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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Status of the Claims
Applicant’s election of Group I, claims 1-11 in the reply filed on February 09th, 2026 is acknowledged. Because applicant did not distinctly and specifically point out the supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election has been treated as an election without traverse (MPEP § 818.03(a)). Non-elected invention of Group II, claims 12-19 have been withdrawn from consideration. Claims 1-19 are pending.
Action on merits of Group I, claims 1-11 as follows.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on October 16th, 2023 has been considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings filed on 10/16/2023 are acceptable.
Specification
The specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant's cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
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.
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.
Claims 1-4 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim (US 2021/0028058, hereinafter as Kim ‘058) in view of Jung (US 2014/0103457, hereinafter as Jung ‘457).
Regarding Claim 1, Kim ‘058 teaches a method of fabricating a semiconductor device, comprising:
alternately stacking first interlayer insulating layers (Fig. 4A, (12); [0029]) and first sacrificial layers (Fig. 4A, (12); [0029]) on a substrate to form a first mold structure (Fig. 4A, (11L); [0061]);
forming a dummy hole (Fig. 4C, (14L); [0034]) penetrating the first mold structure (11L);
forming a dummy sacrificial pillar (Fig. 4D, (15L); [0045]) in the dummy hole (14L); and forming a second mold structure (Fig. 4E, (11U); [0049]) with a substantially uniform thickness on the first recessed key region (RP; [0066]) and the first mold structure (11L), wherein a top surface of the second mold structure has a second recessed key region (RP) corresponding to the first recessed key region (see Fig. 4E).
Thus, Kim ‘058 is shown to teach all the features of the claim with the exception of explicitly the features: “forming a first recessed key region to expose a portion of an inner side surface of the dummy hole”
Jung ‘457 teaches forming a first recessed key region (Fig. 5, (R1_Annotated)) to expose a portion of an inner side surface of the dummy hole (DH1; [0023]).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Kim ‘058 by forming a first recessed key region to expose a portion of an inner side surface of the dummy hole for the purpose of forming an alignment key of a semiconductor device and reducing an error of the alignment key (see para. [0014]-[0015]) as suggested by Jung ‘457.
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Fig. 4I (Kim ‘058)
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Fig. 5 (Jung ‘457_Annotated)
Regarding Claim 2, Kim ‘058 teaches sequentially forming a first dummy sacrificial pillar and a second dummy sacrificial pillar in the dummy hole (see Fig. 4H)
Jung ‘457 teaches removing the second dummy sacrificial pillar (see Fig. 5; para. [0027]). Examiner considers the upper portion of the insulations layer (103) in the dummy hole is the second dummy sacrificial pillar.
Regarding Claim 3, Kim ‘058 teaches the first dummy sacrificial pillar comprises a first material, and the second dummy sacrificial pillar comprises a second material.
Thus, Kim ‘058 and Jung ‘457 are shown to teach all the features of the claim with the exception of explicitly the features: “a second metal material having an etch selectivity with respect to the first metal material”.
However, it has been held to be within the general skill of a worker in the art to select a second metal material having an etch selectivity with respect to the first metal material on the basis of it suitability for the intended use as a matter of obvious design choice. In re Leshin, 125 USPQ 416. A person of ordinary skills in the art is motivated to select a second metal material having an etch selectivity with respect to the first metal material when this allows a good flow with the other steps in the fabrication process.
Regarding Claim 4, Kim ‘058 and Jung ‘457 are shown to teach all the features of the claim with the exception of explicitly the features: “each of the first and second metal materials has an etch selectivity with respect to each of the first interlayer insulating layers and the first sacrificial layers”.
However, it has been held to be within the general skill of a worker in the art to select each of the first and second metal materials has an etch selectivity with respect to each of the first interlayer insulating layers and the first sacrificial layers on the basis of it suitability for the intended use as a matter of obvious design choice. In re Leshin, 125 USPQ 416. A person of ordinary skills in the art is motivated to select each of the first and second metal materials has an etch selectivity with respect to each of the first interlayer insulating layers and the first sacrificial layers when this allows a good flow with the other steps in the fabrication process.
Regarding Claim 8, Kim ‘058 teaches a chip region (memory cell region (MC); [0017]);
Jung ‘457 teaches a scribe line region, and the first and second recessed key regions are provided in the scribe line region (see para. [0022]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-7 and 9-11 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. Claims 6-7 and 10-11 are objected to as being dependent upon objected claims 5 and 9.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The following patents are cited to further show the state of the art with respect to semiconductor devices:
Liu et al. (US 2016/0204117 A1)
For applicant’s benefit portions of the cited reference(s) have been cited to aid in the review of the rejection(s). While every attempt has been made to be thorough and consistent within the rejection it is noted that the PRIOR ART MUST BE CONSIDERED IN ITS ENTIRETY, INCLUDING DISCLOSURES THAT TEACH AWAY FROM THE CLAIMS. See MPEP 2141.02 VI.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DZUNG T TRAN whose telephone number is (571) 270-3911. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8 AM-5PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sue Purvis can be reached on (571) 272-1236. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DZUNG TRAN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2893