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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Species IC in the reply filed on 12/23/2025 is acknowledged.
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.
Claims 1, and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Nikoonahad et al. (US 20040032581 A1 hereinafter Niko).
As to claim 1, Niko teaches a dark-field inspection device ([0038]), comprising:
a lighting unit (70 and 82 in Fig. 5) that illuminates a sample (66) with illumination light (72); and
a light receiving unit (84 and 74) that collects scattered light scattered from the sample (66) when the illumination light (72) is irradiated to the sample ([0071]),
wherein the lighting unit is configured to vary a wavelength of the illumination light irradiated from the lighting unit ([0095]).
As to claim 11, Niko teaches the dark-field inspection device of claim 1.
Niko further teaches the lighting unit includes a light source (70) and an optical system that is composed of a plurality of lenses for forming the light emitted from the light source in a line shape, so the lighting unit irradiates line light of a certain length ([0076] beam may be fanned out to a line by cylindrical lenses).
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 of this title, 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.
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Niko and in view of Lewis et al. (US 20050052644 A1 hereinafter Lewis).
As to claim 12, Niko teaches the dark-field inspection device of claim 11.
However, Niko does not explicitly disclose a light length adjustment unit that adjusts a length of the line light irradiated from the lighting unit.
Lewis teaches a light length adjustment unit that adjusts a length of the line light irradiated from the lighting unit ([0044]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention was made to modify the device of Niko by having a light length adjustment unit that adjusts a length of the line light irradiated from the lighting unit for the benefit including controlling the area of interest depending on the user’s necessities.
Citation of Relevant Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Katzir et al. (US 20130147943 A1) teaches a lens optical system (30) that is composed of a plurality of lenses (31-38) for forming the light emitted from the light source (FIG. 1) so that the light emitted from the light source in a line shape (abstract and [0042]) for the dark field imaging ([0008,0016]).
Chhibber et al. (US 20040207836 A1) teaches shutters (10A and B) used for dark-field imaging.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 13-15 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
As to claim 13, none of the prior art alone or in combination disclose or teach of the light length adjustment unit includes a shutter that is installed at a position in an optical path between the light source and the sample and configured to be open and closed, and a control unit that controls the opening and closing of the shutter, and the length of the line light is adjusted according to a degree of opening and closing of the shutter along with other limitation in the claim 13.
Claims 14-15 are indicated as allowable due to their dependencies only.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SUNGHEE Y GRAY whose telephone number is (571)270-3211. The examiner can normally be reached on T-R, 8:00 am-4:00 pm and F 8 :00 to 2:00 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kara Geisel can be reached on (571) 272-2416. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-270-4211.
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/SUNGHEE Y GRAY/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2886