Final Rejection Notice
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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see claims and remarks filed on 03/04/2026 with respect to claims 1-19, 21 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejection under 35 USC 102 (a) (1) of claims 1-19, 21 has been withdrawn.
Applicant's arguments filed on 03/04/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive for claim 20. The claim 20 is too broad and applicants arguments are not persuasive for that.
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 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US20200343075 A1 by Kim et al (Kim) in view of US2022038236 A1 by Kapoor .
Referring to claim 20 Kim teaches: a chamber enclosure, including: a chamber load; a high-frequency signal input port; a matching network having a first terminal coupled to the high-frequency signal input port and a second terminal coupled the chamber load ( Fig 4 and paragraphs [0037] [0038] and [0061]); but silent on a low- frequency signal input port coupled to the second terminal of the matching network.
However, Kapoor Fig 4 teaches wherein n a low-frequency signal input port coupled to the second terminal of the matching network. (See paragraph [0085]).
Hence, it is obvious to a person with ordinary skill in the art before filing date of the instant application, to incorporate Kapoor second filter teachings in to each and every transmission line path of Kim's processing system for filtering the low frequencies for substrate treatment with uniform plasma density.
Conclusion
Claims 1-19, 21 are allowed.
Claim 20 is rejected.
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SRINIVAS . SATHIRAJU
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2844
05/02/2026
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