DETAILED ACTION
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 without traverse of Invention I and claims 1-19 in the reply filed on 05/06/26 is acknowledged.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Babbs (US 5, 984, 116 A) in view of LERNER et al. (US 20090155025 A1; hereafter LERNER).
As of Claim 1: Babbs teaches a substrate support apparatus (Col. 4, lines 8-12 and note that plurality of substrate supports 132), comprising: a plurality of position adjusters arranged in parallel and spaced apart with respect to a first direction (Col. 5, lines 20-40 and note that a plurality of support rods 128 are provided, where each support rod 128 is mounted between every two aligned support arms 126 between opposite support posts 112. Also, each support arm 126 is preferably horizontally aligned with one other support arm 126 of the adjacent side rack 108 of the same support rack 106, where the other support arm 126 is itself horizontally aligned with one other support arm 126 on the opposite support post 112, where these opposite support arms 126 also have a support rod 128 mounted therebetween.); and a plurality of supports, wherein the plurality of supports are spaced apart from each other under the substrate and are configured to support the substrate (Col. 7, lines 1-19 and note that each of the support rods 128 are approximately 150 mm long. Each of the support rods 128 are aligned parallel with the centerline 400 at an offset of approximately 150 mm. Four support rods 128 are provided to support each substrate 124. Thus, each of the support rods 128 are aligned parallel with the side edges 124c and 124d, where two of the support rods 128 are co-linear and offset at approximately 115-120 mm from the side 124c, and the other two support rods 128 are co-linear and offset at approximately 115-120 mm from the other side 124d, for each substrate 124).
LERNER is a similar or analogous system to the claimed invention as evidenced LERNER teaches a lift pin of a substrate support assembly for manipulating a substrate. would have prompted a predictable variation of Babbs by applying LERNER’s known principal of a plurality of supports connected to the plurality of position adjusters and configured to support a substrate; wherein the plurality of supports are configured to be raised by the plurality of position adjusters (¶¶0017-0019 and note that the lift pins and the holes to support the substrate).
In view of the motivations such as lift pin design has the advantages of reduced particle generation thereby further improving heat transfer between the lift pin head and the substrate support to avoid hot spots and cold spots on the substrate surface one of ordinary skill in the art would have implemented the claimed variation of the prior art system of Babbs.
Therefore, the claimed invention would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
As of Claim 2: Babbs in view of LERNER further teaches a pair of guides disposed along the first direction and connected to the plurality of position adjusters and the plurality of supports, respectively (LERNER ¶¶0018,0019), wherein the plurality of position adjusters are configured to elevate the pair of guides, and wherein the plurality of supports are arranged along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, and the plurality of supports are movably coupled to the pair of guides (LERNER ¶¶0018,0019 and note that the pin shaft 104b reduces friction and heat transferring between the lift pin 104 and the pin hole 102a, such that the lift pin 104 moves smoothly through the pin hole 102a).
As of Claim 3: Babbs in view of LERNER further teaches a plurality of rotation driver disposed in each of the pair of guides and configured to move the plurality of supports in the first direction (LERNER ¶¶0018,0019 and note that the substrate support assembly 100 includes a substrate support 102 and a lift pin assembly of more than three lift pins 104. A substrate 106 is positioned on top of the lift pins 104. The lift pins 104 interact with the substrate support 102 via pin holes 102a to position the substrate 106 relative to the substrate support 102.).
As of Claim 4: Babbs in view of LERNER further teaches the plurality of position adjusters are spaced apart from each other along the pair of guides (LERNER ¶0015).
As of Claim 5: Babbs in view of LERNER further teaches each of the plurality of supports is moved by each of the plurality of rotation drivers so that the plurality of supports remain spaced apart from each other (Babbs Col. 5, lines 52-65 and Col. 7, lines 1-19).
Claims 6-7, 11-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Babbs (US 5, 984, 116 A) in view of LERNER et al. (US 20090155025 A1; hereafter LERNER), and further in view of Kasai et al. (US 20120160274 A1; hereafter Kasai).
As of Claim 6: Kasai is a similar or analogous system to the claimed invention as evidenced Kasai teaches a substrate holder configured to hold the substrate; a processing liquid supply unit configured to supply the processing liquid to the substrate held by the substrate holder; a rinsing liquid supply unit configured to supply a rinsing liquid to the substrate; and a light emitting element configured to emit light of a wavelength range, which is absorbed only by the substrate, and irradiate the emitted light to the substrate that would have prompted a predictable variation of Babbs by applying Kasai’s known principal of the pair of guides each include a plurality of standby positions in which the plurality of supports are disposed when the substrate is not supported and a support position at which the plurality of supports are configured to support the substrate, and wherein each support position is between respective ones the plurality of standby positions (¶¶0043,0046 and note that the lift pins and the holes to support the substrate).
In view of the motivations such as provide a liquid processing apparatus and a liquid processing method that can facilitate substitution of a processing liquid and rinsing liquid, and prevent the processing liquid from being remained on a substrate to decrease a processing time, when rinsing the substrate after processing the substrate with the processing liquid thereby further improving power consumption required to heat wafer can be reduced.one of ordinary skill in the art would have implemented the claimed variation of the prior art system of Babbs.
Therefore, the claimed invention would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
As of Claim 7: Babbs in view of LERNER further teaches each of the plurality of supports includes: a support frame movably coupled to each of the pair of guides; and a support member coupled to the support frame (Babbs Col. 8, lines 19-35 and note that ) The substrate 124 shown in FIGS. 1-5 is preferably a 550 mm by 650 mm substrate having a thickness of approximately 0.7 mm. It has been determined that the substrate 124 may be supported along supports lines separated by approximately 315 mm from each other and centered relative to a centerline parallel with the 650 mm side edges. These optimal support lines support the substrate 124 with less than 1 mm sag along the entire surface of the substrate 124. Further experimentation has revealed, however, that each support line is centered in an acceptable support region that is 25 mm wide, or 12.5 mm to either side of the optimal support line, wherein the support member has a length shorter than that of the support frame and is arranged in a longitudinal direction of the support frame substrate (Babbs Col. 7, lines 1-19).
As of Claim 11: Babbs in view of LERNER in view of Kasai further teaches each of the plurality of position adjusters includes: an elevating shaft coupled to each of the pair of guides; a bellows coupled to the elevating shaft and partially surrounding the elevating shaft; and a cylinder pump disposed on the bellows and configured to move the elevating shaft up and down (Kasai ¶¶0052,0053,0083,0101,0143 and note that a cylinder mechanism 62a is connected to a lower end of lift shaft 62 and substrate elevating member 60 is elevated by cylinder mechanism 62a, such that wafers W are elevated to be loaded and unloaded to and from transportation mechanism 24.).
As of Claim 12: Babbs in view of LERNER in view of Kasai further teaches each of the plurality of rotation drivers includes a ball screw disposed in each of the pair of guides, and a rotation motor configured to rotate the ball screw (Babbs Col. 4, lines 52-65 and note that the top plate 102 is mounted to the four top beams 114 and the bottom plate 104 is mounted to the four bottom beams 116 using a plurality of screws or any other suitable type of fastening means, so that the support racks 106 are substantially aligned with each other.).
As of Claim 13: Babbs in view of LERNER in view of Kasai further teaches each of the pair of guides includes: a guide housing (Babbs Col. 4, lines 52-65 and note that The top plate 102 is mounted to the four top beams 114 and the bottom plate 104 is mounted to the four bottom beams 116 using a plurality of screws or any other suitable type of fastening means, so that the support racks 106 are substantially aligned with each other.).; an LM guide coupled to the guide housing and disposed below the ball screw along a longitudinal direction of the ball screw; and an LM block movably coupled to the LM guide and the ball screw and moved along the LM guide according to the rotation of the ball screw (LERNER ¶¶0052,0053,0083,0101,0143).
As of Claim 14: Babbs in view of LERNER in view of Kasai further teaches each of the pair of guides further includes a guide hole into which one side or the other side of the support frame is inserted(Babbs Col. 6, lines 45-65), and wherein the guide hole is on the other side of the guide housing which is opposite to one side of the guide housing in which the support member is disposed (Babbs Col. 5, lines 52-65).
As of Claim 15: Babbs in view of LERNER in view of Kasai further teaches each of the plurality of supports further includes a separation preventing member coupled to a side of the support frame inserted into the guide hole, and wherein a width of the separation preventing member is greater than a width of the guide hole (Babbs Col. 5, lines 52-65).
As of Claim 16: Babbs in view of LERNER in view of Kasai further teaches each of the plurality of position adjusters includes: an elevating shaft coupled to each of the supports; a bellows coupled to the elevating shaft and partially surrounding the elevating shaft (Kasai ¶¶0052-0053,0101); a driving motor disposed on the bellows and configured to rotate the elevating shaft; and an elevating motor disposed on the driving motor and configured to move the driving motor up and down (Kasai ¶¶0052-0053).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8-10 & 17-19 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MEKONNEN D DAGNEW whose telephone number is (571)270-5092. The examiner can normally be reached on 8:00AM-5:00PM M-Th.
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/MEKONNEN D DAGNEW/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2638
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