mo/Si multilayer with an 11 nm Si capping layer, and a 38.0 nm Cr3Te4 absorber layer (example 1-1). Example 1-2 forms a 38.2 nm absorber layer of Cr5Te8, Example 1-3 forms a 38.3 nm absorber layer of CrTe. These were coated with a resist and the absorber was etched using a combination of chlorine and oxygen [0053-0059]. Examples 2-4 are similar and the applicant should evaluate them. Example 5-1 replaces the absorber of example 1-1 with a 62.3 nm Cr4Ag absorber layer, Example 5-2 uses a 55.2 nm CrAg absorber layer [0077-0080]. The use of a buffer layer and a Ru capping layer is disclosed (page 2, structure 7). A buffer layer is Cr and may includes B, N, O, C Si (page 2, structure 5). Such an absorber film made of the chromium-based material of the present invention is preferably formed by a sputtering method such as magnetron sputtering. When formed by the sputtering method, the internal stress can be controlled by changing the power and gas pressure supplied to the sputtering target. Further, since it can be formed at a low temperature of about room temperature, the influence of heat on the multilayer reflective film or the like can be reduced [0031]
Claims 16,17 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tanabe 20190384156.
Tanabe 20190384156 teaches in example 1, a substrate provided with a Mo/Si reflective multilayer, a Ru capping layer and a 40 nm Sn3Ta2 absorber layer [0122-0126]. The use of silicon hard masks, including those of SiN, SiO, SiC, SiON is disclosed [0096]. As the material to form the protective layer 13, a substance that is hardly damaged by etching when etching the absorber layer 14 is selected. As substances that satisfy this condition, for example, Ru as a metal simple substance; Ru alloys containing one or more species of metals selected from among a group consisting of B, Si, Ti, Nb, Mo, Zr, Y, La, Co, and Re; Ru-based materials including a nitride or the like containing nitrogen in an Ru alloy; Cr, Al, Ta, and nitrides of these containing nitrogen; SiO.sub.2, Si3N4, Al2O3, and mixtures of these; and the like, may be exemplified. Among these, Ru as a metal simple substance, Ru alloys, CrN, and SiO.sub.2 are favorable. Ru as a metal simple substance and Ru alloys are particularly favorable because these are hardly etched with an oxygen-free gas, and functions as an etching stopper when processing a reflective mask [0049]. It is favorable for the absorber layer 14 to contain Ta, Cr, and/or Ti in addition to Sn. One species of these elements may be added alone, or two or more species may be added to be contained. The absorber layer 14 further containing one or more species of these elements can have a higher cleaning resistance [0059]. In order to achieve the properties as described above, the absorber layer 14 contains Sn. Since Sn has a high absorption coefficient, the absorber layer 14 containing Sn can have a low reflectance. Also, the absorber layer 14 containing Sn can be easily etched with a Cl-based gas or the like [0058]. Also, the absorber layer 14 is processed by etching, such as dry-etching using a chlorine (Cl) based gas, which may be Cl.sub.2, SiCl.sub.4, CHCl.sub.3 or the like, or a fluorine (F) based gas, which may be CF.sub.4 or CHF.sub.3 or the like. Therefore, the absorber layer 14 needs to be easily etched [0056]. As the etching gas, it is possible to use an F-based gas; a Cl-based gas; a mixture gas containing a Cl-based gas, O.sub.2, and He or Ar by predetermined ratios; or the like [0108]
Tanabe 20190384156 does not exemplify a reflective mask including Cr or V.
With respect to claims 16 and 17, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to modify example 1, by replacing the Sn3Ta2 with Sn3Cr2 based upon the disclosure at [0059] with a reasonable expectation of forming as useful mask (unpatterned/blank)
With respect to claims 16,17 and 20, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to modify example 1, by replacing the Ru protective layer with a Si3N4 based upon the disclosure at [0049] and replacing the Sn3Ta2 absorber with Sn3Cr2 based upon the disclosure at [0059] with a reasonable expectation of forming as useful mask (unpatterned/blank)
Claims 16 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jindal 20210124256.
. Jindal 20210124256 teaches EUV masks with reflective multilayers and absorbers made of alloys of two or more absorber materials selected from the group consisting of platinum (Pt), zinc (Zn), gold (Au), nickel oxide (NiO), silver oxide (Ag.sub.2O), iridium (Ir), iron (Fe), tin dioxide (SnO.sub.2), cobalt (Co), chromium nickel alloys, Ni.sub.8Cr.sub.2, tin oxide (SnO), copper (Cu), silver (Ag), actinium (Ac), tellurium (Te), caesium iodide (CsI), tin (Sn), zinc telluride (ZnTe), antimony (Sb), tantalum (Ta), tantalum nitride (TaN), tantalum nitride oxide (TaNO), chromium (Cr), chromium nitride (CrN), and tantalum borate (TaBO). Alternatively, in an embodiment, the absorber layer is an alloy of two or more absorber materials selected from the group consisting of tantalum (Ta), tantalum nitride (TaN), tantalum nitride oxide (TaNO), tantalum borate (TaBO) and a second layer made from a material selected from the group consisting of platinum (Pt), zinc (Zn), gold (Au), nickel oxide (NiO), silver oxide (Ag.sub.2O), iridium (Ir), iron (Fe), tin dioxide (SnO.sub.2), cobalt (Co), chromium nickel alloys, in particular Ni.sub.8Cr.sub.2, tin oxide (SnO), copper (Cu), silver (Ag), actinium (Ac), tellurium (Te), caesium iodide (CsI), tin (Sn), zinc telluride (ZnTe), chromium (Cr), chromium nitride (CrN), and antimony (Sb). In a specific embodiment, an absorber layer comprises an alloy of at least two absorber materials selected from nickel (Ni) and tantalum nitride (TaN) [0080]. Claim 1 recites alloys including antimony-chromium and antimony-chromium-nitride. The absorbing layer typically has a thickness in a range of 51 nm to 77 nm [0005]
Jindal et al. 20210124256 does not exemplify an EUV mask including an alloy or Cr or V with Ag, Sn, Te. Sb, Co or In
With respect to claims 16 and 17, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to modify the EUV masks exemplified by using a CrSb or CrSbN absorber layer recited in claim 1 with a reasonable expectation of forming a useful EUV mask.
With respect to claims 16 and 17, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to modify the EUV masks exemplified by using an absorber layer formed of an alloy of Cr with Co, Sn, Te, Ag or Sb as taught at [0081] with a reasonable expectation of forming a useful EUV mask.
Claims 16 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jindal 20220163882.
Jindal 20220163882 teaches EUV masks with reflective multilayers and absorbers made of alloys of alloy selected from the group consisting of zinc-telluride-antimony, zinc-telluride-tantalum, zinc-telluride-tantalum-nitride, zinc-telluride-tantalum-nitride-oxide, zinc-telluride-chromium, zinc-telluride-chromium-nitride, zinc-telluride-tantalum-borate, antimony-tantalum, antimony-tantalum-nitride, antimony-tantalum-nitride-oxide, antimony-chromium, antimony-chromium-nitride, antimony-tantalum-borate (TaBO.sub.4), tantalum-chromium (TaCr), tantalum-chromium-nitride (TaCrN), tin-zinc-telluride; tin-antimony, tin-tantalum, tin-tantalum-nitride, tin-tantalum-nitride-oxide, tin-chromium, tin-chromium-nitride, tin-tantalum-borate, tellurium-tin, tellurium-antimony, tellurium-tantalum, tellurium-tantalum-nitride, tellurium-tantalum-nitride-oxide, tellurium-chromium, tellurium-chromium-nitride, and tellurium-tantalum-borate (claim 1). The absorbing layer typically has a thickness in a range of 51 nm to 77 nm [0005]
With respect to claims 16 and 17, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to modify the EUV masks exemplified by using a CrSb, CrSbN, CrTe, CrTeN, CrSn or CrSnN absorber layer recited in claim 1 with a reasonable expectation of forming a useful EUV mask.
Claims 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hosoya JP 2007273656, in view of Maehara 5375157 and Yan 20030064296.
Maehara 5375157 teaches with respect to figure 5, the relationship between the pattern dimensions on the mask (microns) and the pattern dimensions transferred to the wafer/resist (microns) (col 3/line 20-24)
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Yan 20030064296 teaches with respect to figure 11, the relationship between the pattern dimensions on the mask (nm) and the pattern dimensions transferred to the wafer/resist (nm).
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Hosoya JP 2007273656 does not exemplify the patterned mask blank
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to pattern the mask blanks of example 1-1 to 1-3 which have a thickness of ~38 nm or the mask blanks of examples 5-1 to 5-2 having thicknesses of ~55-60 nm by forming known useful patterns such as the having widths/dimensions in the 10nm to mm range taught by Maehara 5375157 and Yan 20030064296 to a reasonable expectation of forming useful EUV masks.
As example calculations, the trench depths would be the entire thickness of the absorber film. For the ~60 nm thicknesses, a width of 10 nm would have an aspect ratio of 6, a width of 60 microns would yield 0.001, and a width of 600 microns (0.6 mm) would have an aspect ratio of 0.0001.
Claims 16-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tanabe 20190384156, in view of Maehara 5375157 and Yan 20030064296.
Tanabe 20190384156 does not describe the dimension of the patterns on patterned mask blanks
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to pattern the mask blanks of 40 nm Sn3Cr2 absorber rendered obvious by Tanabe 20190384156 by forming known useful patterns such as the having widths/dimensions in the 10nm to mm range taught by Maehara 5375157 and Yan 20030064296 to a reasonable expectation of forming useful EUV masks.
As example calculations, the trench depths would be the entire thickness of the absorber film. For the ~40 nm thicknesses, a width of 10 nm would have an aspect ratio of 4, a width of 40 microns would yield 0.001, and a width of 400 microns (0.4 mm) would have an aspect ratio of 0.0001.
Claims 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jindal 20210124256, in view of Maehara 5375157 and Yan 20030064296
Jindal 20210124256 does not describe the dimension of the patterns on patterned mask blanks.
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to pattern the mask blanks rendered obvious by Jindal 20210124256 having thicknesses of 55-77 nm [0005] by forming known useful patterns such as the having widths/dimensions in the 10nm to mm range taught by Maehara 5375157 and Yan 20030064296 to a reasonable expectation of forming useful EUV masks.
As example calculations, the trench depths would be the entire thickness of the absorber film. For the ~60 nm thicknesses, a width of 10 nm would have an aspect ratio of 6, a width of 60 microns would yield 0.001, and a width of 600 microns (0.6 mm) would have an aspect ratio of 0.0001.
Claims 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jindal 20220163882, in view of Maehara 5375157 and Yan 20030064296
Jindal 20220163882 does not describe the dimension of the patterns on patterned mask blanks.
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to pattern the mask blanks rendered obvious by Jindal 20220163882 having thicknesses of 55-77 nm [0005] by forming known useful patterns such as the having widths/dimensions in the 10nm to mm range taught by Maehara 5375157 and Yan 20030064296 to a reasonable expectation of forming useful EUV masks.
As example calculations, the trench depths would be the entire thickness of the absorber film. For the ~60 nm thicknesses, a width of 10 nm would have an aspect ratio of 6, a width of 60 microns would yield 0.001, and a width of 600 microns (0.6 mm) would have an aspect ratio of 0.0001.
Claims 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hosoya JP 2007273656, in view of Maehara 5375157 and Yan 20030064296, further in view of Watanabe et al. JP H07114173.
Watanabe et al. JP H07114173 (machine translation attached) teaches with respect to figure 1, a reflective mask including a substrate (1), a reflective multilayer (2) and a patterned absorber (3) [0017-0018]. Useful absorbers include V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ag, Cd, In, Sn, Sb, lanthanoid element, Hf, Ta, W, Re, Os, Ir, Pt, Au, Tl, Pb, Bi and compounds or alloys containing them. The use of Mo:Ni alloys is exemplified [0027-0028]. Figure 7 shows the effect of thicknesses of Cr as the absorber on Mo/Si reflective multilayer. Figures 5 and 12 shows the extinction coefficient (k) on the y axis and the refractive index on the x axis (at EUV/X ray wavelengths 5 and 13 nm).
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The combination of Hosoya JP 2007273656, Maehara 5375157 and Yan 20030064296, does not exemplify absorber layer composition including V, Sn, In, Co or Sb.
In addition to the basis above, it would have been obvious to modify the mask blanks and patterned masks rendered obvious by the combination of Hosoya JP 2007273656, Maehara 5375157 and Yan 20030064296 by adding V, Sn, In, Co and/or Sb to form alloys as taught at [0027-0028] of Watanabe et al. JP H07114173 with a reasonable expectation of forming useful EUV photomask based upon these being old and well known EUV absorbers as evidenced by Watanabe et al. JP H07114173.
Claims 16-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hosoya JP 2007273656, in view of Maehara 5375157 and Yan 20030064296, further in view of Hsu et al. 20200057363 and/or Burkhardt et al. 20160238924.
Hsu et al. 20200057363 teaches a protective layer (104) is silicon materials including materials such as Si.sub.3N.sub.4, SiC, SiN, etc. In an embodiment, the thickness of the protection layer 104 including a layer of silicon including materials is about 1 nm to about 50 nm [0021].
Burkhardt et al. 20160238924 teaches the capping/protective layer can be C, C.sub.2F.sub.4, SiC, SiB, GeO.sub.2, TiO.sub.2, HfO.sub.2, SiO.sub.2, B, BN, B.sub.4C, Si.sub.3N.sub.4, TiN, Pd, Au, Ru, Rh, Cr or CrN [0030,0033].
The combination of Hosoya JP 2007273656, Maehara 5375157 and Yan 20030064296 does not teach the SiN, SiCN or SiC layers on the reflective multilayer.
It would have been obvious to modify the EUV masks rendered obvious by the combination of Hosoya JP 2007273656, Maehara 5375157 and Yan 20030064296 by adding known capping/protective layers on the reflective multilayer, such as SiC, Si.sub.3N.sub.4 of combination of these based upon these being known for their utility in protecting the reflective multilayer as evidenced in Hsu et al. 20200057363 and/or Burkhardt et al. 20160238924.
Claims 16-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hosoya JP 2007273656, in view of Maehara 5375157,Yan 20030064296 and Watanabe et al. JP H07114173, further in view of Hsu et al. 20200057363 and/or Burkhardt et al. 20160238924.
The combination of Hosoya JP 2007273656, Maehara 5375157 and Yan 20030064296 does not teach the SiN, SiCN or SiC layers on the reflective multilayer.
It would have been obvious to modify the EUV masks rendered obvious by the combination of Hosoya JP 2007273656, Maehara 5375157,Yan 20030064296 and Watanabe et al. JP H07114173 by adding known capping/protective layers on the reflective multilayer, such as SiC, Si.sub.3N.sub.4 of combination of these based upon these being known for their utility in protecting the reflective multilayer as evidenced in Hsu et al. 20200057363 and/or Burkhardt et al. 20160238924.
Claims 1-5,7-12,16 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being fully anticipated by Hosoya JP 2007273656, in view of Marumoto et al. 5677090 and Staaks et al., “Low temperature dry etching of chromium towards control at sub-5 nm dimensions”, Nanotech., Vol. 27 article 415302 (9 pages ) (2016).
Marumoto et al. 5677090 teaches an X ray mask where the chromium layer is etches using a mixture of Cl.sub.2 /O.sub.2 and the circuit pattern 7 of W--Ti is formed by a low temperature (-50 degrees C) etching in which a mixture of SF.sub.6 /CHF.sub.3 is used with the chromium film as the etching mask (col 1/lines 26-50).
Staaks et al., “Low temperature dry etching of chromium towards control at sub-5 nm dimensions”, Nanotech., Vol. 27 article 415302 (9 pages ) (2016) (cited by applicant 7/25/2023) teaches that patterned chromium has been used in DUV photomasks (page 1/left column) and direct or reduction photomasks (text bridging pages 1 and 2). Below -80 degrees the etch rates were very slow and below -100 is affected by (re)deposition (page 7). Good linearlity in the etch was observed for temperatures of -50 to -80 degrees C (section 4/ page 8)
Hosoya JP 2007273656 does not exemplify the etching at temperature of between -80o C and 0o C.
With respect to claims 1-5,7-12,16 and 17, it would have been obvious to modify the process of forming the CrAg or CrTe in the examples of Hosoya JP 2007273656 by using magnetron sputtering or the like to form the absorber layer as taught at [0031] of Hosoya JP 2007273656 and patterning these Cr alloy films using Cl2/O2 as taught in Hosoya JP 2007273656 at [0053-0059], but at a temperature of -50o C as taught for chromium film by Marumoto et al. 5677090 and Staaks et al., “Low temperature dry etching of chromium towards control at sub-5 nm dimensions”, Nanotech., Vol. 27 article 415302 (9 pages ) (2016) with a reasonable expectation of improving the feature size as taught by Staaks et al., “Low temperature dry etching of chromium towards control at sub-5 nm dimensions”, Nanotech., Vol. 27 article 415302 (9 pages ) (2016), noting that both Marumoto et al. 5677090 and Staaks et al., “Low temperature dry etching of chromium towards control at sub-5 nm dimensions”, Nanotech., Vol. 27 article 415302 (9 pages ) (2016) describe the etching of chromium films useful in photomasks with chlorine and oxygen.
Claims 1-5,7-12 and 14-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being fully anticipated by Hosoya JP 2007273656, in view of Maehara 5375157 and Yan 20030064296, further in view of Marumoto et al. 5677090 and Staaks et al., “Low temperature dry etching of chromium towards control at sub-5 nm dimensions”, Nanotech., Vol. 27 article 415302 (9 pages ) (2016).
Hosoya JP 2007273656 does not exemplify the etching at temperature of between -80o C and 0o C.
In addition to the basis above, it would have been obvious to modify the processing of the EUV masks using CrAg or CrTe absorbers rendered obvious by the combination of Hosoya JP 2007273656, Maehara 5375157 and Yan 20030064296 by lowering the temperature during the
Cl2/O2 etch taught in Hosoya JP 2007273656 at [0053-0059] to -50o C as taught for chromium film by Marumoto et al. 5677090 and Staaks et al., “Low temperature dry etching of chromium towards control at sub-5 nm dimensions”, Nanotech., Vol. 27 article 415302 (9 pages ) (2016) with a reasonable expectation of improving the feature size as taught by Staaks et al., “Low temperature dry etching of chromium towards control at sub-5 nm dimensions”, Nanotech., Vol. 27 article 415302 (9 pages ) (2016), noting that both Marumoto et al. 5677090 and Staaks et al., “Low temperature dry etching of chromium towards control at sub-5 nm dimensions”, Nanotech., Vol. 27 article 415302 (9 pages ) (2016) describe the etching of chromium films useful in photomasks with chlorine and oxygen.
Claims 1-12 and 14-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being fully anticipated by Hosoya JP 2007273656, in view of Maehara 5375157,Yan 20030064296 and Watanabe et al. JP H07114173, further in view of Marumoto et al. 5677090 and Staaks et al., “Low temperature dry etching of chromium towards control at sub-5 nm dimensions”, Nanotech., Vol. 27 article 415302 (9 pages ) (2016).
In addition to the basis above, it would have been obvious to modify the processing of the EUV masks using CrAg or CrTe absorbers rendered obvious by the combination of Hosoya JP 2007273656, Maehara 5375157,Yan 20030064296 and Watanabe et al. JP H07114173, by lowering the temperature during the Cl2/O2 etch taught in Hosoya JP 2007273656 at [0053-0059] to -50o C as taught for chromium film by Marumoto et al. 5677090 and Staaks et al., “Low temperature dry etching of chromium towards control at sub-5 nm dimensions”, Nanotech., Vol. 27 article 415302 (9 pages ) (2016) with a reasonable expectation of improving the feature size as taught by Staaks et al., “Low temperature dry etching of chromium towards control at sub-5 nm dimensions”, Nanotech., Vol. 27 article 415302 (9 pages ) (2016), noting that both Marumoto et al. 5677090 and Staaks et al., “Low temperature dry etching of chromium towards control at sub-5 nm dimensions”, Nanotech., Vol. 27 article 415302 (9 pages ) (2016) describe the etching of chromium films useful in photomasks with chlorine and oxygen.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being fully anticipated by Hosoya JP 2007273656, in view of Maehara 5375157,Yan 20030064296, Watanabe et al. JP H07114173, Hsu et al. 20200057363 and/or Burkhardt et al. 20160238924, further in view of Marumoto et al. 5677090 and Staaks et al., “Low temperature dry etching of chromium towards control at sub-5 nm dimensions”, Nanotech., Vol. 27 article 415302 (9 pages ) (2016).
In addition to the basis above, it would have been obvious to modify the processing of the EUV masks using CrAg or CrTe absorbers rendered obvious by the combination of Hosoya JP 2007273656, Maehara 5375157,Yan 20030064296, Watanabe et al. JP H07114173, Hsu et al. 20200057363 and/or Burkhardt et al. 20160238924 by lowering the temperature during the
Cl2/O2 etch taught in Hosoya JP 2007273656 at [0053-0059] to -50o C as taught for chromium film by Marumoto et al. 5677090 and Staaks et al., “Low temperature dry etching of chromium towards control at sub-5 nm dimensions”, Nanotech., Vol. 27 article 415302 (9 pages ) (2016) with a reasonable expectation of improving the feature size as taught by Staaks et al., “Low temperature dry etching of chromium towards control at sub-5 nm dimensions”, Nanotech., Vol. 27 article 415302 (9 pages ) (2016), noting that both Marumoto et al. 5677090 and Staaks et al., “Low temperature dry etching of chromium towards control at sub-5 nm dimensions”, Nanotech., Vol. 27 article 415302 (9 pages ) (2016) describe the etching of chromium films useful in photomasks with chlorine and oxygen.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Gupta 20020115000 is made of record in place of the incorrect citation on the IDS of 7/25/2025.
Nam et al. KR 101473162 (machine translation attached) teaches the light shielding film 106 may be formed of a material such as titanium (Ti), vanadium (V), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), zirconium (Zr), niobium (Nb), palladium (Pd), zinc (Zn) (Al), Sn, Mn, Cd, Mg, Li, Se, Cu, Mo, , Tantalum (Ta), tungsten (W), and at least one of nitrogen (N), oxygen (O), and carbon (C). The light shielding film 106 is formed of a compound containing chromium (Cr) and tin (Sn) or chromium (Cr) and tantalum (Ta), tin (Sn) and tantalum (Ta) . The light shielding film 106 may be formed of a material such as CrSn, CrSnC, CrSnO, CrSnN, CrSnCO, CrSnCN, CrSnON, CrSnCON, CrTa, CrTaC, CrTaO, CrTaN, CrTaCO, CrTaCN, CrTaON, CrTaCON, SnTa, SnTaC, SnTaO, SnTaN , SnTaCO, SnTaCN, SnTaON, and SnTaCO [0011-0018,0065-0070].
Wasa et al. JP H0817716 (machine translation attached) teaches with respect to figure 2, a Si wafer substrate (21), a Pd/Si reflective multilayer (22), a photoresist with a 0.4 to 4 micron line and space pattern , a Ni absorber layer (23) [0078-0086].
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Useful absorbers include Ni and Ag, Au, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, Pt, Rh, Ru, Sn, Zn and their alloys [0073]
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 February 11, 2026