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 .
The preliminary amendment filed on May 10, 2024 has been entered. Claims 1-8, 11, 12, 15-17, 19, 20, 22, 23 and 25-27 are pending in this application.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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) 1-8, 11, 12, 15-17, 19, 20, 22, 23 and 25-27 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Seong et al. [US 20110205512 A1, hereafter Seong] in view of Ohkubo et al. [US 20150073752 A1, hereafter Ohkubo].
As per Claims 1, 17 and 23, Seong teaches an apparatus (a lithography system 100) comprising:
an estimation system configured to: determine a set of values related to an initial light beam based on sensed wavefronts; and determine an estimate of a property of an exposure light beam (See fig. 1, Para 5 and 13).
Seong does not explicitly teach determine an estimate of a property of an exposure light beam based on a non-linear relationship that comprises the first value and the second value.
Ohkubo teaches an apparatus (the wavefront measuring apparatus 100) comprising:
an estimation system (the wavefront estimating unit 203) configured to:
determine a set of values related to an initial light beam based on sensed
wavefronts of the initial light beam, the set of values comprising a first value (the measured wavefront WM1) and a second value (Para 57, an estimated wavefront WM2); and
determine an estimate of a property of light beam based on a
non-linear relationship that comprises the first value and the second value,
wherein the light beam is formed by interacting the initial light beam with an optical system (Para 59-60, the wavefront estimating unit 203 estimates the wavefront W of the test optical system TO by solving a non-linear problem by numerical analysis); and
a communications module coupled to the estimation system and configured to output the estimate of the property of the light beam (See fig. 6, Para 64, the measured wavefront of the optical system that is measured by the wavefront measuring apparatus 100 in the present embodiment, and that outputs image and data on which aberration correction is digitally performed by signal processing based on the measured wavefront).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time the invention was made to incorporate an estimation system of Ohkubo in the apparatus of Seong in order to produce an improved control of a spectral property of an exposure light beam.
As per Claim 2, Seong in view of Ohkubo teaches the apparatus of claim 1.
Ohkubo further disclosed wherein the property of the exposure light beam comprises a convolved bandwidth metric (interference fringe analysis), the convolved bandwidth metric representing a width of a portion of an optical spectrum of the exposure light beam at a wafer that is irradiated by the exposure light beam; and the optical spectrum of the exposure light beam comprises intensity of the exposure light beam as a function of wavelength (Para 72).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time the invention was made to incorporate an estimation system of Ohkubo in the apparatus of Seong in order to produce an improved control of a spectral property of an exposure light beam.
As per Claim 3, Seong in view of Ohkubo teaches the apparatus of claim 1.
Ohkubo further disclosed wherein the sensed wavefronts of the initial light beam comprise a fringe pattern produced from the initial light beam; the fringe pattern comprises a plurality of fringes; the first value comprises a first width of a first one of the plurality of fringes; and the second value comprises a second width of a second one of the plurality of fringes (Para 71).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time the invention was made to incorporate an estimation system of Ohkubo in the apparatus of Seong in order to produce an improved control of a spectral property of an exposure light beam.
As per Claim 4, Seong in view of Ohkubo teaches the apparatus of claim 3.
Ohkubo further disclosed wherein the first one of the plurality of fringes and the second one of the plurality of fringes are the same one fringe (Para 71-72, the interference fringe).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time the invention was made to incorporate an estimation system of Ohkubo in the apparatus of Seong in order to produce an improved control of a spectral property of an exposure light beam.
As per Claim 5, Seong in view of Ohkubo teaches the apparatus of claim 4.
Ohkubo further disclosed wherein the first width is a width of the one fringe at a first percentage of a peak intensity of the one fringe (measured wavefront of the region 1); and the second width (estimated wavefront of the region 2) is a width of the one fringe at a second percentage of the peak intensity of the one fringe (Para 72).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time the invention was made to incorporate an estimation system of Ohkubo in the apparatus of Seong in order to produce an improved control of a spectral property of an exposure light beam.
As per Claim 6, Seong in view of Ohkubo teaches the apparatus of claim 5.
Ohkubo further disclosed wherein the first percentage and the second percentage are different percentages (See fig. 11, Para 72).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time the invention was made to incorporate an estimation system of Ohkubo in the apparatus of Seong in order to produce an improved control of a spectral property of an exposure light beam.
As per Claim 7, Seong in view of Ohkubo teaches the apparatus of claim 6.
Ohkubo further disclosed wherein the plurality of fringes are concentric rings of light centered around a center point and separated by regions of no light; and the one fringe is the fringe closest to the center point (See fig. 7).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time the invention was made to incorporate an estimation system of Ohkubo in the apparatus of Seong in order to produce an improved control of a spectral property of an exposure light beam.
As per Claim 8, Seong in view of Ohkubo teaches the apparatus of claim 1.
Ohkubo further disclosed wherein the non-linear relationship comprises a second-order relationship (Para 59 and 72).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time the invention was made to incorporate an estimation system of Ohkubo in the apparatus of Seong in order to produce an improved control of a spectral property of an exposure light beam.
As per Claim 11, Seong in view of Ohkubo teaches the apparatus of claim 1.
Ohkubo further disclosed wherein the estimation system is further configured to: access a reference value of the property of the exposure light beam; and determine values for each of a plurality of calibration parameters by minimizing a difference between the estimate of the property and the reference value of the property (Para 34-36 and 82).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time the invention was made to incorporate an estimation system of Ohkubo in the apparatus of Seong in order to produce an improved control of a spectral property of an exposure light beam.
As per Claim 12, Seong in view of Ohkubo teaches the apparatus of claim 11.
Ohkubo further disclosed wherein the reference value of the property is obtained by a spectrometer (Para 33).
As per Claim 15, Seong in view of Ohkubo teaches the apparatus of claim 3.
Ohkubo further disclosed further comprising an etalon configured to produce the fringe pattern (See fig. 11, Para 70).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time the invention was made to incorporate an estimation system of Ohkubo in the apparatus of Seong in order to produce an improved control of a spectral property of an exposure light beam.
As per Claim 16, Seong in view of Ohkubo teaches the apparatus of claim 1.
Ohkubo further disclosed further comprising a detector configured to sense the wavefronts and to provide data related to the sensed wavefronts to the estimation system (See fig. 11, Para 70-72).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time the invention was made to incorporate an estimation system of Ohkubo in the apparatus of Seong in order to produce an improved control of a spectral property of an exposure light beam.
As per Claim 19, Seong in view of Ohkubo teaches the system of claim 17.
Ohkubo further disclosed wherein the estimation system is configured to determine the estimate of the property based on a non-linear relationship; and the non-linear relationship comprises the first value, the second value, and a plurality of calibration constants (Para 59).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time the invention was made to incorporate an estimation system of Ohkubo in the apparatus of Seong in order to produce an improved control of a spectral property of an exposure light beam.
As per Claim 20, Seong in view of Ohkubo teaches the system of claim 19.
Ohkubo further disclosed wherein the estimation system is further configured to: determine a value for each of the plurality of calibration constants based on minimizing a difference between the estimate of the property and a reference value of the property (Para 34-36 and 82).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time the invention was made to incorporate an estimation system of Ohkubo in the apparatus of Seong in order to produce an improved control of a spectral property of an exposure light beam.
As per Claim 22, Seong in view of Ohkubo teaches the system of claim 17.
seong further disclosed wherein the light source comprises a master oscillator configured to emit a seed light beam, and a power amplifier configured to amplify the seed light beam to produce the light beam comprising deep ultraviolet (DUV) light (Para 3).
As per Claims 25-27, Seong in view of Ohkubo teaches the method of claim 23.
Ohkubo further disclosed wherein determining the set of values of the initial light beam comprises: obtaining a first value from a first width of a first one of a plurality of fringes; and obtaining a second value from a second width of a second one of the plurality of fringes (Para 72).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at time the invention was made to incorporate an estimation system of Ohkubo in the apparatus of Seong in order to produce an improved control of a spectral property of an exposure light beam.
Conclusion
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/MESFIN T ASFAW/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2882