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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 12/3/2025 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 1 and 3-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Wang et al. (US 2019/0164966 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Wang discloses a semiconductor device (final device shown in Fig. 7), comprising:
a fin-shaped structure (112 in Fig. 7; fin structure more clearly seen in Fig. 1) extend along a first direction (direction of the length of the fin in Fig. 1) on a substrate (“substrate 110” in Figs. 1 and 7, ¶ 0012);
a gate electrode (“gate electrode 714” in Fig. 7, ¶ 0029) extend along in a second direction (direction of the length of the gate electrode in Fig. 7) on the fin-shaped structure (compare Figs. 1 and 7);
a spacer (712 in Fig. 7; compare to Applicant’s spacer 26 in Applicant’s Fig. 3) directly contacting sidewalls of the gate electrode (see Fig. 7); and
a gate dielectric layer (combination of 210 in Fig. 3 (which is a “dielectric layer” per ¶ 0019) and 310 in Fig. 3 (which is a “dielectric material” per ¶ 0019); although portion 210 is not shown in Fig. 7, Wang discloses layer 210 still remains in some embodiments (¶ 0027)) extending along the first direction (although the longest length of the gate dielectric is shown to be in the second direction in Fig. 3, the gate dielectric layer stretches in the first direction and is, therefore, considered to extend in the first direction) between the fin-shaped structure and the gate electrode (compare Figs. 1, 3, and 7), wherein the gate dielectric layer comprises a first portion (see rendering below) directly under the gate electrode and a second portion (see rendering below) adjacent to two sides of the gate electrode and directly under the spacer (see rendering below), the first portion directly under the gate electrode and the second portion directly under the spacer comprise different materials (first portion comprising silicon oxide per ¶ 0017 and the second portion comprising silicon oxynitride per ¶ 0019), and both the first portion and the second portion are adjacent to and directly contacting a sidewall of the fin-shaped structure (see Figs. 2 and 3) while the first portion, the second portion, and the fin-shaped structure are all extending along the first direction (although the longest length of the first and second portions are shown to be in the second direction in Fig. 7, the first and second portion stretch in the first direction and are, therefore, considered to extend in the first direction).
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Regarding claim 3, Wang discloses the semiconductor device of claim 2, as discussed above.
Wang further discloses wherein the first portion comprises silicon oxide (¶ 0017) and the second portion comprises silicon oxynitride (¶ 0019).
Regarding claim 4, Wang discloses the semiconductor device of claim 1, as discussed above.
Wang further discloses an epitaxial layer (420 in Fig. 7, ¶ 0021) adjacent to two sides of the gate electrode, wherein the second portion is between the first portion and the epitaxial layer (compare Fig. 7 of Wang and rendering, above)
Regarding claim 5, Wang discloses the semiconductor device of claim 1, as discussed above.
Wang further discloses wherein the first direction is orthogonal to the second direction (compare Figs. 1 and 7, above which show the second direction (direction of length of the gate electrode) orthogonal to the first direction (direction of length of the fin structure).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 12/03/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that the “first portion” and “second portion” of Wang fails to disclose the newly added limitations. Applicant’s mapping of what constitutes the “first portion” and what constitutes the “second portion” is different from the mapping used in both the present and prior Office actions. The mapping used in the Office actions is consistent with the newly added limitations.
Conclusion
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/CHRISTOPHER A CULBERT/Examiner, Art Unit 2815