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 .
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I, claims 1-11, in the reply filed on 7/29/26 is acknowledged. Claim 12 has been withdrawn from prosecution as being directed toward a non-elected invention. Claims 1-11 remain in the application for prosecution thereof.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
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 1,2 and 4-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being clearly anticipated by Chandrashekar et al. (20210375591).
Chandrashekar et al. (20210375591) teaches edge exclusion control form uniformity of processing at an edge region of a semiconductor wafer which includes exposing an edge region to treatment gas such as an inhibition gas (abstract). Chandrashekar et al. (20210375591) teaches exposing wafer to reactant gases to deposit tungsten nucleation layer across the wafer, exposing the edge region of the wafer to a gas including a tungsten deposition inhibitor, expose wafer to a reactant gas to deposit bulk tungsten layer on the top surface (4A,4B,5A,5B and [0058]-[0072]).
Regarding claim 1, a reactant gas and a raw material gas can be applied to form the nucleation layer thereon the wafer which meets the claimed first cycle [0062] and formation of the bulk tungsten layer would meet the claimed second cycle.
Regarding claim 2, self-limiting does not apply to the adsorption of the raw material gas as the gas would be stopped after desired layer is formed.
Regarding claim 4, the formation of the tungsten nucleation layer would require a first cycle to be performed once.
Regarding claims 5 and 6, the method including inhibition and surface deposition may be repeated one or more times which would meet the claimed twice or more times as well as change of the first cycle during the second cycle [0065].
Regarding claim 7, Fig. 6A shows the process gas being applied toward the substrate from an outside in a radial direction of the substrate.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3 and 8-10 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The prior art fails to teach desorbing hydrogen atoms from hydroxyl groups or amino groups formed with the process gas so that more hydroxyl groups are left in the center portion of the substrate rather than the edge portion.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRIAN K TALBOT whose telephone number is (571)272-1428. The examiner can normally be reached Monday -Friday 7-4PM.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, MICHAEL CLEVELAND can be reached at 571-272-1418. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/BRIAN K TALBOT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1712
Prosecution Insights