CTNF 18/663,463 CTNF 83642 Detailed Correspondence Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status 07-03-aia AIA 15-10-aia The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA. Election/Restrictions 08-25 AIA Applicant's election with traverse of Invention Group I , in the reply filed on 04/29/2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that Group II is related to similar subject matter as Group I and separate search would likely identify the same reference . This is not found persuasive because different classification as set forth in the restriction requirement requires different search . The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL. 08-05 AIA Claim s 8-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected Invention Group II , there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 04/29/2026 . 07-30-03-h AIA Claim Interpretations The “A substrate processing system applicable for use in semiconductor manufacturing ”, an apparatus that is capable of processing semiconductor is considered read into the claim. It has been held that claim language that simply specifies an intended use or field of use for the invention generally will not limit the scope of a claim ( Walter , 618 F.2d at 769, 205 USPQ at 409; MPEP 2106). Additionally, in apparatus claims, intended use must result in a structural difference between the claimed invention and the prior art in order to patentably distinguish the claimed invention from the prior art. If the prior art structure is capable of performing the intended use, then it meets the claim ( In re Casey , 152 USPQ 235 (CCPA 1967); In re Otto, 136 USPQ 458, 459 (CCPA 1963); MPEP2111.02). When the structure recited in the reference is substantially identical to that of the claims, claimed properties or functions are presumed to be inherent ( In re Best , 562 F.2d 1252, 1255, 195 USPQ 430, 433 (CCPA 1977); MPEP 2112.01). The “a controller” of claim 1, Applicants’ specification states that “The controller 120 in configured to receive data or input as sensor readings from each of the plurality of sensors and the encoder” ([0039]) “The controller 120 generally includes a central processing unit (CPU), a memory, and support circuits” ([0041]) and will be examined in light of the Specification. The “an angle of rotation of the substrate” of claim 1 and “wherein the first inlet port is oriented at an angle between about 45 degrees and about 135 degrees from the exhaust gas outlet” of claim 7, the angle may be formed in a horizontal plane, a vertical plane, or a tilted plane. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102 07-07-aia AIA 07-07 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 – 07-08-aia AIA (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. 07-15 AIA Claim s 1-2 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102( a)(1 ) as being anticipated by Kim et al. (KR 20130053191, from IDS, hereafter ‘191) . ‘191 teaches all limitations of: Claim 1: As shown in FIG. 1, the reactive ion beam etching apparatus 100 according to the first embodiment of the present invention includes an RF-ICP ion source 10, a low pressure process chamber 20 (P15, 4 th last complete paragraph), The process chamber 20 includes a substrate holder 22 rotatable in the R direction, tiltable in the T direction, and on which the substrate 26 to be processed is seated. The process chamber 20 includes a reaction gas inlet 24 for injecting the reaction gas into the process chamber 20 (P15, 2 nd last complete paragraph, includes the claimed “A substrate processing system applicable for use in semiconductor manufacturing, comprising: a chamber comprising a first inlet port to supply one or more process gases to a processing volume; a substrate support disposed in the processing volume and operable to rotate a substrate disposed on the substrate support”, Figs. 3-4 also reads into claim 1); As shown in FIG. 5, the first control unit 502 that controls the overall operation of the reactive ion beam etching apparatus 300 controls the rotation and tilting of the substrate holder 22 through the substrate holder driver 504. The first controller 502 controls the valve driver 506 by interlocking with a rotation and tilting control value from a control signal transmitted from the substrate holder driver 504 to the substrate holder 22, and controls the valve driver 506. The opening degree of the reaction gas injection valve 508 is controlled through this. By controlling the opening degree of the reaction gas injection valve 508, the amount of reaction gas injected through each of the plurality of reaction gas injection holes 324 is independently controlled for each reaction gas injection hole 324. As such, the reaction gas injection amount is individually adjusted for each of the plurality of reaction gas injection holes 324 according to the degree of rotation and tilting of the substrate holder 22, so that the difference in the flow rate of the reaction gas on the surface of the substrate 26 is minimized (P17, 4 th paragraph, includes the claimed “and a controller to cause a flow of one or more process gases supplied to the processing volume via the first inlet port to change based on an angle of rotation of the substrate”). Claim 2: adjusted flow rate intrinsically has the claimed “wherein the flow of one or more process gases supplied to the processing volume changes between a first flow rate and a second flow rate, wherein the first flow rate is greater than the second flow rate”. Claim 7: a pumping port 30 (P15, 4 th last paragraph, includes the claimed “further comprising: an exhaust gas outlet, wherein the first inlet port is oriented at an angle between about 45 degrees and about 135 degrees from the exhaust gas outlet” as shown in Figs. 1, 3-4, the angle being viewed on a vertical plane); The plasma is introduced into the ion source 10 through an inductively coupled RF stimulus (RF source and coil not shown) of the process gas (or gas mixture) injected into the ion source 10 via the process gas inlet 12 (P15, 3 rd last paragraph, includes the claimed “and a second inlet port to supply one or more process gases to the processing volume, wherein the second inlet port and the exhaust gas outlet are disposed on opposite sides of the processing volume” as shown in Figs. 1, 3-4) . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 07-20-aia AIA 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. 07-23-aia AIA The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows: 1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art. 2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue. 3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art. 4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness. 07-21-aia AIA Claim s 1-3 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over RAMACHANDRAN et al. (US 20110174212, from IDS, hereafter ‘212), in view of Kim et al. (KR 20130053191, from IDS, hereafter ‘191) . ‘212 teaches some limitations of: Claim 1: EPITAXIAL CHAMBER WITH CROSS FLOW (title), The process chamber 100 may be modified from a commercially available process chamber, such as the RP EPI.RTM. reactor, available from Applied Materials, Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., or any suitable semiconductor process chamber adapted for performing epitaxial silicon deposition processes … a chamber body 110, and a first inlet port 114, a second inlet port 170, and an exhaust port 118 disposed about a substrate support 124 (Fig. 1, [0017], 2 nd – 3 rd sentence, includes the claimed “A substrate processing system applicable for use in semiconductor manufacturing, comprising: a chamber comprising a first inlet port to supply one or more process gases to a processing volume; a substrate support disposed in the processing volume”), The substrate support 124 further includes a lift mechanism 172 and a rotation mechanism 174 coupled to the substrate support assembly 164 ([0029], includes the claimed “and operable to rotate a substrate disposed on the substrate support”); The controller 140 generally comprises a central processing unit (CPU) 142, a memory 144, and support circuits 146 and is coupled to and controls the process chamber 100 and support systems 130, directly (as shown in FIG. 1) or, alternatively, via computers (or controllers) associated with the process chamber and/or the support systems ([0032], includes the claimed “and a controller to cause a flow of one or more process gases supplied to the processing volume via the first inlet port to change”). ‘212 does not teach the other limitations of: Claim 1: (and a controller to cause a flow of one or more process gases supplied to the processing volume via the first inlet port to change) based on an angle of rotation of the substrate. Claim 2: wherein the flow of one or more process gases supplied to the processing volume changes between a first flow rate and a second flow rate, wherein the first flow rate is greater than the second flow rate. ‘191 is an analogous art in the field of REACTIVE ION BEAM ETCHING APPARATUS (title, capable of processing semiconductor substrate). ‘191 teaches that As shown in FIG. 5, the first control unit 502 that controls the overall operation of the reactive ion beam etching apparatus 300 controls the rotation and tilting of the substrate holder 22 through the substrate holder driver 504. The first controller 502 controls the valve driver 506 by interlocking with a rotation and tilting control value from a control signal transmitted from the substrate holder driver 504 to the substrate holder 22, and controls the valve driver 506. The opening degree of the reaction gas injection valve 508 is controlled through this. By controlling the opening degree of the reaction gas injection valve 508, the amount of reaction gas injected through each of the plurality of reaction gas injection holes 324 is independently controlled for each reaction gas injection hole 324. As such, the reaction gas injection amount is individually adjusted for each of the plurality of reaction gas injection holes 324 according to the degree of rotation and tilting of the substrate holder 22, so that the difference in the flow rate of the reaction gas on the surface of the substrate 26 is minimized (P17, 4 th paragraph). Before the effective filing dates of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to have adjusted the reaction gas flow according to the rotating degree of the substrate holder, as taught by ‘191, to the controller 140 of ‘212, for the purpose of minimizing flow rate difference, as taught by ‘191 (P17, 4 th paragraph). ‘212 further teaches the limitations of: Claim 3: In some embodiments, some of the secondary inlets 210 may be idle or pulsed during processing, for example, to achieve a desired flow interaction with a second process gas provided by the second inlet port 170 ([0021], 2 nd last sentence, includes the claimed “wherein the second flow rate is 0 sccm”). Claim 7: a chamber body 110, and a first inlet port 114, a second inlet port 170, and an exhaust port 118 disposed about a substrate support 124. The first inlet port 114 and the exhaust port 118 are disposed on opposing sides of the substrate support 124. The second inlet port 170 is configured with respect to the first inlet port 114 to provide a second process gas at an angle to a first process gas provided by the first inlet port 114 ([0017], 3 rd -5 th sentences, includes the claimed “further comprising: an exhaust gas outlet, wherein the first inlet port is oriented at an angle between about 45 degrees and about 135 degrees from the exhaust gas outlet; and a second inlet port to supply one or more process gases to the processing volume, wherein the second inlet port and the exhaust gas outlet are disposed on opposite sides of the processing volume”) . 07-21-aia AIA Claim s 4-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ‘212 and ‘191, as being applied to claim 1 rejection above, further in view of Tsuru et al. (JP 2021141107, from IDS, hereafter ‘107). (US 4984035 is evidenced for particular face of wafer used for manufacture semi-conductor chip) . The combination of ‘212 and ‘191 does not teach the limitations of: Claim 4: further comprising a laser to direct a laser beam to an edge region of the substrate, the edge region being at a radius greater than 145 mm from a center of the substrate, wherein the controller causes a power level of the laser beam to change based on the angle of rotation of the substrate. Claim 5: wherein the power level of the laser beam changes between a first power level and a second power level, wherein the first power level is greater than the second power level. ‘107 is an analogous art in the field of Wafer Surface Reformer And Method (title, capable of processing semiconductor substrate), The alignment device changes the pulse energy amount of the laser light emitted by the laser unit according to the crystal orientation at a position in a circumferential direction of the wafer which has reached the irradiation position by rotating the table at the time of repairing the edge portion of the wafer (abstract), for a semiconductor ([0003]). ‘107 teaches that FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a reformer 100 that applies the laser annealing according to the present invention to the single crystal silicon wafer W, and is a front view thereof. The reformer 100 includes a 5-axis stage 20 having a turntable 10 on which and holds the wafer W. The wafer W is, for example, a 12-inch wafer, and its surface has already been polished. The turntable 10 has a degree of freedom of the θ axis and is used to rotate the wafer W and irradiate the laser. For example, in reforming the edge portion of the wafer W, the turntable 10 is rotated to continuously change the reforming position of the edge portion of the wafer W mounted on the turntable 10, and pulse laser light is irradiated to the modified position ([0022]), A specific example of reforming at the edge portion of the wafer W using the reformer 100 shown in FIG. 2 will be described below with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 shows an example of pulse irradiation with a pulse energy J set in advance according to the crystal orientation. The distribution of the crystal orientation in the circumferential direction of each wafer W has already been measured using the alignment device 110 or in a pretreatment step. In this example, the crystal orientation of the notch N (φ = 0 °), which is the reference of the position of the wafer W, is (100), and the positions of φ = 90 °, 180 °, and 270 ° clockwise from the notch N are also crystallized. The orientation is (100). Further, the crystal orientation is (110) at the positions of φ = 45 °, 135 °, 225 °, and 315 ° clockwise from the notch N. As described above, in the crystal orientation (110), erosion is larger due to etching than in the crystal orientation (100), surface defects are expected to be large, and it is easy to open the crystal orientation. The energy intensity is increased to Jmax at 110), the energy intensity is decreased to Jmin at the crystal orientation (100), and the pulse energy intensity of the laser beam 36 is changed by a curve distribution connected by a sine curve during that time ([0030]), for the purpose of flatness of wafer ([0002]). Note crystal orientation at the laser spot changes according to the angle of rotation of the susceptor. Before the effective filing dates of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to have added a laser reformer to reform edge of the wafer according to crystal orientation, as taught by ‘107, to the combined apparatus of ‘212 and ‘191, for the purpose of flatness of wafer, as taught by ‘107 ([0002]). ‘107 further teaches that In the measurement using the alignment device 110, the roughness and waviness at each irradiation position in the circumferential direction are measured by a camera or a dedicated measuring device. Of course, the measurement may be performed continuously with respect to the circumferential position of the wafer W, or only the position φ having a crystal orientation whose crystal orientation is significantly different from the reference orientation, for example (100) , may be measured ([0034]). US 4984035 is cited for the mesa etching groove is explained in conjunction with FIG. 9. In a semi-conductor crystal of III-V group compound of the zincblende type, amostropy can be generally found with regard to chemical etching speed and cleavage. Therefore, there is utilized a single crystal wafer having (100) face or face orientation similar thereto so as to manufacture a semi-conductor element or chip (col. 5, lines 35-41). In other words, there is no need to modify the reference crystal face. More evidence can be found in the conclusion below. In other word, there is no need to repair (100) face, an engineer choice to turn-off laser repair of ‘017, reads into the claimed “wherein the second power level is 0% of a total laser power” . Conclusion 07-96 AIA The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 4350561 is cited for “The etching produces a plurality of planar facets 14 with a (100) direction of orientation characterized by having minimum interfacial tension” (col. 5, lines 52-54). US 5202281 is cited for a silicon single crystal wafer 4 having a (100) orientation is oxidized to form an oxide film (col. 1, lines 35-36) . Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KEATH T CHEN whose telephone number is (571)270-1870. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30am-5:00 pm. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Parviz Hassanzadeh can be reached at 571-272-1435. 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If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /KEATH T CHEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1716 Application/Control Number: 18/663,463 Page 2 Art Unit: 1716 Application/Control Number: 18/663,463 Page 3 Art Unit: 1716 Application/Control Number: 18/663,463 Page 4 Art Unit: 1716 Application/Control Number: 18/663,463 Page 5 Art Unit: 1716 Application/Control Number: 18/663,463 Page 6 Art Unit: 1716 Application/Control Number: 18/663,463 Page 7 Art Unit: 1716 Application/Control Number: 18/663,463 Page 8 Art Unit: 1716 Application/Control Number: 18/663,463 Page 9 Art Unit: 1716 Application/Control Number: 18/663,463 Page 10 Art Unit: 1716 Application/Control Number: 18/663,463 Page 11 Art Unit: 1716 Application/Control Number: 18/663,463 Page 12 Art Unit: 1716 Application/Control Number: 18/663,463 Page 13 Art Unit: 1716
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