Detailed Action
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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.
Claims 11 and 16 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(A)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 20140110823 to Chou et al. (Chou).
Regarding Claim 11, Chou teaches a method, comprising:
forming, on a substrate 106, a layer stack of a trench capacitor structure including a first capacitor electrode layer 120, a capacitor dielectric layer 154 on the first capacitor electrode layer, and a second capacitor electrode layer 104 over the first capacitor electrode layer;
forming one or more dielectric layers 156/108 above the layer stack;
forming a cavity 1142 that penetrates through the one or more dielectric layers, through the second capacitor electrode layer, through the capacitor dielectric layer, and into the first capacitor electrode layer; and
forming a multi-electrode connection 142 using the cavity.
Regarding Claim 16, Chou teaches the method of claim 11, wherein forming the multi-electrode connection includes: forming a sidewall layer along an interior surface of the cavity (dielectric 156 extends on sidewalls of cavity).
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.
Claims 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chou in view of U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 20200176552 to Chang et al. (Chang).
Regarding Claim 12, Chou teaches the method of claim 11, but does not explicitly teach forming the layer stack further includes: forming a third capacitor electrode layer on the capacitor dielectric layer,
wherein forming the third capacitor electrode layer includes forming a gap region in the third capacitor electrode layer over a portion of the first capacitor electrode layer.
However, in analogous art, Chang teaches a multi-layered capacitor 100 having contacts t1 shown in schematic contacting all layers. It would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of filing to include the teaching of Chang to increase density of integration. In the combination of Chou and Chang, the cavity of Chou would naturally extend through the several layers of Chang.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 29 and 30 are allowed.
Claims 13-15 and 17-29 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter and reasons for allowability: the cited prior art does not show further methods of forming dielectric/ interconnect structures as required.
Conclusion
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/EVREN SEVEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2812
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