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 § 102
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 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 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 –
(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.
Claims 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Brown (US 2006/0002053).
With regard to claims 1-4, Brown, in Figures 1A & 4, discloses a substrate-processing apparatus (paragraph 0020), comprising: a substrate support (10) that includes an electrostatic chuck (20), the electrostatic chuck including a support surface (as seen in Fig. 1A) configured to support an annular member (104), wherein the support surface includes a diffusion groove (29) through which a heat transfer gas is diffused into a gap between the annular member and the support surface (paragraph 0020), and the diffusion groove includes an annular groove (any of the circular grooves provided between circular grooves 37 & 39) provided concentrically with the electrostatic chuck, and a radial groove (any one of the radial grooves 29 which extend entirely from outer groove 39 & inner groove 37) that is in communication with the annular groove and is provided from the annular groove in a radial direction of the electrostatic chuck (as seen in Fig. 1A and described in paragraph 0020) (re claim 1), wherein the diffusion groove includes multiple annular grooves that are each the annular groove, and the radial groove is in communication with the multiple annular grooves (as seen in Fig. 1A, many adjacent circular grooves between inner groove 37 & outer groove 39 are in communication with many of the radial grooves) (re claim 2), wherein one end of the radial groove is provided inward of the annular groove in the radial direction, and another end of the radial groove is provided outward of the annular groove in the radial direction (as seen in Fig. 1A, many of the radial grooves 29 extend inwardly and outwardly beyond the circular grooves between inner groove 27 & outer groove 39) (re claim 3), wherein one end of the radial groove is provided inward, in the radial direction, of the annular groove that is closest to an inner circumference of the electrostatic chuck, of the multiple annular grooves, and another end of the radial groove is provided outward, in the radial direction, of the annular groove that is closest to an outer circumference of the electrostatic chuck, of the multiple annular grooves (as seen in Fig. 1A, many of the radial grooves 29 extend inwardly and outwardly beyond two adjacent circular grooves between inner groove 27 & outer groove 39) (re claim 4).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-8 would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claim 5 would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims because the prior art of record does not teach or fairly suggest a substrate-processing apparatus comprising all the features as recited in the claims and in combination with in a plan view of the support surface, the annular groove is provided at a position not overlapping the electrodes, and at least a part of the radial groove is provided at a position overlapping the electrodes.
Claims 6-8 would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims because they depend on claim 5 which would also be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Steger (US 5,522,131), Busse (US 6,215,641), Moslehi (US 6,907,924), Kamitani (US 2008/0037194) and Matyushkin (US 2021/0005494) all teach an electrostatic chuck with annular and radial gas passages which are relevant to Applicant’s invention.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SCOTT BAUER whose telephone number is (571)272-5986. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 12pm - 8pm EST.
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/Scott Bauer/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2838