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 .
Claims 1-6 withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected Group I, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 07/08/26.
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group II in the reply filed on 07/08/26 is acknowledged.
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 7-8, 14-17, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiaolan Ba et al (U. S. Patent Application: 2021/0313183, here after Ba), further in view of Gorun Butail et al (U. S. Patent Application: 2021/0238736, here after Butail).
Claim 7 is rejected. Ba teaches a method of forming a layer on a substrate, the method comprising:
providing, in a process chamber (ALD), one substrate having a surface for forming a layer [fig. 7] and processing the substrate in the processing chamber (step 405), wherein the method further comprises repeating the processing (step 407), whereby the precursor flow is lowered during (each) the repetition [0055, fig. 4]. Ba teaches ALD process for depositing tungsten (or molybdenum) film but does not teach the details of the process. Butail teaches a method of depositing tungsten film with ALD, and teaches the process chamber (ALD) being operably connected to a pump(vacuum) via a pump valve (806, which is labeled as 808 by mistake) [fig. 8],
processing the one or more substrates in the process chamber, the processing comprising the steps of:
providing, to the process chamber, a precursor flow (tungsten precursor), while the pump valve (806) is kept closed,
stopping the precursor flow, to the process chamber,
opening the pump valve (806) after stopping the precursor flow, thereby removing an exhaust gas from the process chamber by the pump [0107]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to have a method of Ba where the ALD process is based on Butail teaching, because it is suitable method of depositing tungsten with ALD.
Claim 8 is rejected as Butail teaches providing the precursor flow is done for a pre-determined duration [0107 last 3 lines].
Claim 14 is rejected. Ba teaches a method of forming a layer on a substrate (forming word line feature or filling tungsten layer), the method comprising:
providing, in a process chamber (ALD), one substrate having a surface, the surface comprising a surface enhancement structure(roughness) [0038]. Although Ba does not teach the surface enhancement structure having a surface area at least 200 times of a surface area of the substrate(roughness), however teaches etch back process creating roughness[0038], which in fact depends on etching condition the surface roughness can be 200 times surface area of the substrate;
processing the one or more substrates, thereby forming the layer on the surface [0044], wherein the processing comprises providing a precursor flow to the process chamber and depositing tungsten film view ALD. Ba teaches ALD process for depositing tungsten (or molybdenum) film but does not teach the details of the process. Butail teaches a method of depositing tungsten film with ALD, and teaches the process chamber (ALD) being operably connected to a pump(vacuum) via a pump valve (806, which is labeled as 808 by mistake) [fig. 8], wherein a pump valve(806), being positioned in between the process chamber and a pump(vacuum) for removing an exhaust gas from the process chamber, is kept closed during the processing[0107].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to have a method of Ba where the ALD process is based on Butail teaching, because it is suitable method of depositing tungsten with ALD.
Claim 15 is rejected as Ba teaches repeating the processing (step 407), wherein the precursor flow is lowered during(each) repetition [0055].
Claim 16 is rejected as Ba teaches the surface enhancement structure comprises a gap extending longitudinally in the substrate [fig. 5].
Claim 17 is rejected as Ba teaches the gap extends longitudinally in the substrate, the gap having a substantially circular opening, thereby forming a cylindrical hole [fig. 3B].
Claim 20 is rejected as Ba teaches the surface enhancement structure is an intermediate 3D memory device structure [0019].
Claims 11-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
Xiaolan Ba et al (U. S. Patent Application: 2021/0313183, here after Ba), Gorun Butail et al (U. S. Patent Application: 2021/0238736, here after Butail), further in view of Wen-xiang Xu et al (CN 111052381, here after Xu).
Claim 11-12 are rejected. Ba teaches the layer comprising tungsten (word line feature) and forming by ALD which comprising flowing precursor [0044] but does not teach flowing a first and a second (and third) precursor flow. Xu teaches a method comprising formation of word line features by filling traverse groove with ALD where word line features comprising tungsten, cobalt titanium aluminum or any combination(alloy) [page 11 paragraph 4]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in art at the time of the invention was made to have a method of Ba, and Butain, where the word line features are tungsten alloy (e.g. tungsten cobalt binary alloy or ternary tungsten cobalt aluminum alloy), because Xu teaches it is suitable alloy for filling traverse grooves. It is clear that with ALD a first and second(third) precursor flows which are different than each other (tungsten and cobalt, aluminum).
Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
Xiaolan Ba et al (U. S. Patent Application: 2021/0313183, here after Ba), Gorun Butail et al (U. S. Patent Application: 2021/0238736, here after Butail), further in view of Bhushan Zope et al (U. S. Patent Application: 2021/0054500, here after Zope).
Claim 13 is rejected. Ba and Butail do not teach deposition of metal in a vertical furnace. Zope teaches a method of making wordline features [0138] by depositing metal in vertical furnace wherein the process chamber is constructed and arranged for receiving a plurality of substrates comprised in a substrate boat [0063-0064]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in art at the time of the invention was made to have a method of Ba, and Butain, where the word line features is made in chamber of Zope, because it is suitable to deposit metal film via ALD in that chamber.
Claims 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
Xiaolan Ba et al (U. S. Patent Application: 2021/0313183, here after Ba), Gorun Butail et al (U. S. Patent Application: 2021/0238736, here after Butail), further in view of Qiang Xu et al (KRCN 20210040475, here after Xu-2).
Claim 18 is rejected. Ba teaches the gap extends longitudinally in the substrate [fig. 5] but does not teach wherein gap having a substantially rectangular opening, thereby forming a trench. Xu-2 teaches word line features for 3D NAND structure has rectangular opening shape and forming trench [fig. 1]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in art at the time of the invention was made to have a method of Ba, and Butain, where the word line features have rectangular opening shape, because it is suitable shape for it.
Claim 19 is rejected for the same reason claim 18 is rejected above therefore the opening has substantially rectangular opening. Ba teaches the gap extends longitudinally in the substrate and is parallel to the surface [fig. 5], the gap having a, thereby forming a lateral trench.
Claims 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
Xiaolan Ba et al (U. S. Patent Application: 2021/0313183, here after Ba), Gorun Butail et al (U. S. Patent Application: 2021/0238736, here after Butail), further in view of Rui-lin Zhu et al (CN 113249710, here after Zhu).
Claim 9 is rejected. Neither Ba nor Butail teach the repetition is done until a precursor concentration in the exhaust gas has reached a minimum value. Zhu teaches by mounting a gas sensor in exhaust conduit the concentration of residual gas or by-product is monitored, and processing parameters can be controlled to improve product [page 8, second full paragraph]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in art at the time of the invention was made to have a method of Ba, and Butain, where a gas sensor is mounted in exhaust conduit the concentration of residual gas or by-product is monitored, and processing parameters(based on concentration of precursor in exhaust gas) can be controlled to improve product.
Claim 10 is rejected. Neither Ba nor Butail teach the repetition is done until a precursor concentration in the exhaust gas has reached a minimum value. Zhu teaches by mounting a gas sensor in exhaust conduit the concentration of residual gas or by-product is monitored, and processing parameters can be controlled to improve product [page 8, second full paragraph]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in art at the time of the invention was made to have a method of Ba, and Butain, where a gas sensor is mounted in exhaust conduit the concentration of residual gas or by-product is monitored, and processing parameters(concentration of precursor in exhaust gas) can be controlled to improve product. The gas sensor (residual gas analyzer) should being positioned in between and being operably connected to the pump valve and to the pump (of Butail) as it is in exhaust conduit.
Conclusion
The examiner suggests that the applicant submits figures specially for claims 16 and 19 to avoid confusion.
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/TABASSOM TADAYYON ESLAMI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1718
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