DETAILED CORRESPONDENCE
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 .
Response to Amendment
Applicants’ submission, filed on 02/10/2026, in response to the rejection of claims 1, 3-9, 11-14, and 17 from the non-final office action (09/10/2025), by amending claims 1, 3, 5, 7-9, 11 and 13 and cancelling claims 12 and 17 is entered and will be addressed below.
The examiner notices Applicants incorporated claims 12 and 17 plus more into independent claim 1. Applicants did not cite support for the new limitations of claim 1.
Claim Interpretations
The previously added limitation “the top plate having a plurality of openings“ of claim 1 and the “a support plate comprising a plurality of openings” are two different groups of openings. Furthermore “a pump/purge insert within one of the plurality of openings in the top plate … and an opening in which the gas injector is inserted” is yet another opening. And “at least one opening (338) in a bottom of the pump/purge insert” is yet another opening.
The “a pump/purge insert” is considered as either a pump insert or a purge insert or an insert preforming both purge and pumping.
The ”a heater is positioned on the outer end of each of the support arms” of claim 1, Applicants’ heater 230 is an electrostatic chuck ([0063] and claim 8) which includes accessory components along with the heating elements (such as heater wire). The claim will be examined inclusive this broad sense of heater.
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1, 3-9, 11, and 13-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
The newly added limitation of “the gas injector including a flange (332) in fluid communication with the ledge (334) adjacent a top of the pump/purge insert”, it is not clear how two solid components, flange and ledge, each without a flow channel, can be in fluid communication with each other.
This portion of claim 1 will be examined inclusive “the gas injector including a flange (342) in contact with the ledge (334) adjacent a top of the pump/purge insert”, as disclosed in Applicants’ Specification [0087].
Dependent claims 3-9, 11, and 13-14 are also rejected under USC 112(b) at least due to dependency to rejected claim 1.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1, 6-7, and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Thomas et al. (US 5133284, from IDS, hereafter ‘284), in view of Berry III (US 20170133202, hereafter ‘202), Rayner (US 20120269968, hereafter ‘968) and Weaver et al. (US 20160355927, from IDS, hereafter ‘927).
‘284 teaches some limitations of:
Claim 1: An illustrative reaction chamber of a high pressure chemical vapor deposition ("CVD") apparatus is shown from a top view in FIG. 1, and from a side view in FIG. 2. The process chamber 2 communicates with a load lock chamber 1 … Within process chamber 2 are five wafer process stations 4a-4e and a wafer load/unload station 5 … The system for moving wafers from station to station in the chamber 2 includes wafer transport mechanism 10 and a spindle rotation mechanism 26 (col. 2, line 58 to col. 3, line 4, includes the claimed “A processing chamber comprising: a top plate having a top surface and a bottom surface defining a thickness, a housing having walls and a bottom, the walls, the bottom, and the bottom surface of the top plate defining an interior volume of the processing chamber; a plurality of process stations in the interior volume of the housing, the plurality of process stations arranged in a circular arrangement around a rotational axis” and as shown in Figs. 1-2),
The wafers to be processed now rest upon or are slightly levitated over respective platens 14a-14e, under respective gas dispersion heads 12a-12e (col. 5, lines 35-37, includes the claimed “each of the plurality of process stations comprising: a gas injector”),
a structure that integrates the functions of wafer transport and wafer backside protection in a unit removable for maintenance and repair is shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 (col. 6, lines 35-33, an alternative to Figs. 1-2), The structure 200 is removably connected to the rotation mechanism 26 (FIG. 2) as follows. Shaft 230 is driven by the rotation mechanism 26. Shaft 230 is fitted into mounting block 224, which is suitably bored to receive it, and welded or otherwise suitably secured to the mounting block 224. Shaft 230 is hollow, and the bore which receives shaft 230 is made through the mounting block 224 to a surface that is designed to mate in a gas-tight manner with the support block 206 (Fig. 6, col. 6, lines 54-62, mounting block 224 and the support block 206, together, includes the claimed “a support assembly in the interior volume of the housing, the support assembly positioned below the plurality of process stations, the support assembly including a rotatable center base with a plurality of support arms extending from the rotatable center base”, the mounting block 224 and the support block 206, together, is the claimed “a rotatable center base” with “a rotational axis”);
Gas delivery tubes 213a-213f (hidden), which are similar to tube 126, are routed through respective heaters 215a-215f and connect to tubes 202a-202f. Tubes 202a-202f function as gas delivery tubes and support for the platen-heater assemblies 204a-204f (col. 6, lines 42-47, includes the claimed “each support arm having an inner end in contact with the rotatable center base and an outer end, wherein a heater is positioned on the outer end of each of the support arms”),
The wafers to be processed now rest upon or are slightly levitated over respective platens 14a-14e, under respective gas dispersion heads 12a-12e (col. 5, lines 35-36), The removable integrated structure 200 includes platen-heater assemblies 204a-204f, which include individual platens 214a-214f similar to the illustrative platen 100 mounted on individual heaters 215a-215f (col. 6, lines 38-42, the claimed “and having a support surface configured to support a wafer during processing”).
‘284 does not teach the other limitations of:
Claim 1: (1A) the top plate having a plurality of openings;
(each of the plurality of process stations comprising) a pump/purge insert within one of the plurality of openings in the top plate to create a gas curtain around the process station, the pump/purge insert including a ledge and an opening in which the gas injector is inserted, the gas injector including a flange in fluid communication with the ledge adjacent a top of the pump/purge insert;
(1B) a support plate having a plurality of openings configured to allow access to the support surfaces of the heaters,
wherein a number of the heaters, a number of the support arms, and a number of the process stations are equal,
(1C) wherein each of the pump/purge inserts includes a gas plenum that is in fluid communication with at least one opening in a bottom of the pump/purge insert, and wherein the at least one opening in the bottom of the pump/purge insert is configured to align with a gap between the support plate and the heaters.
‘202 is an analogous art in the field of semiconductor fabrication … ALD ([0001]), a 4-station substrate processing apparatus (Fig. 4B, [0016]), substrate carousel 490 ([0054]). ‘202 teaches that Volumetric isolation between process stations via curtain gas flow is illustrated in FIG. 5B which shows a pair of process stations 511 and 512 (see dashed lines in FIG. 5B) within a multi-station processing chamber 503 of a processing apparatus 550. As illustrated in the figure by arrows indicative of the direction of gas flow, in addition to the curtain gas flow pattern shown in FIG. 5A (in the context of a single station), here the curtain gas 520 additionally flows between the process stations 511 and 512 volumetrically isolating them from one another. Note that this view shows a pair of process stations in cross section, so the view could represent a 2-station processing chamber embodiment, or it could represent a cross-sectional view of a 4-station processing chamber embodiment, such as that schematically illustrated in FIG. 4B ([0064]).
‘968 is an analogous art in the field of Atomic Layer Deposition Apparatus (title), a CVD technique ([0005]). ‘968 teaches that A showerhead plate 117 ([0071], 3rd last sentence), With reference to FIGS. 3, 5, 6, and 7, the top-plate 113 subassembly includes an annular disk shape that surrounds the centrally-mounted precursor input adapter 112. A curtain gas port 201, extending though the outer surface of the top-plate 113, is used to introduce inactive gas to an inactive gas dispersion arrangement, which, in this preferred and non-limiting embodiment, includes an annular charge volume 118 partly defined by the horizontal surface of an annular, primary dispersion member 119 (which may be in the form of a showerhead-type disk). Sufficient uniformity within this charge volume (or cell) is maintained by flowing gas through an annular, secondary dispersion member 120 (with volumes 203 and 204, respectively, above and below the secondary dispersion member 120) ([0073]), for the purpose of remove any precursors and/or reaction byproduct ([0020], 4th sentence). Fig. 1(a) of ‘968 shows some outer holes of 28 is aligned with the exhaust path, i.e. a gap.
Before the effective filing dates of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to have added a gas curtain to each station of ‘284, as taught by ‘202, for the purpose of isolating each station, as taught by ‘202 ([0064]). Furthermore, to have adopted dispersion member 119 of ‘968 to each gas dispersion heads 12a-12e of ‘284, for the purpose of remove any precursors and/or reaction byproduct, as taught by ‘968 ([0020], 4th sentence). The combined apparatus reads into the limitations of 1A and 1C as shown in illustrations 1 and 2 below:
Illustration 1
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[AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Pump/purge
insert)][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Flange
In contact
with ledge)][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Gas injector
Insert to
opening)][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (ledge)][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (opening)][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Gas
plenum)][AltContent: textbox (Opening align
with a gap
(See Fig. 1(a)))]
Illustration 2:
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[AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Top
plate)][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Openings
of the top
plate with
gas injector)][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Pump/purge
Insert of
gas curtain)]
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‘927 is an analogous art in the field of Susceptor Position And Rotation Apparatus (title), The susceptor 340 is shown as a flat plate but can also include recesses or pockets like those shown in FIG. 2 ([0045], last sentence). ‘927 teaches that that the recess 142 in the top surface 141 of the susceptor assembly 140 is sized so that a substrate 60 supported in the recess 142 has a top surface 61 ([0029]), Processing chambers having multiple gas injectors can be used to process multiple wafers simultaneously so that the wafers experience the same process flow … In some embodiments, there is the same number of wafers being processed as there are gas distribution assemblies ([0032], 1st and 3rd last sentence).
Before the effective filing dates of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to have added one more gas dispersion head to turn the load/unload station 5 of ‘284 into a matching processing station, as taught by ‘927 (the limitation of 1B), A person of ordinary skill would have known this arrangement would have recognized different processing and load sequence for various application, and/or for its suitability with predictable results. The selection of something based on its known suitability for its intended use has been held to support a prima facie case of obviousness. MPEP 2144.07.
‘284 further teaches the limitations of:
Claim 6: Fig. 6 shows tubes 202a-202f are orthogonal to shaft 230, the claimed “wherein the support arms extend orthogonal to the rotational axis”.
Claim 11: The structure 200 is removably connected to the rotation mechanism 26 (FIG. 2) (col. 6, lines 54-55, the claimed “further comprising at least one motor connected to the rotatable center base, the at least one motor configured to rotate the support assembly around the rotational axis”, note ‘927 also teaches motor ([0056]).
‘284 further teaches that tubes 202a-202f function as gas delivery tubes and support for the platen-heater assemblies 204a-204f (col. 6, lines 45-47), Power is supplied to the heaters 215a-215f through paired conductors, which run through electrical conduits 208a-208f (hidden in FIG. 5) and are interconnected in any suitable manner in female connector 210 (col. 6, lines 49-53), backside gas introduced into the shaft 230 is conveyed to bores in the support block 206, which distribute the backside gas to the tubes 202a-202f. Female connector 210 is detachably connected to male connector 220, which receives power from a pair of conductors which run through a single electrical conduit 222 (col. 6, line 64 to col. 7, line 2), in other words, gas past through shaft while electrical connections is attached to the outside of the shaft.
‘927 further teaches the limitations of:
Claim 7: the susceptor assembly 140 of FIG. 1 includes a shaft 160 which is capable of lifting, lowering and rotating the susceptor assembly 140. The susceptor assembly may include a heater, or gas lines, or electrical components within the center of the shaft 160 ([0030], obvious to re-arrange the electrical connections of ‘284 with the shaft, including the claimed “wherein each of the support arms comprises a channel extending from the rotatable center base, the channel configured to route wires to electrodes connected to the heater of that support arm”).
Claims 3-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ‘284, ‘202, ‘968, and ‘927, as being applied to claim 1 rejection above, further in view of Park et al. (US 20070215036, from IDS, hereafter ‘036).
The combination of ‘284, ‘202, ‘968, and ‘927 does not teach the limitations of:
Claim 3: further comprising a controller configured to move the wafer back and forth between a first process station and a second process station of the plurality of process stations within the processing chamber.
Claim 5: wherein the controller further comprises one or more configurations selected from: a configuration to provide power to one or more of the heaters; a configuration to measure a temperature of one or more of the heaters; a configuration to rotate the support assembly around the rotational axis; a configuration to move the support assembly around the rotational axis; a configuration to set or change a rotation speed of the support assembly; or a configuration to provide a flow of gas to a process station.
‘036 is an analogous art in the field of Method And Apparatus Of Time And Space Co-divided Atomic Layer Deposition (title), The apparatus 100 of the illustrated embodiment comprises four reaction spaces 170, 180, 190, and 200, with each reaction space (or reaction zone) having a bottom opening (see below). A substrate support platform 110 is configured to transfer substrates or wafers W1-W4 among the reaction spaces (Fig. 2, [0042], 3rd sentence). ‘036 teaches that In another embodiment, rotation is reversed after completing one circuit of the desired number of reaction spaces, e.g., reversing from clockwise to counter-clockwise rotation, either directly back to the first reaction space or by again employing the intervening spaces in reverse order ([0057], last sentence, see also Figs. 7A-7C, [0057]-[0063]), The illustrated embodiment may be suited for a "two-step" deposition process, in which a wafer is sequentially and alternately exposed to two reactant gases. In this embodiment, an ALD cycle is complete with a half rotation of the substrate support platform through two steps, with a quarter of a complete rotation per step ([0064], therefore, this is the same as Applicants’ Fig. 18B), a control system (or controller) may be provided to control various aspects of wafer processing, such as, e.g., reactant pulsing, purge gas pulsing, reactant removal, purge gas removal, by-product removal, movement of the substrate support platform, wafer residence times, pressure in each of the reaction spaces, pumps, substrate temperature and in situ and/or remote plasma generation. The controller may be configured to control plasma generation parameters, which include, without limitation, radio frequency (RF) power on time, RF power amplitude, RF power frequency, reactant concentration, reactant flow rate, reaction space pressure, total gas flow rate, reactant pulse durations and separations, and RF electrode spacing. The controller may comprise one or more computers configured to communicate with each other and various processing units of the apparatuses of preferred embodiments. The controller is also configured to control robot movement for loading and unloading substrates (or wafers) to and from the reaction spaces. The controller is configured to control the switches of each of the reaction spaces (e.g., switches 178, 188, 198 and 208 of FIG. 3) ([0087]).
Before the effective filing dates of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to have added a controller that includes the control of the two-step ALD deposition process by reversing directly between two stations as shown in Fig. 7A-7C of ‘036, for the purpose of automatic control of two-step ALD deposition process, as taught by ‘036 ([0087] and [0064]).
Note ‘284 already teaches various control configurations of claim 5 and ‘036 specifically teaches using automatic controller to perform the control.
‘202 further teaches the limitations of:
Claim 4: a 4-station substrate processing apparatus (Fig. 4B, [0016], including the claimed “wherein the first process station and the second process station are located 90° apart around the rotational axis”).
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ‘284, ‘202, ‘968, and ‘927, as being applied to claim 7 rejection above, further in view of Murakawa (US 20150361553, from IDS, hereafter ‘553).
‘927 teaches that electrical components within the center of the shaft 160 ([0030]).
The combination of ‘284, ‘202, ‘968, and ‘927 does not teach the limitations of:
Claim 8: wherein each of the heaters comprises an electrostatic chuck powered through the electrodes extending through the channel in the respective support arms.
‘553 is an analogous art in the field of ROTATING SEMI-BATCH ALD DEVICE (title). ‘553 teaches that a heater 31 is embedded right below the recess 32 of the susceptor 3 for heating the substrates being processed 4 ([0128], 1st sentence), an electrostatic chuck (not shown) is disposed on the rotating susceptor 3 for preventing the substrates being processed 4 from floating or being detached when the susceptor 3 rotates at a high speed or when the gas flow increases (Fig. 5, [0128], last sentence).
Before the effective filing dates of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to have adopted electrostatic chuck/heater of ‘553 as the platen 214a-214f of ‘284, passing through the center of the shaft 160 of ‘927, for the purpose of preventing substrate floating during high speed rotation or gas flow, as taught by ‘553 ([0128], last sentence).
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ‘284, ‘202, ‘968, ‘927, and ‘553, as being applied to claim 8 rejection above, further in view of Madsen et al. (US 20160358808, hereafter ‘808).
The heaters 215a-215f are supported by the horizontal tubes 202a-202f.
The combination of ‘284, ‘202, ‘968, ‘927, and ‘553 does not teach the limitations of:
Claim 9: wherein each of the heaters is supported on a heater standoff positioned at the outer end of the respective support arms.
‘808 is an analogous art in the field of a multi-station semiconductor processing tool, e.g., a single chamber that houses four processing stations (as depicted in FIG. 1) ([0041], 6th sentence), a gas distribution system 103, or showerhead, that is positioned above the semiconductor wafer ([0040], 3rd sentence). Figs. 12-13 of ‘808 shows that a standoff supporting each of the pedestal 1001 (see also Figs. 6-7). Note Fig. 1 shows a servo spindle 106 that rotates the pedestals.
Before the effective filing dates of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to have replaced each the horizontal tube support 202a-202f of ‘284 to vertical standoff of ‘808 to support each of the heaters 215a-215f of ‘284, for its suitability as support with predictable results. The selection of something based on its known suitability for its intended use has been held to support a prima facie case of obviousness. MPEP 2144.07.
Claims 13-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ‘284, ‘202, ‘968, and ‘927, as being applied to claim 1 rejection above, further in view of KRISHNAN et al. (US 20180142356, hereafter ‘356).
The combination of ‘284, ‘202, ‘968, and ‘927 does not teach the limitations of:
Claim 13: further comprising a bar passing over a center portion of the top plate of the processing chamber, the bar connected to the top plate near the center portion using a connector.
Claim 14: wherein the connector is configured to apply a force orthogonal to the top surface or the bottom surface of the top plate to compensate for bowing in the top plate.
‘356 is an analogous art in the field of A CHEMICAL VAPOR DEPOSITION SYSTEM (title), Susceptor 24 is a device upon which layers can be grown epitaxially on wafers (Fig. 1A, [0038], last sentence), The end having gas injector 12 is referred to herein as the “top” end of reaction chamber 10 ([0034], 3rd sentence). Fig. 1 of ‘356 is shown in illustration 3 below (there are many different ways of mapping to these components).
Before the effective filing dates of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to have added various components at top of injectors 12, as taught by ‘356, above the top of the chamber of ‘284, for its suitability with predictable results. The selection of something based on its known suitability for its intended use has been held to support a prima facie case of obviousness. MPEP 2144.07. Note the connector has at least friction force against the top plate.
Illustration 3
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plate)][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Bar)][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Connector)]
The combination of ‘284, ‘202, ‘968, ‘927, and ‘356 also teaches the limitations of:
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 02/10/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In regarding to 35 USC 103 rejection, Applicants argue the combination does not teach every limitation of amended claim 1, mainly by labeling Fig. 3 and 5 of ‘968 according to its Specification, see page 14, and then argue that the illustration of previous OC fails to disclose these limitations, see the bottom of page 16 to the top of page 17.
This argument is found not persuasive.
The examiner clearly label each component of the Fig. 5 of ‘968 in illustration 1 above and with the combination of ‘968 with ‘284 in illustration 2 above to identify the combination (along with ‘202 and ‘927), demonstrating that the combination teaches every limitations of claim 1.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 6902620 is cited for “Stations 504 through 512 are each equipped with a wafer heater and a showerhead (which are not shown) and are optionally isolated from each other through the use of a continuous inert gas purge between, and independent pumping around, each station” (Fig. 5, col. 4, lines 31-35).
US 9508547 is cited for curtain gas between stations (Fig. 3B).
US 20040187779 is cited for curtain gas holes 53 align with pumping holes 81a (Fig. 1). US 9175393 is cited for curtain gas holes 20 and exhaust apertures 14 surrounding each showerhead (Figs. 1-2).
US 20170032956 (from IDS) is cited for ALD back and forth processing (Fig. 7A, 18). US 5447570 is cited for purge gas passage 323 and pumping passage 333 surrounding wafer (Fig. 14).
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KEATH T CHEN whose telephone number is (571)270-1870. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30am-5:00 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Parviz Hassanzadeh can be reached on 571-272-1435. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KEATH T CHEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1716