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 .
Non-Final Office Action
DETAILED ACTION
Examiner’s Notes
(a) Claim date: 12/12/2023 (Preliminary amendment).
(b) Priority date: 07/13/2021.
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 1-8, 11, 14-17, 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by the prior art of record “Liu” <20110107280>.(As to claim 1, 15, Liu discloses):
1. (Currently Amended) A method of selecting a subset of critical patterns from a plurality of patterns of a design layout, the method comprising [0014: “a method of selecting a subset of target patterns from a design layout is disclosed”]:
accessing diffraction order data based on the plurality of patterns that represent features to be formed on at least a portion of a substrate wafer, the diffraction order data including a plurality of peaks corresponding to the plurality of patterns [0051: “a respective diffraction map is generated from each of a plurality of target patterns”] [0058: “all peaks are identified in each of the diffraction maps”];
PNG
media_image1.png
572
592
media_image1.png
Greyscale
identifying, by a hardware computer system, a subset of representative peaks from the plurality of peaks according to one or more grouping criteria [0070: “In step 410, a list of diffraction-signature groups is populated by non-repetitive 1-D and 2-D basis vectors included in the basis_list”];
the identifying comprising identifying a first representative peak of the subset of representative peaks that covers another peak colinear with the first representative peak, wherein the first representative peak is a discrete peak having a frequency that is an integer multiple of frequency of another discrete peak [0084: “a one-dimensional diffraction-signature group `v.sub.1` is considered to be covered by another one-dimensional diffraction-signature group `u.sub.1` if and only if there exists an integer `n` such that `v.sub.1` overlaps with `n*u.sub.1`”] [0078: “In FIG. 9B, it is shown that there exists a coverage relationship between Group A and Group B due to the overlap of peak 912 from clip 1 and peak 914 from clip 2. The dashed line 924 encompassing peaks 912 and 914 indicate the existence of overlap. Due to the overlap, Group B (with higher basis frequency) covers Group A (with lower basis frequency)];
PNG
media_image2.png
648
502
media_image2.png
Greyscale
and selecting the subset of critical patterns corresponding to the subset of representative peaks [0061: “In step 312, a subset of target patterns (or clips) are identified, whose diffraction-signature groups cover all possible diffraction-signature groups”].
(As to claim 2 Liu discloses):
2. (Currently Amended) The method of claim 1, further comprising performing a Fourier transform on the plurality of patterns to generate, respectively, the diffraction order data [0053: “Diffraction – signature grouping may be done in frequency domain or in spatial domain”. Note: As it is well known, frequency domain is obtained using Fourier Transform].
(As to claim 3 Liu discloses):
3. (Original) The method of claim 1, wherein the diffraction order data represents a plurality of diffraction order maps [0057: “Diffraction map is generated for each of the target patterns”].
(As to claim 4 Liu discloses):
4. (Currently Amended) The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of patterns includes one or more non-periodic patterns [0081, “target pattern 1200 includes a semi-isolated feature 1202” and “The notable feature here is the presence of continuous peaks rather than discrete peaks”].
(As to claim 5 Liu discloses):
5. (Currently Amended) The method of claim 1, further comprising processing the diffraction order data plurality of diffraction order maps via normalization and grayscaling [0081: “The x and y axis normalized frequency and amplitude of the diffraction order peaks”; Also,
PNG
media_image3.png
358
336
media_image3.png
Greyscale
Fig. 5B: Diffraction map 504 rendered as a grayscale intensity image.”].
(As to claim 6 Liu discloses):
6. (Currently Amended) The method of claim 5, further comprising processing the diffraction order data plurality of diffraction order maps via binarization to identify the plurality of peaks [0072: “Typically, only the peaks whose amplitudes are above a certain threshold are considered for the pattern selection algorithm. Also, the zero-eth order peak at the center is removed to simplify the pattern selection algorithm”; 0058: “peaks whose amplitude are below a certain predefined threshold range are discarded”-amplitude thresholding partitions the map into above/below-threshold (binary) regions to identify the retained peaks.]
(As to claim 7, 17 Liu discloses):-
7. (Currently Amended) The method of claim 1,further comprising: extracting peak centers and peak contours of the plurality of peaks; and classifying the plurality of peaks into discrete peaks and continuous peaks [0064: “A list, referred to as a `peak_list,` may be created, to record each peak's location (x,y), width in x and y directions (s.sub.x, s.sub.y) and amplitude (h)”].
PNG
media_image4.png
360
406
media_image4.png
Greyscale
[Also, Fig. 12B: envelopes 1212-1218 bound each continuous peak].
(As to claim 8 Liu discloses):
8. (Original) The method of claim 3, wherein the plurality of peaks are located at arbitrary directions on the diffraction order maps [0067: “respective 2-D basis vectors are constructed for each pair of non-collinear peaks generated by a 2-D pattern”] [0080: “Different pitches in both directions, and even multiple pitches in one direction can be accommodated too”].
(As to claim 11 Liu discloses):
11. (Currently Amended) The method of claim 1, wherein the peak contour is an actual contour without approximation [Fig. 12B depicts contour representation without approximation].
(As to claim 14 Liu discloses):
14. (Currently Amended) The method of claim 1, wherein the subset of critical patterns are used provided for use in at least one selected from: of optical proximity correction (OPC), defect inspection, defect prediction, or source mask optimization (SMO) [0063: “the results of the pattern-selection algorithm is often used for optimizing a lithographic process, such as SMO”].
(As to claim 16 Liu discloses):
16. (New) The medium of claim 15,
PNG
media_image5.png
668
482
media_image5.png
Greyscale
wherein the diffraction order data represents a plurality of diffraction order maps [0057: “In step 304, diffraction map is generated for each of the target patterns”].
(As to claim 21 Liu discloses):
21. (New) The medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions are further configured to cause the system to use the subset of critical patterns in at least one selected from: optical proximity correction, defect inspection, defect prediction, or source mask optimization [0063: “the results of the pattern-selection algorithm is often used for optimizing a lithographic process, such as SMO”].
Allowable Subject Matter
The following claims would be allowable if all rejections/objections cited in this office action (if any) are overcome and rewritten to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.The reason for this allowance is: the claimed subject matter could not have been anticipated or obviated using any prior arts.Allowable claims are: 9-10, 12 and 18-20.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record in the form PTO-892 are not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.Contact information:Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOHAMMED ALAM whose telephone number is (571) 270-1507, email address: [mohammed.alam@uspto.gov] and fax number (571) 270-2507. The examiner can normally be reached on 10AM to 4PM (EST), Monday to Friday. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner's Supervisor, JACK CHIANG can be reached on (571) 272-7483. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300./Mohammed Alam/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2851
Prosecution Insights