DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims 1-20 are pending.
The foreign priority application No.2023-051139 filed on March 28, 2023 in Japan has been received and it 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 1-9, 11, 13, and 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Domon et al. (US 2016/0090355) in view of Kojima et al. (US 2021/0088905).
With regard to claims 1 and 4, Domon et al. teach the salt of formula (0-1):
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, wherein W may be a C1-C10 alkylene, R01 may be a C3-C20 branched or cyclic monovalent hydrocarbon group which may be substituted with or separated by a heteroatom, m is an integer from 0 to 2, k is an integer satisfying 0≤k≤5+4m, R101, R102, and R103 are each independently a C1-C20 straight or C3-C20 branched or cyclic monovalent hydrocarbon group which may be substituted with or separated by a heteroatom, or at least two of R101, R102, or R103 may bond together to form a ring with the sulfur atom, L is a single bond, or an ester, sulfonic acid ester, carbonate, or carbamate bond (par.0019).
The examples of anion moieties in par.0057 show that k may be 3, R01 may be a C3 branched alkyl or C6 cyclic alkyl group.
Domon et al. do not specifically teach that the sulfonium salt of formula (0-1) comprises a group W of formula -CR1R2 wherein at least one of R1 and R2 is not hydrogen.
Kojima et al. teach a photoacid generator capable of generating an acid of formula (I):
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(par.0178), wherein R1 and R2 are each a hydrogen atom or a substituent that is not an acid withdrawing group or hydrogen, L is a divalent linking group, and R3 is an organic group (par.0178-0209).
The photoacid generator may be represented by the formula (ZaI):
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(par.0221).
Kojima et al. further teach that the group -C(R1)(R2) may be represented by the formula:
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or
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(par.0270).
The groups above are C5 and C7 alkylene groups, and Domon et al. allow for the group W to be a C1-C10 alkylene group (par.0051).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to use a group of formula:
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or
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as the group W in the salt of formula (0-1) of Domon et al.
A salt of formula (0-1) wherein W is
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or
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is an onium salt of formula (A) in claim 1, wherein R1 is hydrogen and R2 is a C4 branched hydrocarbyl group or a C6 cyclic hydrocarbyl group.
The cation portion of the sufonium salt of Domon modified by Kojima meets the limitations of claim 4.
Therefore, the sufonium salt of Domon modified by Kojima is equivalent to the onium salts in claims 1 and 4 of the instant application.
With regard to claim 2, Domon et al. teach that the aromatic ring structure to which R01 and L are attached may be represented by the formula:
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(par.0025).
With regard to claim 3, Domon et al. teach that L may be
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(see examples in par.0057), and the aromatic ring structure to which R01 and L are attached may be represented by the formula:
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(par.0025).
With regard to claims 5 and 6, Domon et al. teach a resist composition comprising the sulfonium salt of formula (0-1) capable of generating a sulfonic acid in response to high-energy radiation as an acid generator (par.0073).
With regard to claim 7, Domon et al. teach that the resist composition further comprises a base resin which decomposes under the action of an acid to increase its solubility in an alkaline developer (par.0074-0075).
With regard to claim 8, Domon et al. teach that the base resin comprises a repeating unit of formula (U-1):
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, wherein q=0 or 1, r is an integer of 0 to 2, R1 is hydrogen, fluorine, methyl or trifluoromethyl, R2 is each independently hydrogen or a C1-C6 alkyl group, B1 is a single bond or a C1-C10 alkylene group which may contain an ether bond, b is an integer of 1 to 3, a is an integer satisfying a≤5+2r-b (par.0075).
With regard to claim 9, Domon et al. teach that the base resin comprises a repeating unit of formula (U-2):
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, wherein s is 0 or 1, t is an integer of 0 to 2, R2 is each independently hydrogen or a C1-C6 alkyl group, B1 is a single bond or a C1-C10 alkylene group which may contain an ether bond, c is an integer satisfying c≤5+2t-e, d is 0 or 1, e is an integer of 1 to 3, X is an acid labile group or hydrogen, when e=2 or 3, with at least one X being an acid labile group (par.0075, par.0079).
With regard to claim 11, Domon et al. teach that the base resin comprises recurring units of formula (U-3) and/or (U-4):
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, wherein f is an integer from 0 to 6, R3 is each independently hydrogen or a C1-C6 alkyl group, primary or secondary alkoxy group or C1-C7 alkylcarbonyloxy which may be substituted with halogen, g is an integer of 0 to 4, and R4 is each independently hydrogen, or a C1-C6 alkyl group, primary or secondary alkoxy or C1-C7 alkylcarbonyloxy group which may be substituted with halogen (par.0088).
With regard to claim 13, Domon et al. teach that the resist composition comprises an organic solvent (par.0162).
With regard to claim 15, Domon et al. teach that the resist composition comprises a basic compound (par.0112), which is equivalent to the claimed quencher.
With regard to claim 16, Kojima et al. teach that the resist composition may use a combination of acid generators (par.0276, par.0278).
With regard to claims 17 and 18, Domon et al. teach a process comprising the steps of:
-applying the resist composition onto a substrate and pre-baking on a hot plate to obtain a resist film;
-exposing the resist film to high-energy radiation, such as EUV or EB; and
-developing the exposed resist film with an aqueous base solution (par.0129-0131).
With regard to claim 19, Domon et al. teach that the substrate may have a mask circuit of Cr, CrO, CrON formed thereon (par.0116, par.0129, par.0163).
With regard to claim 20, Domon et al. teach that the substrate may be a mask blank (par.0129-0130, par.0163-0154).
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Domon et al. (US 2016/0090355) in view of Kojima et al. (US 2021/0088905) as applied to claim 7 above, and further in view of Maruyama et al. (US 2010/0310987).
With regard to claim 10, Domon modified by Kojima teach the positive resist composition in claim 7 (see paragraph 5 above), but fail to teach that the base resin comprises the claimed repeating unit.
Maruyama et al. teach a radiation-sensitive composition comprising a polymer (A) with an acid dissociable group and a radiation-sensitive acid generator (B). The acid-dissociable group-containing polymer (A) includes a repeating unit of formula (I):
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, wherein R1 may be a hydrogen atom, a methyl group, a fluorine atom, or a trifluoromethyl group, R2 represents a substituted or unsubstituted aryl group with 6 to 22 carbon atoms, Y is a carbon atom, and X is an atomic group that forms an alicyclic hydrocarbon group together with Y (abstract, par.0010).
Maruyama et al. specifically teach a monomer which provides the repeating unit of formula (I):
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(par.0035), and further teach that the polymer may further comprise repeating units comprising phenolic hydroxyl groups (par.0036).
The radiation-sensitive composition of Maruyama et al. shows only a small degree of nano edge roughness, exhibits excellent sensitivity and resolution, and stably and accurately produces a fine pattern (par.0230).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to include a repeating unit derived from the monomer of formula:
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as the repeating unit comprising a group capable of decomposing under the action of an acid in the base resin of Domon modified by Kojima in order to improve the properties of the resist composition.
A repeating unit derived from the monomer of formula above is a repeating unit of formula (B2-2) wherein RA is a methyl group, A2 is a single bond, R13 and R14 are C3 hydrocarbyl groups bonded to form a ring with the carbon atom to which they are attached, c1=0, c2=0, c3=0, and c4=0.
Claims 12 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Domon et al. (US 2016/0090355) in view of Kojima et al. (US 2021/0088905) as applied to claim 7 above, and further in view of Ohashi et al. (US 2014/0162189).
With regard to claim 12, Domon modified by Kojima teach the positive resist composition in claim 7 (see paragraph 5 above), but fail to teach that the base resin comprises one of the claimed repeating units.
Ohashi et al. teach a chemically amplified resist composition, and teach that a sulfonium salt having a polymerizable anion provides for the efficient scission of acid labile groups (abstract).
The sulfonium salt having a polymerizable anion may be represented by the formula:
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(par.0186), and it is included in a base resin comprising a repeating unit with an acid labile group (par.0197).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to include a repeating unit derived from the monomer of formula:
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of Ohashi et al. in the base resin of Domon modified by Kojima, in order to obtain efficient scission of acid labile groups.
The repeating unit above is a repeating unit of formula (B7) wherein RA is a methyl group, Y2 is **-Y21-C(=O)-O-, Y21 is a hydrocarbylene with 10 carbon atoms, RHF is a trifluoromethyl group, R23 is a hydrocarbyl group comprising a heteroatom, R24 and R25 are hydrocarbyl groups, R23 and R24 bond to form a ring with the sulfur atom.
With regard to claim 14, Domon modified by Kojima teach the positive resist composition in claim 7 (see paragraph 5 above). Domon et al. teach that the resist composition may comprise a surfactant (par.0128), but fail to teach the claims fluorinated polymer.
Ohashi et al. teach a chemically amplified resist composition (abstract). The resist composition comprises a surfactant (par.0146-0147). The surfactant may be a polymeric surfactant comprising repeating units of formulas:
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, wherein R114 is each independently hydrogen, fluorine, methyl, or trifluoromethyl, R115 is each independently hydrogen or a straight, branched, or cyclic C1-C20 alkyl or fluoroalkyl group, two R115 may bond together to form a ring with the carbon atom to which they are attached, R121 is a straight or branched C1-C4 alkylene group (par.0150).
The repeating units above are repeating units of formulas (D1) and (D2) in claim 14, wherein R103 and R105 are hydrogen atoms.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to use the polymeric surfactant of Ohashi et al. in the resist composition of Domon modified by Kojima, because these polymeric surfactants are specifically taught for this purpose.
Conclusion
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/ANCA EOFF/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1722
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