Attorney’s Docket Number: 3531.154563
Filing Date: 11/20/2023
Claimed Foreign Priority Date: 11/29/2022 (JP2022-190007)
Applicant: Kawai
Examiner: Younes Boulghassoul
DETAILED ACTION
This Office action responds to the application filed on 11/20/2023.
Remarks
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . The application serial no. 18/513,969 filed on 11/20/2023 has been entered. Pending in this Office Action are claims 1-3.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the wafer processing apparatus arrangement, wherein “the etching unit and the cleaning unit share a rotatable spinner table” must be shown or the feature canceled from the claim. No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 3 recites the limitation “instead of the respective rotatable spinner tables.” There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. For the purpose of examination, the claim will be construed as reciting -- instead of each having an individual rotatable spinner table
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kazuma (JP2008047695 and associated Machine Translation).
Regarding Claim 1, Kazuma (see, e.g., Figs. 2 and 4) shows all aspects of the instant invention, including a wafer processing apparatus for processing a wafer, comprising:
- a chuck table for holding the wafer thereon (e.g., vacuum type chuck table 30 holding wafer 1)
- a grinding unit (e.g., grinding unit 40) having a rotatable grinding wheel with an annular array of grindstones mounted thereon (e.g., cup wheel 45 includes grindstones 47 arranged in a ring shape) for grinding a surface of the wafer held on the chuck table
- a cleaning unit (e.g., cleaning solution supply apparatus 100 configured to supply pure water) for cleaning the wafer that has been ground by the grinding unit (see, e.g., Fig. 3: wafer 1 has at least been previously ground by 40)
- an etching unit (e.g., etching solution supply apparatus 100 configured to supply a mixed acid solution) for removing a strain from the ground surface of the wafer (e.g., grinding striations 9 on bottom surface 4a), wherein
- the grinding wheel of the grinding unit is smaller in diameter than the wafer (e.g., 45 has a lower conical shape defining a circular area having a diameter smaller than the diameter of 1), enabling the grindstones mounted on the grinding wheel to thin down an inner region of the wafer that includes the ground surface (e.g., backside wafer recess 1A), leaving an outer circumferential ring-shaped stiff portion on the wafer (e.g., backside annular convex portion 5A), and
- the etching unit supplies an etching liquid (e.g., mixed acid solution) to the inner region of the wafer inward of the outer circumferential ring-shaped stiff portion of the wafer to thereby remove a strain from the ground surface of the wafer (see, e.g., Figs. 6a-b: etchant L is supplied to the recess 1A such that the bottom surface 4a that contacts the etchant L is etched).
Regarding Claim 2, Kazuma (see, e.g., Figs. 4 and 6) shows, wherein:
- the cleaning unit (e.g., cleaning solution supply apparatus 100) includes a rotatable spinner table for holding the wafer under suction thereon (e.g., chuck table 90 includes an adsorption area 90a for adsorbing the wafer 1 by air suction) and a cleaning water supply nozzle for supplying cleaning water (e.g., liquid supply pipe 102 supplying pure water) to the ground surface of the wafer held on the spinner table, and
- the etching unit (e.g., etching solution supply apparatus 100) includes a rotatable spinner table for holding the wafer under suction thereon (e.g., chuck table 90 includes an adsorption area 90a for adsorbing the wafer 1 by air suction) and an etching liquid supply nozzle for supplying the etching liquid (e.g., liquid supply pipe 102 supplying mixed acid solution) to the ground surface of the wafer held on the spinner table.
Regarding Claim 3, Kazuma (see, e.g., Figs. 4 and 6) shows that the etching unit (e.g., etching solution supply apparatus 100) and the cleaning unit (e.g., cleaning solution supply apparatus 100) share a rotatable spinner table (e.g., chuck table 90) instead of the respective rotatable spinner tables.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The additional references cited disclose a wafer processing apparatus for processing a wafer and comprising aspects similar to the instant invention.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Younes Boulghassoul at (571) 270-5514. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 9am-6pm EST (Eastern Standard Time), or by e-mail via younes.boulghassoul@uspto.gov. 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. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Wael Fahmy can be reached on (571) 272-1705. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
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/YOUNES BOULGHASSOUL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2814