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 Interpretation
Instant claim 16 depicts two different copolymer structures. The second structure is reproduced below.
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The specification similarly produces this structure in paragraph 0100. The Examiner does not find this structure to be improper, but notes that the presence of the ethylenically unsaturated group in the crosslinking group (refer to the circle in the above image) is unexpected. The Examiner suspects that the crosslinking group is provided in the form of a (meth)acrylate monomer, meaning that the ethylenically unsaturated group should instead by a carbonyl. However, due to the specification and the claims being in agreement, the copolymer structure is being interpreted as being correct as presented. The Examiner only presents this concern due to the unusual nature of the repeating unit associated with the crosslinking group.
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) 1-3, 6-12, 14-15, and 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20210271166 A1 (hereby referred to as Zi) in view of US 20130045601 A1 (hereby referred to as Ogihara).
Regarding Claims 1-3 and 6-10, Zi discloses a photoresist underlayer. The underlayer comprises a first polymer having acid-labile groups, a second polymer having one or more crosslinking groups, an acid generator, a quencher, and a solvent (Zi, paragraph 0025). The polymer with a crosslinking group includes a crosslinking group connected to the polymer chair by a connecting group (Zi, paragraph 0039). The polymer may be a polyhydroxystyrene, polyacrylate, or polymethylmethacrylate based polymer (Zi, paragraph 0040). Fig. 8A-8B of Zi shows the crosslinking group-containing polymer, which comprises functional groups described by claims 8-9 of the instant application, including hydroxy, alkene, and alkyne groups.
However, Zi is silent in regards to a polymer having a silicon-containing group .Ogihara teaches a resist underlayer film forming composition. The composition comprises a first polymer (Component (A)) and a silicon-containing compound (Component (B)) (Ogihara, paragraph 0048). Component (A) includes at least one or more repeating units according to formulae (1-1a) and (1-1b) (Ogihara, paragraph 0049). The structure of formula (1-1b) is reproduced below.
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In formula (1-1b), R7 is hydrogen or a methyl group; R8 represents a single bond or a divalent linking group; R5 is hydrogen or an organic C1-30 group; R6 is an alkyl group; and n is 0 to 2 (Ogihara, paragraph 0050). In the inventive examples, particularly Sol. 19 (refer to Table 8 on page 34 of Ogihara), component (A) is represented by formula A-4, which is shown on page 25 of Ogihara and reproduced below.
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Formula A-4 represents a copolymer analogous to “the first polymer” according to instant claim 1. Particularly, the repeating unit containing silicon (Si) is a repeat unit according to instant claims 1-3 and 6. This repeating unit is derived from Monomer-113 (per Table 1 of Ogihara), the structure of which is shown on page 24 of Ogihara. Sol. 19 further includes propylene glycol ethyl ether (PGEE) as a solvent (refer to Table 8 on page 34 of Ogihara). Whilst the particular example does not include an acid generator, the broader disclosure of Ogihara teaches that the resist underlayer composition may further include a photoacid generator (Ogihara, paragraph 0134). Ogihara further teaches that the condensate product to produce component (A) is formed from the reaction of a compound represented by formula (1-2) (Ogihara, paragraph 0057). The formula (1-2) is similar to the structure recited by claim 7, and is identical when the value of x in the structure of claim 7 is 4. Ogihara teaches that monomers such as hafnium methoxide, hafnium ethoxide, and other hafnium organometallic monomers may be used (Ogihara, paragraph 0065). Likewise, methoxy tin, ethoxy tin, and other tin organometallic monomers may be used (Ogihara, paragraph 0066).
Zi and Ogihara are analogous art because both references pertain to resist underlayer compositions. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant application to further include a polymer having a silicon-containing group, as taught by Ogihara, in the underlayer composition disclosed by Zi because including the silicon-containing polymer provides optimized etching selectivity optimization between the resist underlayer and the photoresist film (Ogihara, paragraph 0047).
Regarding Claims 11-12 and 14-15, Zi discloses a photoresist underlayer. The underlayer comprises a first polymer having acid-labile groups, a second polymer having one or more crosslinking groups, an acid generator, a quencher, and a solvent (Zi, paragraph 0025). The polymer with a crosslinking group includes a crosslinking group connected to the polymer chair by a connecting group (Zi, paragraph 0039). The polymer may be a polyhydroxystyrene, polyacrylate, or polymethylmethacrylate based polymer (Zi, paragraph 0040). Fig. 8A-8B of Zi shows the crosslinking group-containing polymer, which comprises functional groups described by claims 8-9 of the instant application, including hydroxy, alkene, and alkyne groups.
However, Zi is silent in regards to a polymer having a silicon-containing group .Ogihara teaches a resist underlayer film forming composition. The composition comprises a first polymer (Component (A)) and a silicon-containing compound (Component (B)) (Ogihara, paragraph 0048). Component (A) includes at least one or more repeating units according to formulae (1-1a) and (1-1b) (Ogihara, paragraph 0049). The structure of formula (1-1b) is reproduced below.
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In formula (1-1b), R7 is hydrogen or a methyl group; R8 represents a single bond or a divalent linking group; R5 is hydrogen or an organic C1-30 group; R6 is an alkyl group; and n is 0 to 2 (Ogihara, paragraph 0050). In the inventive examples, particularly Sol. 19 (refer to Table 8 on page 34 of Ogihara), component (A) is represented by formula A-4, which is shown on page 25 of Ogihara and reproduced below.
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Formula A-4 represents a copolymer analogous to “the first polymer” according to instant claim 1. Particularly, the repeating unit containing silicon (Si) is a repeat unit according to instant claims 1-3 and 6. This repeating unit is derived from Monomer-113 (per Table 1 of Ogihara), the structure of which is shown on page 24 of Ogihara. Sol. 19 further includes propylene glycol ethyl ether (PGEE) as a solvent (refer to Table 8 on page 34 of Ogihara). Whilst the particular example does not include an acid generator, the broader disclosure of Ogihara teaches that the resist underlayer composition may further include a photoacid generator (Ogihara, paragraph 0134). Ogihara further teaches that the condensate product to produce component (A) is formed from the reaction of a compound represented by formula (1-2) (Ogihara, paragraph 0057). The formula (1-2) is similar to the structure recited by claim 7, and is identical when the value of x in the structure of claim 7 is 4. Ogihara teaches that monomers such as hafnium methoxide, hafnium ethoxide, and other hafnium organometallic monomers may be used (Ogihara, paragraph 0065). Likewise, methoxy tin, ethoxy tin, and other tin organometallic monomers may be used (Ogihara, paragraph 0066).
Zi and Ogihara are analogous art because both references pertain to resist underlayer compositions. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant application to produce a copolymer having a silicon-containing group, as taught by Ogihara, and a crosslinking group in the underlayer composition disclosed by Zi because including the silicon-containing polymer provides optimized etching selectivity optimization between the resist underlayer and the photoresist film (Ogihara, paragraph 0047). One having ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to produce a copolymer having both a silicon-containing group and a crosslinking group because producing a copolymer instead of two separate polymers allows for control over the properties provided by each pendant group and removes the need to synthesize two separate polymers.
Regarding Claims 17-20, the combination of Zi and Ogihara renders obvious the resist underlayer composition described by instant claims 17-18 and 20, as described above in regards to claims 1, 6-7, and 9. Zi further discloses a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device (Zi, paragraph 0091). The method involves forming the resist underlayer over a semiconductor substrate having a later to be patterned disposed thereon, heating the underlayer to form a crosslinked photoresist underlayer, forming a photoresist layer over the underlayer, selectively exposing the photoresist layer to actinic radiation, and developing the photoresist layer to form a pattern (Zi, paragraph 0091-0092). Following development, the layer to be patterned is then etched using the photoresist layer pattern as an etching mask (Zi, paragraph 0092).
Claim(s) 4-5, 13, and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20210271166 A1 (hereby referred to as Zi) in view of US 20130045601 A1 (hereby referred to as Ogihara) as applied to claims 1 and 11 above, and further in view of US 20100167203 A1 (hereby referred to as Cho).
Regarding Claims 4-5, 13, and 16, the combination of Zi and Ogihara renders obvious the resist underlayer composition according to instant claim 1, as explained above. Zi discloses that the polymer may comprise an epoxide group attached to an ester group (Zi, paragraph 0111), which is the crosslinking group shown in the first copolymer recited by instant claim 16. Ogihara teaches a silicon-containing polymer. However, Zi and Ogihara are both silent in regards to silsequioxanes.
Cho teaches a resist underlayer composition. The composition comprises a solvent and an organosilane polymer (Cho, paragraph 0036). The organosilane polymer is produced from a two silane monomers (Cho, paragraph 0037). In one embodiment, the organosilane polymer has a repeat unit according to chemical formula 6 (Cho, paragraph 0056). The structure of this repeat unit is reproduced below.
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Cho describes the above polymer as having a silsequioxane structure. The variable groups are defined in paragraphs 0057-0065 of Cho, and appropriate choices of these groups would yield one or more structures according to instant claims 4-5. For instance, the Ph1 and Ph2 groups may be phenyl rings, R3 may be a phenyl group, R4 may be hydrogen or an alkyl group, and the values of a, b, c, d, e, l, m, and n may be chosen appropriately to yield the structures of instant claims 4 and 5.
Zi, Ogihara, and Cho are analogous art because each reference pertains to underlayer compositions. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant application to use the silsequioxane polymer taught by Cho in place of the silicon-containing polymer disclosed by Ogihara in the method obtained by combining the teachings of Zi and Ogihara because a silsequioxane polymer can produce a resist underlayer composition that possess a low refractive index and a high light absorbance (Cho, paragraph 0078), thereby allowing for high resolution resist patterns to be formed (Cho, paragraph 0130).
Claim(s) 4-5, 13, and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20210271166 A1 (hereby referred to as Zi) in view of US 20130045601 A1 (hereby referred to as Ogihara) as applied to claims 1 and 11 above, and further in view of US 20180101095 A1 (hereby referred to as Lin).
Regarding Claims 4-5, 13, and 16, the combination of Zi and Ogihara renders obvious the resist underlayer composition according to instant claim 1, as explained above. Zi discloses that the polymer may comprise an epoxide group attached to an ester group (Zi, paragraph 0111), which is the crosslinking group shown in the first copolymer recited by instant claim 16. Ogihara teaches a silicon-containing polymer. However, Zi and Ogihara are both silent in regards to silsequioxanes.
Lin teaches a resist composition including a polymer having an acid-labile group (ALG) and a first silicon-containing unit (Lin, paragraph 0030). The silicon-containing unit includes silicon-oxygen bonds and may include a silsequioxane (Lin, paragraph 0034). Examples of suitable cage-type silsequioxanes are shown in Fig. 6B-6F of Lin (Lin, paragraph 0034). The structures of these silsequioxanes match those recited by instant claims 4-5, 13, and 16. The silicon-containing unit functions as an etching resistance enhancement unit (Lin, paragraph 0027).
Zi, Ogihara, and Lin are analogous art because each reference pertains to photolithography methods comprising photosensitive materials. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant application to use silsequioxanes, such as those taught by Lin, as the silicon-containing group in the polymer obtained by combining the teachings of Zi and Ogihara because silsequioxanes function as etching resistance enhancement units and advantageously provided increased etching resistance (Lin, paragraph 0030).
Conclusion
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/JAYSON D COSGROVE/Examiner, Art Unit 1737 /JONATHAN JOHNSON/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1734
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