DETAILED ACTION
Election
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I, claims 1-16, in the reply filed on June 24, 2026, is acknowledged. Claims 17-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected method, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
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 of this title, 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 1-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Todorov et al., US 2007/0284344, in view of Lee, KR 2016-0097561, and Hilliker et al., US 7,042,311.
Claims 1, 8-9, 16: Todorov discloses a plasma system comprising an AC power source (44), and RF power supply (46), a match network (38) coupled to the RF power supply, and a plasma chamber (12) including a pedestal (20) (Fig. 1A). In turn, the pedestal comprises a heater (30) and an electrode [0008]. Two filter banks (50, 52, 42, 46) are arranged in series, whereby one bank (42, 46) may be taken as the “first plurality of filters” and the other bank (50, 52) may be taken as the “second plurality of filters.”
Todorov filters are not configured to filter non-RF power, nor does the disclosure teach a “distributor and combiner.” Addressing the first deficiency is Lee, who discloses a plasma etching chamber comprising a heater (30) embedded in a pedestal (16) (Fig. 1). As shown by Figure 3, Lee situates a non-RF blocking circuit (312) in the heater power path, whereby capacitors (402) are arranged to block low-frequency content on the heater line. This arrangement stops DC signals from flowing in the heater’s AC source, thereby protecting the supply. As Todorov shares this desideratum, it would have been obvious to provide non-RF power filters along the heater power path.
Lastly, regarding the distributor and combiner, Hilliker avails a splitter that separates an RF generator signal for delivery to a plurality of electrodes disposed in a plasma chamber (claim 19). The reference also avails a combiner that aggregates high- and low-frequency match-network outputs so that a single electrode sees both matched outputs (claims 20, 31). It would have been obvious to integrate this feature within Todorov’s system to combine the matched RF outputs onto a single feed and then to distribute this combined feed to a plurality of electrodes.
Claims 2, 10: As shown by Figure 1A, Todorov’s filters include a plurality of capacitors.
Claims 3-7, 11-15: The electrical circuits depicted by Todorov can be arbitrarily sub-divided into “filters” and “junctions” to yield four filters and six junctions.
Conclusion
The following prior art is made of record as being pertinent to Applicant’s disclosure, yet is not formally relied upon: Shannon et al., US 2011/0291771. Shannon discloses a plasma system comprising first and second filter banks (514) which are configured to regulate and filer radio frequency power received from a power source ([0037]; Fig. 5).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NATHAN K FORD whose telephone number is (571)270-1880. The examiner can normally be reached on 11-7:30 PM. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Parviz Hassanzadeh, can be reached at 571 272 1435. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571 273 8300.
/N. K. F./
Examiner, Art Unit 1716
/KARLA A MOORE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1716
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