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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 7-12, filed 19 August 2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-5 and 10 under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of US 20210149301 A1 (hereby referred to as Fujiwara).
Applicant has amended independent claim 1 to recite that the anion of the onium salt having formula (1) is a nitrate. Applicant argues that the previously cited art (JP ‘222) fails to disclose an onium salt having a nitrate anion. Applicant further argues that the additionally cited prior art (Fujiwara) fails to remedy the deficiencies of JP ‘222. Upon review of the previously cited prior art, the Examiner partially finds that Applicant’s arguments persuasive, as JP ‘222 fails to disclose an onium salt comprising a nitrate anion. However, the disclosure of Fujiwara teaches that the resist composition includes a base polymer, a photoacid generator, an acid diffusion inhibitor comprising an onium salt, and an organic solvent (Fujiwara, paragraph 0022). The acid diffusion inhibitor comprising an onium salt may be triphenylsulfonium nitrate (Fujiwara, paragraph 0179), which is an onium salt having a nitrate anion. The acid that produces nitrate as a conjugate base is nitric acid, which is a named example by the Applicant’s specification as an XqH that has a boiling point lower than 150 °C and a molecular weight of up to 120 (refer to paragraph 0258 of the instant application’s specification). In other words, JP ‘222 may not disclose the claimed invention, but the claimed invention is unpatentable over JP ‘222 in view of the previously cited Fujiwara. Thus, the previous rejection of claims 1-5 and 10 is withdrawn. However, a new rejection is presented in view of US 20210149301 A1 (hereby referred to as Fujiwara), as explained below.
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) 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over JP 2013101222 A (hereby referred to as JP ‘222) in view of US 20210149301 A1 (hereby referred to as Fujiwara).
Regarding Claims 1-2, JP ‘222 discloses a resist composition for and a method for forming a resist pattern. Examples 16 and 17 (see page 128 of the original JP ‘222 publication) disclose two resist compositions (JP ‘222, paragraph 0335 of the English translation). Examples 16 and 17 both include component (A)-1 and component (S)-1, with the difference between the examples being that Example 16 includes component (C)-4 and Example 17 includes component (C)-5. Component (A)-1 is the structure represented by Copolymer 1 (JP ‘222, paragraph 0339 of the English translation). The structure of Copolymer 1 is shown on page 122 of the JP ‘222 and is reproduced below.
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Copolymer 1 comprises three repeating units. The center-most repeating unit represents a repeating unit having an acid labile group represented by the formula (a1) (as recited by instant claim 2), wherein X1 is a single bond, RA is a methyl group, and AL1 is a group represented by the formula (L4) (refer to paragraphs 0074 and 0091 of the instant application’s specification). Said repeat unit is shown on page 16 of the instant application’s specification as an example of the repeat unit (a1) (see paragraph 0108 of the instant application’s specification). The component (S)-1 in Examples 16 and 17 is a mixed solvent comprising PGMEA, PGME, and cyclohexanone (JP ‘222, paragraph 0339 of the English translation). Components (C)-4 and (C)-5, which are used in Examples 16 and 17, respectively, are shown on page 130 of the JP ‘222 publication and are reproduced below (JP ‘222, paragraph 0339 of the English translation).
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Both of components (C)-4 and (C)-5 are sulfonium salts. For component (C)-4, the anion is an acetate ion, which is the conjugate base of acetic acid. For component (C)-5, the anion is a trifluoroacetate ion, which is the conjugate base of trifluoroacetic acid. Thus, the compositions represented by Examples 16 and 17 of JP ‘222 both represent a resist composition comprising a base polymer containing a repeating unit having an acid labile group, an organic solvent, and an onium salt.
However, JP ‘222 is silent in regards to the inclusion of an onium salt having nitrate as the anion. Fujiwara teaches an onium salt compound, a chemically amplified resist composition, and a patterning process. The resist composition comprises a base polymer, a photoacid generator, an acid diffusion inhibitor, and an organic solvent (Fujiwara, paragraph 0022). The acid diffusion inhibitor contains an onium salt compound (Fujiwara, paragraph 0160). The acid diffusion inhibitor may be triphenylsulfonium nitrate (Fujiwara, paragraph 0179), and further teaches that the acid diffusion inhibitor may be triphenylsulfonium trifluoroacetate (component (C)-5 of JP ‘222, refer to the cations of paragraph 0173 of Fujiwara and the anions of paragraph 0172 of Fujiwara). Thus, these salts are considered to be equivalents for the same function (acid diffusion inhibitors). The Examiner notes that the acid that produces nitrate as a conjugate base is nitric acid, which is a named example by the Applicant’s specification as an XqH that has a boiling point lower than 150 °C and a molecular weight of up to 120 (refer to paragraph 0258 of the instant application’s specification).
JP ‘222 and Fujiwara are analogous art because both references pertain to resist compositions. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant application to include a nitrate-containing onium salt, such as triphenylsulfonium nitrate, as taught by Fujiwara in the resist composition according to Examples 16 and/or 17 of JP ‘222 because Fujiwara teaches that triphenylsulfonium nitrate is a functional equivalent to the salt taught by JP ‘222 (Fujiwara, paragraphs 0172-0173 and 0179). Furthermore, because the triphenylsulfonium nitrate’s conjugate acid corresponding to the anion has a low boiling point, the acid created after quenching a strong acid is readily removed from the resist film during post-exposure bakes (PEB) or the like, which increases suppression of acid diffusion and results in contrast improvements (Fujiwara, paragraph 0179).
Regarding Claims 3-5, the copolymer (Copolymer 1) used in the resist composition of Examples 16 and 17 of JP ‘222 is the aforementioned structure reproduced below.
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Copolymer 1 comprises three repeating units. The center-most repeating unit represents a repeating unit having an acid labile group represented by the formula (a1). The left-most repeating unit represents a repeating unit according to formula (b1) (as recited by instant claim 3), wherein RA is a methyl group and R11 is a C1-C20 group containing at least one ester bond and a sulfonic ester bond. The left-most repeating unit in the above Copolymer 1 is shown on page 21 of the instant application’s specification as an example of the repeat unit (b1) (see paragraph 0121 of the instant application’s specification). The right-most repeating unit of Copolymer 1 represents a repeat unit having a photoacid generating group. Specifically, the right-most repeating unit of Copolymer 1 is a repeat unit according to formula (c2) (as recited by instant claim 5), wherein RA is a methyl group, Z3 and Z4 are single bonds, L1 is an ester bond, Rf3 and Rf4 are both hydrogen, d is 1, Rf1 and Rf2 are both fluorine, and A+ is the sulfonium cation shown below the right-most repeating unit of Copolymer 1. The anionic part of right-most repeat unit of Copolymer 1 is shown on page 43 of the instant application’s specification as an example of the repeat unit (c2) (see paragraph 0177 of the instant application’s specification).
Regarding Claims 6-7, JP ’222 discloses a resist composition according to instant claim 1, as explained above. The example compositions of JP ‘222 include a copolymer comprising a photoacid generating group. However, JP ‘222 is silent in regards to the inclusion of a separate photoacid generating compound in the resist composition.
Fujiwara teaches an onium salt compound, a chemically amplified resist composition, and a patterning process. The resist composition comprises a base polymer, a photoacid generator, an acid diffusion inhibitor, and an organic solvent (Fujiwara, paragraph 0022). The base polymer comprises a repeat unit comprising an acid labile group (Fujiwara, paragraph 0024 and formulae (a) and (b)). The photoacid generator may be present in the resist composition even when the base polymer contains repeat units selected from one of the repeat units (d1) to (d4) (Fujiwara, paragraph 0138). The Examiner notes that the repeat units (d1) to (d4) represent repeat units comprising a photoacid generating group (Fujiwara, paragraph 0105). The photoacid generator is preferably a sulfonium salt having the formula (5A) (Fujiwara, paragraph 0140), the structure of which is reproduced below.
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In formula (5A), R101 to R103 are each independently a C1-C20 hydrocarbyl group which may contain a heteroatom, and any two of said R groups may bond together to form a ring with the sulfur atom to which they are attached (Fujiwara, paragraph 0141). Xb- is an anion having the formula (6A) or (6B) (Fujiwara, paragraph 0146). The inventive examples of Fujiwara specifically utilize PAG-3 as a suitable photoacid generator in the resist composition (Fujiwara, Tables 1 to 3 on pages 99-100 of the Fujiwara publication). The structure of PAG-3 is reproduced below (Fujiwara, paragraph 0262).
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PAG-3 is a photoacid generator represented by formula (2) (as recited by instant claim 7). The structure of PAG-3 is furthermore equivalent to PAG-Y, which is one of the photoacid generators used in the instant application’s inventive examples (refer to paragraph 0414 and Examples 1-24 and 1-26 of the instant application’s specification).
JP ‘222 and Fujiwara are analogous art because both references pertain to resist compositions. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant application to include a photoacid generator, such as PAG-3, as taught by Fujiwara in the resist composition obtained by combining the teachings of JP ‘222 and Fujiwara (refer to above) because the inclusion of such a photoacid generator in the resist composition eliminates the problems of degradation of resolution and the formation of foreign matter after development and/or during stripping (Fujiwara, paragraph 0159).
Regarding Claim 8, the example compositions of JP ‘222 do not include a nitrogen-containing compound within the resist composition. However, JP ‘222 teaches that the resist composition optionally includes a basic compound (JP ‘222, paragraph 0312 of the English translation). Preferred basic compounds include aliphatic amines and aromatic amines, especially secondary and tertiary aliphatic amines (JP ‘222, paragraph 0312 of the English translation). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant application to include a nitrogen-containing compound, such as a secondary or tertiary aliphatic amine, in the resist composition because the inclusion of a nitrogen-containing compound in the resist composition improves the resist pattern shape and the stability of the resist composition over time (JP ‘222, paragraph 0318 of the English translation).
Regarding Claim 9, the example compositions of JP ‘222 do not include a surfactant within the resist composition. However, JP ‘222 teaches that the resist composition may further include additives, such as surfactants (JP ‘222, paragraph 0320 of the English translation). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant application to include a surfactant in the resist composition because surfactants can help improve coating properties of the resist composition (JP ‘222, paragraph 0320 of the English translation).
Regarding Claim 10, JP ‘222 discloses that a resist pattern was formed from the aforementioned resist composition by applying the resist composition onto a substrate to form a resist film, exposing the resist film to electron beam (EB) lithography, and developing the patterned resist film (JP ‘222, paragraph 0343 of the English translation).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAYSON D COSGROVE whose telephone number is (571)272-2153. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 10:00-18:00.
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/JAYSON D COSGROVE/Examiner, Art Unit 1737
/JONATHAN JOHNSON/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1734
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