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 with traverse of Claims 1-12 in the reply filed on 07/29/2026 is acknowledged. Applicant states the restriction fails to provide adequate reason for the restriction. The examiner respectfully disagrees, as stated in the previous action, the method claims require different search strings and queries along with different search strategies that present a burden on examination. As such, the restriction is proper and it is accordingly maintained.
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 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Takaya et al (US 6, 062,953).
Regarding Claim 6 Takaya teaches a substrate treatment apparatus including an eccentricity correction unit (10) correcting eccentricity of a substrate supported by a support unit (structure that holes wafer W), the substrate treatment apparatus comprising: a first correction unit (34A,B) including a first contact portion in contact with a plurality of points of a side surface of the substrate having a notch (N) formed in a periphery thereof, and a first drive unit (30) configured to move a position of the substrate such that a center of the substrate corresponds to a center of the support unit (structure that holes wafer W); and a second correction unit (56) including a second contact portion (Fig 2b)in contact with the other side surface of the substrate having the notch (N) formed in the periphery thereof (Fig 2b), a second drive unit (66) configured to change a position of the second contact portion, and an elastic portion (springs) configured to provide elastic force in a direction of movement of the second contact portion (Fig 2b)to press or depressurize the substrate (Col 5. Lns.38-45), wherein the first correction unit (34A,B) is in contact with a plurality of point (Fig 2), included one axis on a horizontal plane, among the points, and the second correction unit (56) is in contact with a point included on an axis, parallel to the one axis (Fig 1-2).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takaya. in view of KIKUMOTO et al. (US 2018/0350632 A1) hereinafter Kikumoto.
Regarding Claim 1 Takaya teaches a substrate treatment apparatus including an eccentricity correction unit (10) correcting eccentricity of a substrate supported by a support unit (structure that holes wafer W), the substrate treatment apparatus comprising: a first correction unit (34A,B) including a first contact portion (contacts four points of the wafer which has notch N see Fig 2a, 2b) in contact with a plurality of points of a side surface of the substrate having a notch (N) formed in a periphery thereof, (Fig 2a-2b) and a first drive unit (30)configured to move a position of the substrate such that a center of the substrate corresponds to a center (O) of the support unit (structure that holes wafer W); and a second correction unit (56)including a second contact portion (Fig 2b) in contact with the other side surface of the substrate having the notch (N) formed in the periphery thereof (Fig 2a-2b), a second drive unit (66)configured to change a position of the second contact portion (Fig 1-2), and an elastic portion (springs) configured to provide elastic force in a direction of movement of the second contact portion (Fig 2b) to press or depressurize the substrate (Col 5. Lns.38-45),
Takaya is silent regarding wherein a portion of the second contact portion in contact with the other side surface of the substrate being configured to be flat.
However, Kikumoto teaches a substrate adjusting mechanism (Fig 5) for adjusting a wafer (w) having a correction unit (45) having a contact portion with the wafer (Fig 5). Takaya further teaches wherein the portion (46a) of the contact portion in contact with the other side surface of the substrate (W) is configured to be flat (since it is a V shape) (see Par.00153).
Since both Takaya and Kikumoto are in the same field of endvaour and both teach known wafer centering devices, it would have been obvious to have replaced one device for the other by forming a portion of the second contact portion in contact with the other side surface of the substrate to be flat to achieve a predictable result of forming a wafer adjusting device.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-5 and 7-12 are objected to but would be allowable if rewritten including all the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
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Conclusion
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/ABIY TEKA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3745
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