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 .
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 16, 18, 19, 23, 24, and 28-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by DeBoer et al (WO 2019/197117).
DeBoer et al discloses a dark-field metrology apparatus ([0039],[0043]) and method wherein the apparatus comprises an illumination branch configured to illuminate the structure 8 with first illumination radiation 21. The illumination by the first illumination radiation 21 generates first scattered radiation 31. The metrology apparatus comprises a detection branch. The detection branch comprises an optical system 2 for guiding a portion 41 of the first scattered radiation 31 from the structure 8 to a sensor 6. The portion 41 of the first scattered radiation 31 is thus the portion of the first scattered radiation 31 that reaches the sensor 6. Other portions of the first scattered radiation 41 do not reach the sensor 6. In an embodiment, the portion 41 of the first scattered radiation 31 reaching the sensor 6 excludes a specular reflection component of the first scattered radiation 31. This may be achieved by arranging for a polar angle of incidence of the first illumination radiation 21 to be large enough to ensure that the specular reflection, which will occur at the same polar angle of incidence as the illumination, falls outside of a numerical aperture (NA) of the optical system 2.
The sensor 6 thus makes a dark field measurement (and detects interferograms, that is from the multiple portions of scattered radiation). In an embodiment, the portion 41 of the first scattered radiation 31 consists at least predominantly of (i.e. more than half of or completely of) one or more non-zeroth order diffraction components, for example a +1 order diffraction component only or one or more of a +1, +2, +3 or higher order positive non-zeroth order diffraction component, scattered from the structure 8.
The instant reference branch is taught by the apparatus of the reference wherein reference radiations 51 and 52 are directed to the sensor 6 ([0042]-[0044], figure 3). The instantly claimed filter arrangement is taught by the reference apparatus wherein the specular reflection component of the first scattered radiation is excluded from the portion 41 or the scattered radiation 31, which would meet the limitations for the filter arrangement as that portion of radiation is filtered out and excluded ([0039]). The detection arrangement of the reference further detects the interference pattern from the filtered interference scattered radiation ([0042]).
Figure 4 depicts the first illumination radiation 21, second radiation 22, first reference radiation 51, and second reference radiation 52 for use in the metrology apparatus. The radiation source 10 generates a radiation beam of temporally and spatially coherent, or temporally and spatially partially coherent, or temporally coherent and spatially partially incoherent electromagnetic radiation (but sufficiently coherent for interference to take place at the sensor 6 [0045]), therefore teaching the limitation of the instant claim 16 for the object radiation and the reference radiation each spatially incoherent and mutually pointwise spatially coherent as the reference further teaches in [0042] that the portion of radiation 41 reaching sensor 8 is at least sufficiently coherent at the sensor 8 with the reference radiation 51 of the interference pattern to be formed (and thus would be considered pointwise spatially coherent). The claims would meet the limitations of the apparatus of instant claims 16, 29 , and 30, and the method of instant claim 28.
As discussed above, the beams (41, 42, 51, 52) are at least partially coherent which interfere at sensor 6 located in a pupil plane ([0040], [0045], [0076], figure 3; instant claims 3 and 4), wherein the radiation (41, 42, 51, 52) are distinct radiation beams (instant claim 9), and the reference beams and scattered radiation interfere with the corresponding radiation component as required by the instant claim 8.
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Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 17, 20-22, 25-27 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 references of record fail to fairly teach or suggest to one of ordinary skill in the art to prepare the device of instant claim 16, wherein the beam splitter splits the input beam in incoherent radiation into object and reference radiation which are copies of each other, wherein the reference branch comprises an optically inverting element in a field conjugate, or wherein the apparatus comprises an object illumination numerical aperture larger than the detection numerical aperture, wherein the detection aperture is filled with the filtered scattered illumination.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Goorden et al (11,360,399) is commonly owned and teaches a similar device and method does not teach each object and reference radiation being from the object branch and reference branch, respectively, spatially incoherent and mutually pointwise spatially coherent.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AMANDA C WALKE whose telephone number is (571)272-1337. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Thursday 5:30am to 4pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Niki Bakhtiari can be reached at 571-272-3433. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/AMANDA C. WALKE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1722
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