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 .
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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-8, 11-16, and 21-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US ‘094 (U.S. PGPub 2019/0067094).
Claim 1 - US ‘094 discloses a method for depositing a molybdenum metal film (412), the method comprising: providing a substrate (402) having a high aspect ratio vertical gap limitation (404) into a reaction chamber (see paragraphs [0042], [0044] and figures 1, 4A in US ‘094); and exposing the substrate (402) to a molybdenum halide precursor and a reducing agent precursor at a temperature of between about 400°C and 700°C for forming the molybdenum metal film (412) (see paragraph [0058] and claims 1, 14 and figures 3, 4C in US ‘094). Claim 1 differs from US ‘094 in exposing a semiconductor substrate to a molybdenum-containing precursor, a reducing agent, and a silicon-containing reactant to reduce the molybdenum-containing precursor. However, this difference is rendered obvious by US ‘094 considering the reducing agent precursor referring to a reactant that donates an electron to another species in a redox chemical reaction, and the reducing agent precursor comprising at least one of forming gas (H2+N2), ammonia (NH3), hydrazine (N2H4), a borane, an amine, silane (SiH4), disilane (Si2H6), or trisilane (Si3H8) (see paragraph [0106] in US ‘094).
Claim 19 relates to 'an apparatus for processing a semiconductor substrate'. However, its technical limitations are the same as those of claim 1 except for the apparatus comprising: a process chamber, having a substrate holder for holding the semiconductor substrate and one or more inlets for introduction of reactants to the process chamber; and a controller comprising program instructions. However, these differences are rendered obvious by US ‘094 considering the reaction chamber including an ALD reactor, as well as a CVD reactor, configured to provide precursors (see paragraph [0053] in US ‘094).
Claim 23 relates to 'a method of forming a metal-containing layer'. However, its technical limitations are the same as those of claim 1 except for the metal-containing layer comprising a layer of metal in zero oxidation state. However, this difference is rendered obvious by US ‘094 considering deposition conditions and precursors being selected to provide self-saturating reactions such that an absorbed layer of one reactant leaves a surface termination that is non-reactive with gas phase reactants of the same reactants (see paragraph [0065] in US ‘094).
The additional limitations of claims 2 and 24 are rendered obvious by US ‘094 considering a nucleation film (406) being a molybdenum silicide (see paragraphs [0086], [0093] and figure 4B in US ‘094).
The additional limitation of claim 3 is rendered obvious by US ‘094 considering the molybdenum halide precursor comprising a molybdenum chalcogenide halide (see paragraph [0102] in US ‘094).
The additional limitation of claim 4 is rendered obvious by US ‘094 considering molybdenum (IV) dichloride dioxide (MoO2Cl2) (see paragraph [0102] in US ‘094).
The additional limitations of claims 5-6 are rendered obvious by US ‘094 considering the reducing agent precursor comprising silane (SiH4), disilane (Si2H6), or trisilane (Si3H8) (see paragraph [0106] in US ‘094).
The additional limitations of claims 7-8 and 20 are rendered obvious by US ‘094 considering the substrate (402) being first contacted with the reducing agent precursor followed by the molybdenum halide precursor (see paragraph [0110] in US ‘094).
The additional limitations of claims 11, 14, and 22 are rendered obvious by US ‘094 considering the cyclical deposition phase (305) comprising contacting the substrate ( 402) with the molybdenum halide precursor one or more times prior to contacting the substrate ( 402) with the reducing agent precursor one or more times (see paragraph [0110] in US ‘094).
The additional limitation of claim 12 is rendered obvious by US ‘094 considering exposing the substrate (402) to the molybdenum halide precursor and the reducing agent precursor (see claim 1 and figure 3 in US ‘094).
The additional limitations of claims 13 and 21 are rendered obvious by US ‘094 considering the substrate (402) being first contacted with the reducing agent precursor followed by the molybdenum halide precursor (see paragraph [0110] in US ‘094).
The additional limitation of claim 15 is rendered obvious by US ‘094 considering the molybdenum metal film (412) formed on a surface of the high aspect ratio vertical gap limitation (404), the step coverage of the molybdenum metal film (412) over the high aspect ratio vertical gap limitation (404) being equal to or greater than about 50% (see paragraph [0166] in US ‘094).
The additional limitation of claim 16 is rendered obvious by US ‘094 considering the molybdenum metal film (412) (see claim 1 and figure 4C in US ‘094).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL G MILLER whose telephone number is (571)270-1861. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00-5:30 EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael Cleveland can be reached at 571-272-1418. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MICHAEL G MILLER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1712
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