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 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.
DETAILED ACTION
Claims status
Claims 1-20 are pending as the applicant filed on 10/17/2023.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
2. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claims 1-20, the terms “lower pattern” “upper pattern,” lower channel” “upper channel” “lower stack” “upper stack” “about” are vague and a relative terms that renders the claim indefinite. The terms “lower pattern” “upper pattern,” lower channel” “upper channel” “lower stack” “upper stack” “about” are not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably appraised of the scope of the invention. An artisan doing measuring and testing would not know at what point “lower pattern” “upper pattern,” lower channel” “upper channel” “lower stack” “upper stack” “about” within the scope of the claim had been accomplished because nothing within the disclosure establishes when a sufficient “lower pattern” “upper pattern,” lower channel” “upper channel” “lower stack” “upper stack” “about” occur.
Note: In view of the PTO compact prosecution, the Examiner notes that due to the indefiniteness issues described above all consideration of the merits of the claims in view of prior art is as best understood.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more.
Claim 1, Step 1 the claim is a process (or machine) (Yes),
Step 2A Prong One, does the claim recite an abstract idea? current claim related to a method of measuring an overlay offset, the method comprising:
acquiring a first piece of overlay information about a first position of the lower pattern and a second position of the upper pattern by detecting a pupil image of a joint position that is between the upper pattern and the lower pattern, detecting an overlay offset of the second position of the upper pattern relative to the first position of the lower pattern through Zernike polynomial modeling, and acquiring compensation overlay information on the upper pattern from the overlay offset of the second position appear is an abstract idea of mental process (MPEP 2106.04(a)) or data gathering equivalent to mathematical concept or mathematical manipulation function (MPEP 2106.04 (a) (2) (concept need not be expressed in mathematical symbols, because "[w]ords used in a claim operating on data to solve a problem can serve the same purpose as a formula), (OR Mathematical Concepts and Mental Processes) Step 2A Prong One: Yes.
Step 2A Prong Two, is the claim directed to an abstract idea? In other words, does claim recite additional elements that integrate the Judicial Exception into a practical application? the additional elements of are recited at a high level of generality and merely amount to a particular field of use (see MPEP 2106.05(h)) and/or insignificant post-solution activity (MPEP 2106.05(g)), this does not integrate the Judicial Exception into a practical application,
Step 2A Prong Two: NO.
Step 2B, Does the claim recite additional element that amount to significantly more than the Judicial exception? the additional element of wherein the overlay offset comprises a radial tilting component, providing a substrate comprising a lower pattern and an upper pattern, wherein the lower pattern is disposed in a cell area, and the upper pattern is disposed on the lower pattern appears to be field of use (See MPEP 2106.05(h) and MPEP 2106.05(f)) and/or merely amounts to insignificant extra-solution output of the results (see MPEP 2106.05(g)) and therefore fails to integrate the abstract idea into a practical application or amount to significantly more. Step 2B: No. claim 1 not eligible.
Claim 14, Step 1 the claim is a process (or machine) (Yes),
Step 2A Prong One, does the claim recite an abstract idea? current claim related to a method of measuring an overlay offset, the method comprising:
providing a substrate comprising a lower channel hole and an upper channel hole, wherein the lower channel hole is disposed in a cell area, and the upper channel hole is disposed on the lower channel hole; acquiring a first piece of overlay information about a first position of the lower channel hole and a second position of the upper channel hole by detecting a pupil image of a joint position that is between the lower channel hole and the upper channel hole appear is an abstract idea of mental process (MPEP 2106.04(a)) or data gathering equivalent to mathematical concept or mathematical manipulation function (MPEP 2106.04 (a) (2) (concept need not be expressed in mathematical symbols, because "[w]ords used in a claim operating on data to solve a problem can serve the same purpose as a formula), (OR Mathematical Concepts and Mental Processes) Step 2A Prong One: Yes.
Step 2A Prong Two, is the claim directed to an abstract idea? In other words, does claim recite additional elements that integrate the Judicial Exception into a practical application? the additional elements of detecting an overlay offset of the second position of the upper channel hole relative to the first position of the lower channel hole through Zernike polynomial modeling; and acquiring compensation overlay information on the upper channel hole from the overlay offset of the second position are recited at a high level of generality and merely amount to a particular field of use (see MPEP 2106.05(h)) and/or insignificant post-solution activity (MPEP 2106.05(g)), this does not integrate the Judicial Exception into a practical application,
Step 2A Prong Two: NO.
Step 2B, Does the claim recite additional element that amount to significantly more than the Judicial exception? the additional element of wherein the overlay offset is caused by a radial tilting error of the upper channel hole appears to be field of use (See MPEP 2106.05(h) and MPEP 2106.05(f)) and/or merely amounts to insignificant extra-solution output of the results (see MPEP 2106.05(g)) and therefore fails to integrate the abstract idea into a practical application or amount to significantly more. Step 2B: No. claim 14 not eligible.
Claim 19, Step 1 the claim is a process (or machine) (Yes),
Step 2A Prong One, does the claim recite an abstract idea? current claim related to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, the method comprising: forming a lower stack in a cell area of a substrate, wherein the lower stack comprises a lower channel hole; forming an upper stack on the lower stack, wherein the upper stack comprises an upper channel hole; acquiring a first piece of overlay information about a first position of the lower channel hole and a second position of the upper channel hole by detecting a pupil image of a joint position that is between the upper channel hole and the lower channel hole appear is an abstract idea of mental process (MPEP 2106.04(a)) or data gathering equivalent to mathematical concept or mathematical manipulation function (MPEP 2106.04 (a) (2) (concept need not be expressed in mathematical symbols, because "[w]ords used in a claim operating on data to solve a problem can serve the same purpose as a formula), (OR Mathematical Concepts and Mental Processes) Step 2A Prong One: Yes.
Step 2A Prong Two, is the claim directed to an abstract idea? In other words, does claim recite additional elements that integrate the Judicial Exception into a practical application? the additional elements of detecting an overlay offset of the second position of the upper channel hole relative to the first position of the lower channel hole through Zernike polynomial modeling; and acquiring compensation overlay information on the upper channel hole from the overlay offset of the second position are recited at a high level of generality and merely amount to a particular field of use (see MPEP 2106.05(h)) and/or insignificant post-solution activity (MPEP 2106.05(g)), this does not integrate the Judicial Exception into a practical application,
Step 2A Prong Two: NO.
Step 2B, Does the claim recite additional element that amount to significantly more than the Judicial exception? the additional element of wherein the overlay offset comprises a radial tilting component appears to be field of use (See MPEP 2106.05(h) and MPEP 2106.05(f)) and/or merely amounts to insignificant extra-solution output of the results (see MPEP 2106.05(g)) and therefore fails to integrate the abstract idea into a practical application or amount to significantly more. Step 2B: No. claim 19 not eligible.
Claim 2 related to a model represent:
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Appears recite further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 2 not eligible.
Claim 3 related to deriving a correlation that is between the overlay offset and the compensation overlay information by using at least one of Zernike polynomials of the Zernike function with n that is within a range of 0 to 6, this appears recite further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 3 not eligible.
Claim 4 related to deriving of the correlation between the overlay offset and the compensation overlay information comprises deriving a residual overlay vector value between the overlay offset and a value obtained through the Zernike polynomial modeling, this appears recite further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 4 not eligible.
Claim 5 related to the residual overlay vector value comprises overlay offset information corrected as a result of a process performed to compensate for overlay offsets occurring at a plurality of positions of the substrate by using compensation overlay information, this appears recite further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 5 not eligible.
Claim 6 related to the acquiring of the first piece of overlay information comprises acquiring a plurality of pieces of segment overlay information corresponding to each of a plurality of shot areas of the substrate, and the acquiring of the compensation overlay information comprises acquiring a plurality of pieces of compensation segment overlay information from the plurality of pieces of segment overlay information to compensate for the radial tilting component, this appears recite further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 6 not eligible.
Claim 7 related to performing a compensation process for an edge region of the substrate by using compensation segment overlay information that is different from compensation segment information used for a center region of the substrate, this appears recite further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 7 not eligible.
Claim 8 related to the joint position has a height of about 1 micrometer to about 10 micrometers from an upper surface of the upper pattern, this appears recite further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 8 not eligible.
Claim 9 related to the acquiring of the first piece of overlay information comprises detecting, as the pupil image, light reflected to a pupil plane from the joint position between the lower pattern and the upper pattern in the cell area of the substrate for a measurement point that is selected from each of the plurality of shot areas, this appears recite further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 9 not eligible.
Claim 10 related to the acquiring of the compensation overlay information comprises acquiring the compensation overlay information by a regression method or a machine learning method, this appears recite further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 10 not eligible.
Claim 11 related to a lower channel hole, and the upper pattern comprises an upper channel hole, this appears recite further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 11 not eligible.
Claim 12 related to providing of the substrate comprises: forming a lower stack on the substrate; forming the lower channel hole, which extend in a vertical direction substantially perpendicular to an upper surface of the substrate, by removing a portion of the lower stack; forming an upper stack on the lower stack, wherein the upper stack covers the lower channel hole; and forming the upper channel hole, which extends in the vertical direction and overlaps with the lower channel hole by removing a portion of the upper stack, this appears recite further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 12 not eligible.
Claim 13 related to forming of the upper channel hole comprises performing an ion beam etching process, and the radial tilting component is caused by radial tilting of ions used in the ion beam etching process, this appears recite further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 13 not eligible.
Claim 15 related to a model represent as:
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666
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Appears recite further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 15 not eligible.
Claim 16 related to deriving a correlation that is between the overlay offset and the compensation overlay information by using at least one of Zernike polynomials of a Zernike function with n that is within a range of 0 to 6, this appears recite further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 16 not eligible.
Claim 17 related to acquiring of the first piece of overlay information comprises acquiring a plurality of pieces of segment overlay information corresponding to each of a plurality of shot areas of the substrate, and the acquiring of the compensation overlay information comprises acquiring a plurality of pieces of compensation segment overlay information from the plurality of pieces of segment overlay information to compensate for a radial tilting component, this appears recite further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 17 not eligible.
Claim 18 related to performing a compensation process for an edge region of the substrate by using compensation segment overlay information that is different from compensation segment information used for a center region of the substrate, this appears recite further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 18 not eligible.
Claim 20 related to forming of the upper channel hole comprises performing an ion beam etching process, and the radial tilting component is caused by radial tilting of ions used in the ion beam etching process, this appears recite further data characterization and mathematical concepts that are part of the abstract idea, claim 20 not eligible.
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, 14, 19, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a) (1) as being anticipated by DEISSEROTH. WO 2020150093 A1, Date Published: 2020-07-23, CPC C 12 N 13/00.
Regarding claim 1:
DEISSEROTH described a method of measuring an overlay offset, the method comprising: providing a substrate comprising a lower pattern and an upper pattern, wherein the lower pattern is disposed in a cell area, and the upper pattern is disposed on the lower pattern (00175-00176, 3-dimensional patterns of multiple layers cells);
acquiring a first piece of overlay information about a first position of the lower pattern and a second position of the upper pattern by detecting a pupil image of a joint position that is between the upper pattern and the lower pattern (00332, image overlays);
detecting an overlay offset of the second position of the upper pattern relative to the first position of the lower pattern through Zernike polynomial modeling; and
acquiring compensation overlay information on the upper pattern from the overlay offset of the second position (00322, 00337, a similar program reported real-time offsets and displayed image overlays (allowing the experimenter to correct for any offsets online using the motorized translation stage, adjusting the weights of a linear summation of Zernike polynomials),
wherein the overlay offset comprises a radial tilting component (00401, four tilting prisms is rotated 90° from each other such that all four SLM beams are tilted radially outward).
Regarding claim 14:
DEISSEROTH described a method of measuring an overlay offset, the method comprising: providing a substrate comprising a lower channel hole and an upper channel hole, wherein the lower channel hole is disposed in a cell area, and the upper channel hole is disposed on the lower channel hole (00175-00176, 3-dimensional patterns of multiple layers cells, 00337, imaging frame via manual identification of the hole centroids);
acquiring a first piece of overlay information about a first position of the lower channel hole and a second position of the upper channel hole by detecting a pupil image of a joint position that is between the lower channel hole and the upper channel hole (00332, image overlays);
detecting an overlay offset of the second position of the upper channel hole relative to the first position of the lower channel hole through Zernike polynomial modeling; and acquiring compensation overlay information on the upper channel hole from the overlay offset of the second position (00322, 00337, a similar program reported real-time offsets and displayed image overlays (allowing the experimenter to correct for any offsets online using the motorized translation stage, adjusting the weights of a linear summation of Zernike polynomials), wherein the overlay offset is caused by a radial tilting error of the upper channel hole (00401, four tilting prisms is rotated 90° from each other such that all four SLM beams are tilted radially outward).
Regarding claim 19:
DEISSEROTH described a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, the method comprising: forming a lower stack in a cell area of a substrate, wherein the lower stack comprises a lower channel hole; forming an upper stack on the lower stack, wherein the upper stack comprises an upper channel hole (00175-00176, 3-dimensional patterns of multiple layers cells, 00337, imaging frame via manual identification of the hole centroids);
acquiring a first piece of overlay information about a first position of the lower channel hole and a second position of the upper channel hole by detecting a pupil image of a joint position that is between the upper channel hole and the lower channel hole (00332, image overlays);
detecting an overlay offset of the second position of the upper channel hole relative to the first position of the lower channel hole through Zernike polynomial modeling; and acquiring compensation overlay information on the upper channel hole from the overlay offset of the second position (00322, 00337, a similar program reported real-time offsets and displayed image overlays (allowing the experimenter to correct for any offsets online using the motorized translation stage, adjusting the weights of a linear summation of Zernike polynomials), wherein the overlay offset comprises a radial tilting component (00401, four tilting prisms is rotated 90° from each other such that all four SLM beams are tilted radially outward).
Regarding claim 3, DEISSEROTH further described the detecting of the overlay offset comprises deriving a correlation that is between the overlay offset and the compensation overlay information by using at least one of Zernike polynomials of the Zernike function with n that is within a range of 0 to 6 (00337, Zernike polynomials , fig. 9F, 0-12).
Regarding claim 4, DEISSEROTH further described deriving a residual overlay vector value between the overlay offset and a value obtained through the Zernike polynomial modeling (00337, Zernike polynomials , fig. 9F, 0-12).
Regarding claim 5, DEISSEROTH further described the residual overlay vector value comprises overlay offset information corrected as a result of a process performed to compensate for overlay offsets occurring at a plurality of positions of the substrate by using compensation overlay information (00337-000338, compensated for any residual surface error not already corrected by the SLM look-up table).
Regarding claim 6, DEISSEROTH further described acquiring a plurality of pieces of segment overlay information corresponding to each of a plurality of shot areas of the substrate, and the acquiring of the compensation overlay information comprises acquiring a plurality of pieces of compensation segment overlay information from the plurality of pieces of segment overlay information to compensate for the radial tilting component (00337-000338, compensated for any residual surface error not already corrected by the SLM look-up table).
Regarding claim 7, DEISSEROTH further described performing a compensation process for an edge region of the substrate by using compensation segment overlay information that is different from compensation segment information used for a center region of the substrate (00337-000338, compensated for any residual surface error not already corrected by the SLM look-up table).
Regarding claim 8, DEISSEROTH further described the joint position has a height of about 1 micrometer to about 10 micrometers from an upper surface of the upper pattern (00318, 1mm, 8mm).
Regarding claim 9, DEISSEROTH further described detecting, as the pupil image, light reflected to a pupil plane from the joint position between the lower pattern and the upper pattern in the cell area of the substrate for a measurement point that is selected from each of the plurality of shot areas (fig. 2A-2H).
Regarding claim 10, DEISSEROTH further described acquiring the compensation overlay information by a regression method or a machine learning method (00357, regression models).
Regarding claim 11, DEISSEROTH further described a lower channel hole, and the upper pattern comprises an upper channel hole (00334, three-dimensional layer).
Regarding claim 12, DEISSEROTH further described forming a lower stack on the substrate; forming the lower channel hole, which extend in a vertical direction substantially perpendicular to an upper surface of the substrate, by removing a portion of the lower stack; forming an upper stack on the lower stack, wherein the upper stack covers the lower channel hole; and forming the upper channel hole, which extends in the vertical direction and overlaps with the lower channel hole by removing a portion of the upper stack (00348-00349, remove volume).
Regarding claim 16, DEISSEROTH further described wherein the detecting of the overlay offset comprises deriving a correlation that is between the overlay offset and the compensation overlay information by using at least one of Zernike polynomials of a Zernike function with n that is within a range of 0 to 6 (00337, Zernike polynomials , fig. 9F, 0-12).
Regarding claim 17, DEISSEROTH further described acquiring a plurality of pieces of segment overlay information corresponding to each of a plurality of shot areas of the substrate, and the acquiring of the compensation overlay information comprises acquiring a plurality of pieces of compensation segment overlay information from the plurality of pieces of segment overlay information to compensate for a radial tilting component (00401, four tilting prisms is rotated 90° from each other such that all four SLM beams are tilted radially outward, 00337-000338, compensated for any residual surface error not already corrected by the SLM look-up table).
Regarding claim 18, DEISSEROTH further described performing a compensation process for an edge region of the substrate by using compensation segment overlay information that is different from compensation segment information used for a center region of the substrate (00338, compensated for any residual surface error not already corrected by the SLM look-up table.).
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) 13 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DEISSEROTH. WO 2020150093 A1, Date Published: 2020-07-23, CPC C 12 N 13/00 in view of FAN, CN 112543892 A, Date Published: 2021-03-23, CPC G06F 30/398.
Regarding claims 13 and 20,
DEISSEROTH further described radial tilting (00401, four tilting prisms is rotated 90° from each other such that all four SLM beams are tilted radially outward).
DEISSEROTH not described ion beam etching process.
Fan described ion beam etching process (page, 8, etching, page 13, ion beam etching process.) for the advantage of improves the efficiency in the overall simulation process (page 18).
Contact information
6. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Tung Lau whose telephone number is (571)272-2274, email is Tungs.lau@uspto.gov. The examiner can normally be reached on Tuesday-Friday 7:00 AM-5:00 PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, TURNER SHELBY, can be reached on 571-272-6334. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TUNG S LAU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2857
Technology Center 2800
March 9, 2026