DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Priority
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.
Information Disclosure Statement
A copy of the foreign application 2023-022145 has not been received as indicated on the correspondence dated 7/16/2024.
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 1-4 and 7 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.
Claim 1, line 2 recites “the steps”, line 6 recites “the completion”; claim 7, line 2 recites “the temperature”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 1, line 12 recites “the said second substrate”, which should be amended to “
Claims 2-4 are also rejected because they are dependent upon claim 1.
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 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 1-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over Ashihara (US2014/0235068) in view of Masanori (JP2004039826). An English machine translation of Masanori (JP2004039826) is included with the Notice of Reference Cited (PTO-892).
With respect to the limitations of claim 1, Ashihara teaches a method of heating a substrate (Figs 1, 2, wafer 201, 0035) by irradiating the substrate with light (lamp heating unit 218, 0061), said method comprising the steps of: (a) irradiating a first substrate (201) held by a susceptor (susceptor 217, 0056) in a chamber (reaction vessel 203, 0054) with light from a lamp (218) to heat said first substrate; (b) transporting said first substrate out of said chamber by means of a transport robot (load/unload arm 106, 0037), said step (b) being executed after the completion (0047, when the predetermined processing in the process chamber 108 is completed, the gate valve 105 is opened and the wafers 201 are unloaded from the process chamber 108 and loaded into the transport chamber 107 108 by the load/unload arm 106) of said step (a); (d) transporting a second substrate into said chamber by means of said transport robot (0046, the load/unload arm 106 loads the wafers 201 into the process chamber 108; iterative production process where new wafers are constantly loaded and processed); and (e) irradiating said second substrate held by said susceptor in said chamber with light from said lamp to heat the said second substrate (0047, iterative production process where new wafers are constantly loaded onto the susceptor 217 and heated by the lamp 218). Ashihara discloses the claimed invention except for (c) waiting for a predetermined time period, with no substrate present in said chamber, said step (c) being executed after said step (b).
However, Masanori discloses a step (c) waiting for a predetermined time (0036, when a predetermined pre-processing elapsed time is reached, the process proceeds to step S5) period (Fig 5, 0032, lot processing C is performed after lot processing B has been performed with a time gap; preprocessing is performed before lot processing C), with no substrate present in said chamber (preprocessing is a purging of the process chamber 5 with inert gas, such as nitrogen 0045, and substrate would not be present during purging due to contamination of the substrate), said step (c) being executed after said step (b) (see figure 5) is known in the art. It would have been obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to adapt the method of heating a substrate of Ashihara silent to a waiting time with the step (c) waiting for a predetermined time period, with no substrate present in said chamber, said step (c) being executed after said step (b) of Masanori for the purpose of providing a known predetermine wait time that ensures the reproducibility of the processing conditions after the resumption of continuous processing, and thereby ensures the reproducibility of the processing results (0013) and reduced contamination (0014).
With respect to the limitations of claims 2, 3 and 4, Ashihara in view of Masanori discloses an atmosphere in said chamber (Ashihara, 203) is heated by the light irradiation from said lamp (Ashihara, lamp heating unit 218, 0061) in said step (c) Masanori;
an output from said lamp is feedback-controlled based on a measured temperature of said susceptor (Ashihara, 0060, temperature sensor is provided in the susceptor 217) in said step (c), Masanori;
a substrate carry-in/out opening of said chamber is closed (Ashihara, 0046, the gate valve 105 is closed) when the atmosphere in said chamber is heated;
With respect to the limitations of claim 5, Ashihara teaches a heat treatment apparatus for heating a substrate (Figs 1, 2, wafer 201, 0035) by irradiating the substrate with light (lamp heating unit 218, 0061), comprising: a chamber (reaction vessel 203, 0054) for receiving a substrate (201) therein; a susceptor (susceptor 217, 0056) for holding said substrate in said chamber; a lamp (218) for irradiating said substrate held by said susceptor with light; a transport robot (load/unload arm 106, 0037) for transporting said substrate into and out of said chamber; and a controller (controller 121, 0041) for controlling said lamp (218) and said transport robot (106), said controller controls said transport robot (106) so that, after said transport robot transports a first substrate subjected to heating treatment by the light irradiation from said lamp out of said chamber (0047, when the predetermined processing in the process chamber 108 is completed, the gate valve 105 is opened and the wafers 201 are unloaded from the process chamber 108 and loaded into the transport chamber 107 108 by the load/unload arm 106), and then transports a second substrate into said chamber (0046, the load/unload arm 106 loads the wafers 201 into the process chamber 108; iterative production process where new wafers are constantly loaded and processed). Ashihara discloses the claimed invention except for said transport robot waits for a predetermined time period, with no substrate present in said chamber.
However, Masanori discloses said transport robot waits for a predetermined time (0036, when a predetermined pre-processing elapsed time is reached, the process proceeds to step S5) period (Fig 5, 0032, lot processing C is performed after lot processing B has been performed with a time gap; preprocessing is performed before lot processing C), with no substrate present in said chamber (preprocessing is a purging of the process chamber 5 with inert gas, such as nitrogen, 0045, and substrate would not be present during purging due to contamination of the substrate) is known in the art. It would have been obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to adapt the heat treatment apparatus of Ashihara having a transport robot silent to waiting with waiting for a predetermined time period, with no substrate present in said chamber of Masanori for the purpose of providing a known predetermine wait time that ensures the reproducibility of the processing conditions after the resumption of continuous processing, and thereby ensures the reproducibility of the processing results (0013) and reduced contamination (0014).
With respect to the limitations of claims 6, 7 and 8, Ashihara in view of Masanori discloses said lamp heats (Ashihara, lamp heating unit 218, 0061) an atmosphere in said chamber (Ashihara, 203) by the light irradiation during the waiting period, with no substrate present in said chamber (Masanori, 0045);
further comprising a temperature measurement part for measuring the temperature of said susceptor (Ashihara, 0060, temperature sensor is provided in the susceptor 217), said controller effects feedback control of an output from said lamp, based on the temperature measured by said temperature measurement part (Ashihara, 0060);
further comprising a gate valve for opening and closing a substrate carry-in/out opening of said chamber, said gate valve closes said substrate carry-in/out opening (Ashihara, 0046, the gate valve 105 is closed) when the atmosphere in said chamber is heated.
Conclusion
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/THIEN S TRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3761 7/20/2026
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