DETAILED CORRESPONDENCE
This Office action is in response to the election received May 27, 2018.
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group II, claims 12-18 in the reply filed on May 27, 2018 is acknowledged.
Claims 1-11 and 19-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on May 27, 2018.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
Claims 12-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the combination of MALHOTRA et al (9,299,778 B2), ZHUANG et al (2009/0035704 A1) and GOLDFARB et al (2020/0150532).
The claimed invention recites the following:
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MALHOTRA et al report a process for coating a primer layer on a substrate for forming an imaging layer wherein process of coating namely have two baking steps, see col. 2, lines 41-61 below:
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Note the intermediate layer is spin-coated on a substrate, the layer is baked in a two stage bake with a first bake from 600 to 1300 C and a second bake from 2000 to 2800 C.
ZHUANG et al is cited to disclose underlayers for photoresist composition comprising a polyester (para. [0040]) with additive adhesion promoters (para. [0051]), see below:
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The polyester is a known self-immolative polymer.
GOLDFARB et al disclose spin on adhesion promoters wherein the same or similar compounds is disclosed see the abstract:
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These adhesion promoters can be used as an improved primer layer to provide sufficient adhesion and residue-free underlayer to the hardmask-EUV resist interface.
Claim 13 and 14 are met by GOLDFARB et al above in their abstract and claim 1 for the rinsing step.
Claim 15, is found in MALHOTRA et al which report a catalyst in the primer layer, col. 9, lines 41-50 and in combination with the first bake temperature which is taught in MALHOTRA et al.
Claim 16 for combining the components is disclosed by ZHUANG et al see para. [0088] to [0090].
It would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art of underlayers to photoresist compositions to coat a primer as reported in MALHOTRA et al having an adhesion promoter taught by GOLDFARB et al with a polyester polymer reported in ZHUANG et al with the reasonable expectation of same or similar results for high pattern resolution and formation.
Claims 17 and 18 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.
The specified first baking temperatures of 140-2200 C and 160-2200 C are not taught in the prior art references of record, namely in MALHOTRA et al.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
HUSTAD et al (2025/0336673 A1) is cited to disclose self-immolative polymers, see para. [0085]) to include poly(esters), poly(olefin) sulfone, poly(acetals).
GONG et al, Self-Immolative Polymers: From Synthesis to Applications, Annual Review of Materials Research, Vol. 54, pp-47-73 (August 2024).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOHN S CHU whose telephone number is (571)272-1329. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, IFP-Flex.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Keith Hendricks, can be reached at telephone number 571-272-1401. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal. Should you have questions about access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
/John S. Chu/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1737
J. Chu
August 8, 2026
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