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 Election/Restrictions Claims 19-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 9/30/25. 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. Claim s 1-3, and 9-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US Patent 6,399,516 to Ayon . Regarding Claim 1, Ayon teaches a method of selectively etching material from a first surface of a substrate relative to a second surface of the substrate, the method comprising: providing a substrate (12) having a first surface comprising an etchable material and a second surface covered by an organic polymer layer (30) in a reaction chamber; and providing reactive species generated from NF ₃ -containing plasma (Col. 11, Lines 26-44) into the reaction chamber to selectively etch the etchable material. Regarding Claim 2, Ayon teaches (Col. 8, Lines 44-56) the organic polymer layer (30) comprises polyimide. Regarding Claim 3, Ayon teaches the organic polymer layer is substantially not etched. Regarding Claim 9, Ayon teaches the first surface and the second surface have a chemically different composition. Regarding Claim 10, Ayon teaches the first surface comprises silicon. Regarding Claim 11, Ayon teaches (Col. 5, Lines 26-42) the first surface comprises one or more of SiO ₂ , SiN , SiC , SiCN , SiON , SiOC , and SiOCN . Regarding Claim 12, Ayon teaches (Col. 7, Lines 22-50) the second surface comprises a metal. Regarding Claim 13, Ayon teaches (Col. 7, Lines 51-62) the metal is selected from the group consisting of aluminum, copper, tungsten, cobalt, nickel, niobium, iron, molybdenum, zinc, ruthenium, manganese, titanium, tin, and vanadium. Regarding Claim 14, Ayon teaches (Col. 7, Lines 22-62) the second surface comprises one or more of an elemental metal, metal oxide, or a metal nitride. Regarding Claim 15, Ayon teaches the first surface and the second surface form different surfaces of a structure. Regarding Claim 16, Ayon teaches (Fig 1M) the second surface forms an inside surface of a gap. 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. Claim s 1 and 3 - 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by , or in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Publication 2001/0002731 to Ueda . Regarding Claim 1, Ueda teaches a method of selectively etching material from a first surface of a substrate relative to a second surface of the substrate, the method comprising: providing a substrate (Figure 2(a)) having a first surface comprising an etchable material and a second surface covered by an organic polymer layer (resist) in a reaction chamber (Paragraph 51) ; and providing reactive species generated from NF ₃ -containing plasma into the reaction chamber to selectively etch the etchable material (21) . An organic polymer is implicit for resist material (photoresist). Further it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to perform the method of Ueda using a conventional organic polymer resist with predictable results Regarding Claim 3, Ueda teaches the organic polymer layer is substantially not etched (Fig 2(b)). Regarding Claims 4-6, Ueda teaches (Paragraph 51) the NF ₃ -containing plasma is generated from a gas mixture consisting substantially only of argon and NF3. Regarding Claim 7, Ueda teaches (Paragraph 51) the NF3-containing plasma is generated from a gas mixture containing between about 1 % and about 90% NF3. Claim s 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US Patent 6,399,516 to Ayon in view of US Publication 2009/0068844 to Pischtiak et al. Regarding Claim 8, as applied above, Ayon teaches the method of the invention substantially as claimed, but does not expressly teach remote plasma. However, remote plasma is a well-known expedient for plasma processing. For example, Pischtiak et al. teaches plasma processing mixtures such as NF3 and argon may be delivered to a processing chamber with a remote plasma (Paragraph 40). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to perform the method of Ayon using a remote plasma in order to provide a homogenous mixture to a processing chamber as recited by Pischtiak et al. with predictable results. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 17 and 18 are allowed. The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: The Prior Art of Record fails to teach or render obvious the method as recited in the context of Claim 17 . Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.” Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US Patent 4,904,341 to Blaugher et al. teaches etching silicon dioxide with a mixture of nitrogen trifluoride and argon . Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to FILLIN "Examiner name" \* MERGEFORMAT Roberts P Culbert whose telephone number is FILLIN "Phone number" \* MERGEFORMAT (571)272-1433 . The examiner can normally be reached FILLIN "Work Schedule?" \* MERGEFORMAT Monday thru Thursday 7:30 AM-6 PM EST . 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, FILLIN "SPE Name?" \* MERGEFORMAT Parviz Hassanzadeh can be reached at FILLIN "SPE Phone?" \* MERGEFORMAT 571-272-1435 . 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