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 .
Status of the Claims
Claims 1-9 and 11-18 are pending and rejected. Claims 10 and 19-31 are cancelled. Claims 1-3, 7-9, 11, and 14 are amended.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, and 14-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Woodruff, US 9,607,842 B1.
Regarding claim 1, Woodruff teaches a method (a method of forming a metal silicide, abstract), comprising:
performing an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process to form an antimony- containing coating on a surface of a substrate (forming an interface layer by an ALD process, where the interface layer includes antimony, Col. 20, line 24 to Col. 21, line 12, and Fig. 6B), the ALD process comprising:
providing a first reactant to the surface of the substrate, the first reactant comprising antimony, wherein the first reactant adsorbs onto the surface of the substrate to form an adsorption layer thereon (where the ALD process includes a deposition sub-cycle of alternately and sequentially exposing the substrate to a precursor comprising the non-silicide forming element (antimony) and a reducing agent, Col. 20, line 24 to Col. 21, line 12, where in ALD the first vapor phase precursor is contact with a surface of the substrate so as to be adsorbed on the substrate surface, Col. 14, lines 31-51, such that the antinomy precursor will be adsorbed to the surface for forming the film so as to provide an adsorption layer),
providing a second reactant to the surface of the substrate, wherein the second reactant comprises a reducing agent, and wherein the second reactant reacts with the adsorption layer to form a layer of the antimony-containing coating (where the ALD process includes a deposition sub-cycle of alternately and sequentially exposing the substrate to a precursor comprising the non-silicide forming element (antimony) and a reducing agent, Col. 20, line 24 to Col. 21, line 12, where in ALD the second vapor phase precursor reacts with the first precursor adsorbed to the surface of the substrate, Col. 14, lines 31-54, such that the reducing agent is expected to react with the antimony precursor to provide the antimony-containing layer),
and repeating the providing of the first reactant and the providing of the second reactant one or more times to form the antimony-containing coating (where the sub-cycle for introducing the silicide forming metal can be repeated a number of times prior to performing the one or more sub-cycles for introducing the non-silicide forming element, or vice versa, Col. 20, lines 24-59, such that the process of forming the antimony-containing film will be repeated); and
depositing a second coating material by ALD on top of the antimony-containing coating, the second coating material consisting essentially of titanium (where the number of each of the sub-cycles in the super-cycle process can be adjusted to provide an interface layer comprising the desired characteristics, where the super-cycle can be repeated a number of times to deposit an interface layer comprising the desired thickness and the titanium or metal silicide layer is formed by reacting a metal silicide forming precursor and a reducing agent and where the silicide containing metal includes titanium so as to provide a TiSb layer, Col. 20, line 24 to Col. 21, line 12 and Fig. 6B, such that when the super-cycle is repeated a layer consisting essentially of titanium so as to provide a Ti layer from the TiSb coating).
Regarding claim 2, Woodruff teaches the process of claim 1. They further teach that the antimony precursor includes SbCl3 (Col. 1, line 66 to Col. 2, line 14 and Col. 20, line 60 to Col. 21, line 12).
Regarding claim 4, Woodruff teaches the process of claim 1. They further teach that the metal silicide can be formed on semiconductor structures such as transistors (Col. 5, lines 37-57 and Col. 11, line 23-67 and Fig. 3-4), such that the substrate comprises a semiconductor device.
Regarding claims 7 and 8, Woodruff teaches the process of claim 1. They further teach that the super-cycle is repeated a number of times to deposit the interface layer having the desired thickness, where the interface film includes titanium (Col. 20, lines 24-64 and Fig. 6B). Therefore, when the process of depositing the titanium and antimony layer is repeated, or when the process is first started, the surface will be pre-treated to have a third coating comprising titanium prior to depositing the antimony layer so as to provide the alternating layers. Further they teach depositing the silicide layer (titanium) and then depositing the antimony layer (Col. 20, lines 24-64), such that prior to forming the antimony layer, a titanium layer will be provided and when the process is repeated, the second titanium layer will be provided on the antimony layer.
Regarding claim 14, Woodruff teaches a method, comprising:
performing an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process to form a coating containing a group fifteen element on a surface of a substrate the ALD process forming a contact for a semiconductor device (depositing an antimony layer by ALD so as to form a metal silicide interface layer, Col. 1, lines 37-60 and Col. 5, lines 58-67, where the metal silicide layer is formed in contact vias formed to open contacts to the source region and drain region of a transistor, where a contact plug is then provided in the via, Col. 11, line 60 to Col. 12, line 24 and Fig. 4A-C, where electrical contacts are provided to source, drain, and/or gate features of a transistor in integrated circuits, where the contacts are provided by metal silicide layers, Col. 1, lines 10-25, such that the antimony layer provided by ALD on the source and drain regions of the transistor that will be formed into a metal silicide is understood to provide a contact for the semiconductor device, i.e., transistor) the ALD process comprising:
providing a first reactant to the surface of the substrate, the first reactant comprising the group fifteen element, wherein the first reactant adsorbs onto the surface of the substrate to form an adsorption layer thereon (where the ALD process includes a deposition sub-cycle of alternately and sequentially exposing the substrate to a precursor comprising the non-silicide forming element (antimony) and a reducing agent, Col. 20, line 24 to Col. 21, line 12, where in ALD the first vapor phase precursor is contact with a surface of the substrate so as to be adsorbed on the substrate surface, Col. 14, lines 39-51);
providing a second reactant to the surface of the substrate, wherein the second reactant comprises a reducing agent, and wherein the second reactant reacts with the adsorption layer to form a layer of the coating containing the group fifteen element (where the ALD process includes a deposition sub-cycle of alternately and sequentially exposing the substrate to a precursor comprising the non-silicide forming element (antimony) and a reducing agent, Col. 20, line 24 to Col. 21, line 12, where in ALD the second vapor phase precursor reacts with the first precursor adsorbed to the surface of the substrate, Col. 14, lines 31-54, such that the reducing agent is expected to react with the antimony precursor to provide the antimony-containing layer); and
repeating the providing of the first reactant and the providing of the second reactant one or more times to form the coating containing the group fifteen element (where the sub-cycle for introducing the silicide forming metal can be repeated a number of times prior to performing the one or more sub-cycles for introducing the non-silicide forming element, or vice versa, Col. 20, lines 24-59, such that the process of forming the antimony film will be repeated).
Regarding claim 15, Woodruff teaches the process of claim 14. They further teach that the antimony reactant is SbCl3 (Col. 21, lines 1-12), so as to provide a chloride of the group 15 element.
Regarding claim 16, Woodruff teaches the process of claim 14. They further teach providing a silicide forming metal into the layer by alternately and sequentially exposing a substrate to a precursor comprising the silicide forming metal and a reducing agent (Col. 20, lines 24-59). They teach that the silicide forming metal is selected from metals such as titanium (Col. 1, lines 42-45), so as to be different from the group fifteen element. They teach that the precursor for supplying titanium can be a metal halide and the reducing agent comprises hydrogen and/or hydrazine (Col. 20, lines 60-67). They teach that in ALD, the second precursor reacts with the first precursor (Col. 14, lines 52-67), such that the third reactant will react with the fourth reactant (reducing agent). They teach that the sub-cycle for introducing the silicide forming metal can be repeated a number of times prior to performing the one or more sub-cycles for introducing the non-silicide forming element, or vice versa (Col. 20, lines 24-59), such that the process providing the third reactant (silicide forming reactant) and the fourth reactant (reducing agent) to form a coating of the second material (silicide forming metal) will be repeated.
Regarding claim 17, Woodruff teaches the process of claim 14. They further teach that the number of each of the sub-cycles in the super-cycle process can be adjusted to provide an interface layer comprising the desired characteristics, where the super-cycle can be repeated a number of times to deposit an interface layer comprising the desired thickness (Col. 20, lines 24-59), such that when the super-cycle is repeated a layer of titanium or silicide forming metal will be formed on the antimony layer to provide a second coating of a second material on the first coating, with the second material being different than the group fifteen element. Since they teach forming the layers by ALD, in forming the second titanium layer on the antimony layer, it will include generating a second coating of a second material on the first coating (titanium precursor adsorbed on the surface) and then treating the substrate to generate an intermediate coting layer (providing the reducing agent to provide the titanium layer) where the intermediate coating includes the group fifteen element and the second material (the layer include the antimony layer and the generated titanium layer).
Regarding claim 18, Woodruff teaches the process of claim 14. They teach heating the substrate to facilitate silicidation reaction between the silicon of the exposed silicon region and the silicide forming metals of the metal oxide layer and the interface layer to form the metal silicide (Col. 3, line 61 to Col. 4, line 17). Therefore, the substrate will be treated to generate an intermediate coating layer (metal silicide layer) between the coating and the substrate as in Fig. 6B.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Woodruff as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Winter, US 2015/0004314 A1.
Regarding claim 3, Woodruff teaches the process of claim 1. They teach using Sb(SiR1R2R3)3 as the reducing agent (Col. 1, line 66 to Col. 2, line 14).
They do not teach using one of the listed reactants.
Winter teaches a method (a method of forming a layer by ALD, 0011), comprising:
performing an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process to form an antimony-containing coating on a surface of a substrate (forming a layer by an ALD process where the film includes Sb, 0011 and 0231, such that it will form a group 15 element on the surface of the substrate), the ALD process comprising:
providing a first reactant to the surface of the substrate, the first reactant comprising antimony, wherein the first reactant adsorbs onto the surface of the substrate to form an adsorption layer thereon (contacting the substrate with vapor of a first compound having an atom in an oxidized state, where at least a portion of the vapor of the first compound adsorbs or reacts with a substrate surface to form a modified surface, 0171, where the vapor includes an antimony precursor such as SbCl3, 0011 and 0231, such that the first reactant comprises the group 15 element);
providing a second reactant to the surface of the substrate, wherein the second reactant comprises a reducing agent, and wherein the second reactant reacts with the adsorption layer to form a layer of the antimony-containing coating (contacting the modified surface with a vapor of a reducing agent to react and form at least a portion of a metal film, 0171, such that the second reactant will react to form a coating containing the group 15 element); and
repeating the providing of the first reactant and the providing of the second reactant one or more times to form the antimony-containing coating (where the process is repeated a plurality of times in order to build up a final layer of predetermined thickness, 0172, where the layer contains antimony, i.e., a group 15 element, 0231).
They further teach that the first reactant is SbCl3 (0231), such that it is a chloride of the group 15 element. They further teach that the second reactant is DHP or CHD (0160 and 0231).
From the teachings of Winter, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have used DHP or CHD as the reducing agent with SbCl3 because Winter teaches that such reducing agents are suitable for forming antimony films by ALD using a SbCl3 precursor such that it will be expected to provide the film as desired.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Woodruff as applied to claim 4 above, and further in view of Weidman, US 2006/0251801 A1.
Regarding claim 5, Woodruff teaches the process of claim 4. They teach that the interface film is deposited on silicon regions of the substrate (abstract). They teach that the interface layer is deposited over the substrate as a film configured to prevent oxidation of the underlying exposed silicon regions during subsequent processing of the substrate (Col. 7, lines 25-44). They teach that, desirably, the deposition of the interface layer also does not induce oxidation of the underlying silicon because such oxidation can inhibit metal diffusion and therefore silicide formation (Col. 7, lines 25-44).
They do not teach pretreating the surface of the substrate by introduction of a hydride source to generate a hydride-terminated surface.
Weidman teaches a method of filling contact level features forming in a semiconductor device (abstract). They provide a substrate having a contact level aperture formed in to a dielectric layer (0018 and Fig. 2). They teach that an oxide surface is usually formed at the silicon junction during previous etching and ashing processes used to form contact level aperture (0019). They teach performing a pretreatment process to remove the oxide layer and provide a hydride-terminus surface, such as a silicon hydride layer (0020). They teach that the next step is depositing a metal layer using ALD followed by filling the contact with tungsten using a deposition temperature suitable to from a metal silicide layer with the deposited metal layer (0021-0023). They teach that in the pre-treatment process to remove oxides, the substrate is exposed to a HF-last solution so as to provide a silicon hydride surface (0036).
From the teachings of Woodruff and Weidman, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have dipped the substrate in an HF-last solution so as to remove oxides and provide a silicon hydride surface because Woodruff teaches that it is desirable to have an oxide free surface and Weidman teaches removing oxides from a silicon surface using such a process to provide a silicon hydride surface prior to forming a metal silicide layer such that it will be expected to remove oxides and provide a suitable surface for subsequent silicidation. Therefore, the surface will be pretreated by introduction of a hydride source (HF) to generate a hydride-terminated surface.
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Woodruff as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Ye, US 2017/0040421 A1.
Regarding claim 6, Woodruff teaches the process of claim 4.
They do not teach that the substate comprises Si(111).
Ye teaches method for manufacturing semiconductor devices such as transistors used for amplifying or switching electronic signals (abstract). They teach a semiconductor device having a film stack including an interlayer of semiconductor material and a buffer layer of semiconductor material underneath an active device layer (abstract). They teach that the interlayer may include group III-V semiconductor materials formed between a first surface of a silicon-based substrate and the buffer layer (abstract). They teach that the substrate is crystalline silicon such as Si<111> (0016). They teach that the interlayer is formed on a first surface of the substrate, where the interlayer is a group III-V semiconductor material that may be a binary, ternary, or quaternary alloy (0018). They teach that the interlayer is in direct contact with the substrate to have a lattice constant and a crystal orientation closely matched to the underlying substrate (0019). They teach that the interlayer may be a stack of layers of semiconductor material (0020). They teach that the interlayer may be part of any suitable semiconductor device, such as transistors, an optical device, any integrated circuit, etc. (0021). They teach that the interlayer may be deposited by ALD (0022). They teach that the interlayer may be grown using precursors such as triethyl antimony (0022), indicating that antimony can be used in the interlayer. They teach that the interlayer can include Ga, As, P, etc. (0018).
From the teachings of Ye, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the process of Woodruff to have used a Si(111) substrate in the formation of the semiconductor device, i.e., transistor, because Ye teaches that Si(111) is a suitable substrate in forming such semiconductor devices such as transistors such that it will be expected to provide a desirable substrate for the transistors of Woodruff. Therefore, the substrate will comprise a Si(111) substrate.
Claims 9 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Winter, US 2015/0004314 A1 in view of Yeon, WO 2022/186644 A1.
The following citations for Yeon, WO 2022/186644 A1 are in reference to Yeon, US 2024/0145301 A1, which is considered to be the English translation of Yeon, WO 2022/186644 A1because it is the US national stage of the PCT application.
Regarding claim 9, Winter teaches a method (a method of forming a layer by ALD, 0011), comprising:
performing an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process to form a bismuth-containing coating on a surface of a substrate (forming a layer by an ALD process where the film includes Bi, 0011), the ALD process comprising:
providing a first reactant to the surface of the substrate, the first reactant comprising bismuth, wherein the first reactant adsorbs onto the surface of the substrate to form an adsorption layer thereon (contacting the substrate with vapor of a first compound having an atom in an oxidized state, where at least a portion of the vapor of the first compound adsorbs or reacts with a substrate surface to form a modified surface, 0171, where the vapor includes a bismuth precursor, 0011 and 0172);
providing a second reactant to the surface of the substrate, wherein the second reactant comprises a reducing agent, and wherein the second reactant reacts with the adsorption layer to form a layer of the bismuth-containing coating (contacting the modified surface with a vapor of a reducing agent to react and form at least a portion of a metal film, 0171); and
repeating the providing of the first reactant and the providing of the second reactant one or more times to form the bismuth-containing coating (where the process is repeated a plurality of times in order to build up a final layer of predetermined thickness, where the layer includes bismuth, 0172).
Winter teaches reacting a first compound having an atom in an oxidized state with a reducing agent to form a second compound having the atom in a reduced state, where the atom in the oxidized state is selected from the group including Bi (0158). They teach that useful metal-containing compounds are organometallic compounds and metal halides with vapor pressures sufficient for ALD or CVD processes (0158).
They do not teach using one of the listed bismuth precursors.
Yeon teaches a metal thin film precursor composition and a method of forming a thin film using the metal thin film precursor composition (abstract). They teach forming the thin film by vaporizing a growth regulator and adsorbing it to the surface of a substrate, purging, vaporizing a thin film precursor compound in the chamber and adsorbing the thin film precursor compound on the surface area different from the surface area of the substrate one which the growth regulator is adsorbed, purging, supplying a reaction gas into the chamber, and purging (0061). They teach that the metal thin film precursor composition including the growth regulator and the metal thin film precursor compound may be used in an ALD process (0065). They teach that the metal thin film precursor compound may include a compound represented by Chemical Formula 1: MxNnLm, where M is selected from metals such as Sb, Bi, As, etc., N is selected from F, Cl, Br, I or a combination thereof, L is H, C, N, O, P, or S, where x is an integer from 1 to 3, n is an integer from 0 to 8, and m is an integer from 0 to 5 (0067). They provide examples where the precursors include only halide ligands, such that m is 0 such as in chemical formulas 32 to 39 (0072-0073). Therefore, the precursors taught include BiCl3, BiF3, BiBr3, and BiI3. They teach that the supplied reaction gas can be a reducing agent, where a metal thin film is formed by reacting the reducing agent with the thin film precursor compound adsorbed on the substrate (0175). They teach that suitable reducing agents include ammonia (0176).
From the teachings of Winter and Yeon, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have selected BiCl3, BiF3, BiBr3, or BiI3 as the bismuth precursor because Winter teaches using metal halide precursors, where the metal of the precursor includes bismuth and Yeon teaches depositing metal thin films by ALD using bismuth halide precursors, where the halide is Br, I, Cl, or F, where the stoichiometry overlaps the claimed range and where the films are deposited by reacting with a reducing agent such as ammonia such that it will be expected to provide the bismuth film by ALD as desired.
Regarding claim 11, Winter in view of Yeon suggests the process of claim 9. Winter further teach that the second reactant is DHP or CHD (0160), where DHP and CHD are exemplified in the experiments (0221 and 0231). They teach using precursors such as SbCl3 and reacting them with DHP (0231). They also teach reacting TiCl4 with CHD (0221). As noted above, they teach using halide precursors, where bismuth is a metal of the precursor (0158).
Yeon teaches using ammonia as the reducing agent (0176). They also teach using Ti as the metal in the precursor in addition to Sb and Bi (0067).
From the teachings of Winter and Yeon, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have used DHP, CHD, or ammonia as the reducing agent because Winter teaches that DHP and CHD react with metal halide precursors to form metal films, including precursors suggested by Yeon and Yeon teaches using ammonia as a suitable reducing agent, such that they are all expected to desirably reduce the adsorbed bismuth halide precursor to a bismuth metal thin film.
Claims 12 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Winter in view of Yeon as applied to claim 9 above, and further in view of Pore, US 2012/0329208 A1.
Regarding claims 12 and 13, Winter in view Yeon suggest the process of claim 9. Winter teaches forming films including tellurium, arsenic, aluminum, titanium, and bismuth, gallium (0011, 0158, 0169, 0221, 0225, and 0228).
They do not teach pretreating the surface by depositing another material.
Pore teaches forming a Group VA element containing thin film, such as Sb, Sb-Te, etc., by ALD (abstract). They teach using the Sb thin film in phase change memory devices (abstract). They teach using ALD for depositing thin films comprising Al-Sb, Sb-Bi, Al-Bi, and combinations thereof (0024). They teach that Sb-containing films find use in a variety of applications, including phase change memory, solar cells, and optical storage materials (0048). They teach that multiple ALD cycles can be used to deposit a first film followed by multiple ALD cycles to form a second film having a composition different from the first film (0395). They teach that two or more cycles are used to deposit the first film and two or more cycles are used to deposit the second film (0395). They teach that the stoichiometry of the film can be precisely controlled by varying the ratio of the second cycles (0396). They teach that the first and second films can be any of the materials described, where the film can comprise one or more of Sb, Bi-Te, Sb-Te, Ge-Sb-Te, etc. (0400). They teach that group III-V compound semiconductors are used in many different application areas, including transistors, optoelectronics, and other application areas such as bipolar transistors, field effect transistors, lasers, IR detectors, LEDs, wide band gap semiconductors, etc. (0005).
From the teachings of Pore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the process of Winter in view of Yeon to have pretreated the surface of the substrate by depositing a coating material such as aluminum prior to forming the bismuth film because Pore teaches that Al-Bi films are desirable as III-V semiconductor films for applications such as transistors and optoelectronics such that it will be expected to provide a desirable film. Therefore, the substrate will be pretreated by depositing an aluminum layer prior to depositing the antimony or bismuth layer.
Claim 17 is alternatively rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Woodruff as applied to claim 14 above, and further in view of Clark, US 2023/0058186 A1.
Regarding claim 17, Woodruff teaches the process of claim 14. They further teach that the number of each of the sub-cycles in the super-cycle process can be adjusted to provide an interface layer comprising the desired characteristics, where the super-cycle can be repeated a number of times to deposit an interface layer comprising the desired thickness (Col. 20, lines 24-59), such that when the super-cycle is repeated a layer of titanium or silicide forming metal will be formed on the antimony layer to provide a second coating of a second material on the first coating, with the second material being different than the group fifteen element. They teach heating the substrate to facilitate silicidation reaction between the silicon of the exposed silicon region and the silicide forming metals of the metal oxide layer and the interface layer to form the metal silicide (Col. 3, line 61 to Col. 4, line 17). Therefore, the substrate will be treated to generate an intermediate coating layer (metal silicide layer) between the coating and the substrate as in Fig. 6B.
They do not teach that antimony is included in the intermediate layer after annealing.
Clark teaches a method of processing a substrate by forming a conformal dopant layer on the substrate by ALD, forming a metal layer over the dopant layer, and thermally treating the dopant layer to form an ultra-shallow dopant region (abstract). They teach that the process forms an ohmic contact region (abstract). They teach that the substrate is selected from materials including silicon and a dopant layer 102 is formed on the substrate by ALD (0023, 0025, and Fig. 1B). They teach that the dopant layer is selected from materials including arsenic, antimony, and bismuth (0026). They teach that the metal layer 104 is formed on the dopant layer, where the metal layer is germanium, titanium, nickel, platinum, tungsten, or a combination thereof and is capable of forming a metal silicide contact region (0029-0030 and Fig. 1C). They teach thermally treating the patterned film structure to diffuse both the dopant and the metal (0032 and Fig. 1D). They teach that during the thermal treatment, dopants diffuse into the substrate and modify the chemical composition of the substrate locally near the surface (0032). They teach that the thermal treatment also diffuses metal atoms from the metal layer into the substrate to form an ohmic contact region for forming a metal silicide (0032). They teach that the process is desirable for forming source-drain extensions for planar transistors, FinFETs, or tri-gate FETs (0019).
From the teachings of Clark, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have treated the substrate of Woodruff so as to also diffuse antimony into the silicide by thermally treating to form the ultra-shallow diffusion and ohmic contact region because Clark teaches that it is desirable to dope the source-drain extensions for planar transistors, FinFETs, or tri-gate FETs with antimony in a diffusion process of forming a metal silicide such that it will be expected to provide a desirable dopant in the process of Woodruff. Therefore, in the process of Woodruff in view of Clark, a first coating of antimony (group 15 element) is formed by the ALD process and then a second coating of titanium will be formed on the first coating, where the second material is different from the group fifteen element, and the substrate is treated by annealing to generate an intermediate coating layer (diffusion region) including the group fifteen element and the second material.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments dated 2/9/2026 have been fully considered.
In light of the amendments, the previous objections and 112(b) rejections have been withdrawn.
In light of the amendments to the claims, Applicant’s arguments are considered to be persuasive and therefore, the rejection has been modified as indicated above.
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.
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/CHRISTINA D MCCLURE/Examiner, Art Unit 1718
/GORDON BALDWIN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1718
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