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 .
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 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Maleville et al. (US 2006/0223283, from hereinafter “Maleville”), and further in view of Akiyama et al. (US 2011/0003460, from hereinafter “Akiyama”).
Re Claim 1. Maleville discloses in Figs. 1-3b, a SOI wafer, characterized by: surface roughness of a top silicon layer of the SOI wafer is less than 4 Å (claim 2) and ([0002]-[0019] and [0024]-0054]),
Maleville fails to specifically disclose:
a thickness uniformity of the top silicon layer is within ±1%, and a total number of particles on a surface of the top silicon layer of the SOI wafer, measured with setting of 37 nm of SPx detection threshold, is less than 100.
However, Akiyama discloses:
A SOI substrate highly uniform in film thickness and smoothness [0033]-0051]
Therefore, the claim would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made because a particular known technique was recognized as part of the ordinary capabilities of one skilled in the art, and “a person of ordinary skill has good reason to pursue the known options within his or her technical grasp.” KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 82 USPQ2d 1385 (U.S. 2007). See also, Pfizer Inc. v. Apotex Inc., 82 USPQ2d 1852 (Fed. Cir. 2007).
Re Claim 2. Maleville discloses in [0002]-[0019] and [0024]-0054], made with steps comprising a step (I) of rapid thermal annealing and a step (II) of long-time thermal annealing, wherein the step (I) of rapid thermal annealing comprises: providing a first wafer to be processed for making the SOI wafer; rapid thermal annealing the first wafer to get a second wafer which has been rapid-thermal-annealed; wherein the rapid thermal annealing comprises a first heating-up process and a first annealing process, the first heating-up process is performed in an atmosphere of a mixture gas of argon and hydrogen, and volume of the hydrogen is less than 10% of whole volume of the mixture gas, and the first annealing process is performed in an atmosphere of argon and optionally hydrogen, and volume of the hydrogen is no greater than 10% of whole volume of the mixture gas; the step (II) of long-time thermal annealing comprises: long-time thermal annealing the second wafer obtained from the step (I) to get the SOI wafer; wherein the long-time thermal annealing comprises a second heating-up process and a second annealing process, the second heating-up process is performed in an atmosphere of a mixture gas of argon and hydrogen, and volume of the hydrogen is less than 10% of whole volume of the mixture gas, and the second annealing process is performed in an atmosphere of argon and optionally hydrogen, and volume of the hydrogen is no greater than 10% of whole volume of the mixture gas.
Re Claim 3. Maleville discloses in [0017]-[0018], wherein after the step (II) of long-time thermal annealing, a step (III) of oxide thinning is performed to precisely control thickness uniformity of a top silicon layer.
Re Claim 4. Maleville discloses, wherein the steps of (II) and (III) are integrated together.
Re Claim 5. Maleville fails to disclose, wherein a further step (IA) of oxide thinning is performed between the steps (I) and (II).
However, the claim would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made because a particular known technique, i.e., a further step of oxide thinning, was recognized as part of the ordinary capabilities of one skilled in the art, and “a person of ordinary skill has good reason to pursue the known options within his or her technical grasp.” KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 82 USPQ2d 1385 (U.S. 2007). See also, Pfizer Inc. v. Apotex Inc., 82 USPQ2d 1852 (Fed. Cir. 2007).
Re Claim 6. Maleville discloses in [00]09], wherein the first wafer to be processed is obtained with a pre-processing step in which a Smart CutTM technology is performed.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARVIN PAYEN whose telephone number is (571)270-7435. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday, Fridays off.
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/MARVIN PAYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2899
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