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 .
Amendment to the claims was submitted on 01/14/2026.
Claim Status
Claims 1-20 are under consideration.
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.
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.
Claims 1-3, 5, and 7-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Adachi (US 20160363866 A1, published 2016).
Regarding claims 1-3, 5, and 7-16,
Adachi teaches a resist composition comprising of a base resin [abstract], which may contain the following recurring units:
Recurring unit (e), an adhesive group including the following example [0099], an methacrylonitrile group, reading on the instant poly(methacrylonitrile) main polymer chain. The examiner notes that the polymer chain is interpreted to include co-polymers comprising of different polymerizable groups, such as methacrylonitrile, methacrylate, and methacrylamide groups. The instant claims do not prohibit the polymer main chain from including different polymerizable groups.
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Recurring unit (d2) with formula (8) as shown below [0060], where R12 may be methyl, Y2 may be —C(=O)—NH—R16—, R16 is a straight, branched or cyclic C1-C10 alkylene group which may contain an ether moiety, ester moiety, lactone ring or hydroxyl moiety, R13 may be a C1-C16 divalent alkyl group, R14 may be H, and n may be 2, aligning with the instant pendant target group (a C2-C26 diol group). The diol group necessarily contains an -OH group, reading on instant claim 9.
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Recurring unit (f) formed from the following monomer [0100], comprising of a phenyl group (photosensitive functional group), aligning with the instant pendant organic group (C6 aromatic group), reading on instant claim 10.
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Recurring unit (g1) with formula (9) [0102], comprising of a pendant photoacid generator which is a sulfonium salt, reading on instant claim 3, where R50 may be methyl, R51 may be —C(=O)—Y—R63— wherein Y is —NH— and R63 is a straight, branched or cyclic C2-C6 alkylene group, C2-C6 alkenylene group or phenylene group, which may contain a carbonyl (—CO—), ester (—COO—), ether (—O—) or hydroxyl moiety, R52 and R53 are each independently a straight, branched or cyclic C1-C12 alkyl group, C6-C12 aryl group or C7-C20 aralkyl group, which may contain a carbonyl, ester or ether moiety, and M is a non-nucleophilic counter ion, aligning with the instant pendant photoacid generator group, reading on instant claim 1.
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While Adachi fails to teach an explicit example of their base resin aligning with the instant polymer, given that Adachi discloses the base resin that encompasses the presently claimed polymer, including the instant recurring units and their substituents, it therefore would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant application, to use the base resin, which is both disclosed by Adachi and encompassed within the scope of the present claims and thereby arrive at the claimed invention.
Adachi teaches including a PAG (photoacid generator) with 6 parts by weight to 100 parts by weight of the base resin [0162, table 1], resulting in about 6 wt.% relative to a total weight of the polymer composition, reading on instant claims 5 and 13.
Teaches including an acid generator, an organic solvent, surfactant, basic compound, and quencher [0137], reading on instant claims 7-8 and 14-15.
Teaches pendant acid labile groups of the based resin may be crosslinked within the molecule od between molecules [0072], reading on the instant crosslinker bound to the polymer, reading on instant claims 11-12.
Adachi teaches another example of recurring unit (f) shown below [0100], aligning with the instant organic group with a pendant imine group, reading on instant claim 2.
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Adachi teaches the following examples of their recurring unit (f) [0100] which contains a pendant phenyl group with an alkyne group, reading on instant claim 16.
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Claims 6 and 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Adachi (US 20160363866 A1, published 2016) as applied to claim 1 and 16 above, and further in view of Katayama (US20100178617A1, published 2010).
Regarding claims 6 and 17-20,
Adachi teaches the above limitations set forth, reading on instant claims 18-20.
While Adachi teaches including an acid generator, they fail to teach a thermal acid generator.
Katayama, analogous art, teaches a resist composition [abstract] may further include a thermal acid generator [0048], where acid generation and crosslinking reaction take place simultaneously and may be more advantageous in so that deprotection and crosslinking reaction may be driven only by heating [0230].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to use the thermal acid generator of Katayama with the composition of Adachi for the benefits disclosed by Katayama, reading on instant claims 6 and 17.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Adachi (US 20160363866 A1, published 2016) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Wang (“Photobase generator and photo decomposable quencher for high-resolution photoresist applications”, published 2010).
Regarding claim 4,
Adachi teaches the above limitations set forth.
Adachi teaches their composition may further contain a quencher [0137].
Adachi fails to teach a photobase generator.
Wang, analogous art, teaches known photosensitive quenchers in the art include photobase generators [abstract]. Wang such a photosensitive quencher changes its base level after exposure. Thus, it modifies the aerial image for better imaging performance [abstract], and can dramatically improve the lithographic performance and maintain a comparable defect level when compared with normal quencher systems [page 13 section IV].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to use the photobase generator as taught by Wang as the quencher of Adachi for the benefits disclosed by Wang, reading on instant claim 4.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments and claim amendments filed 01/14/2026 with respect to the rejections of claims 1-20 have been fully considered and are not persuasive. The above rejections have been updated accordingly.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/A.N.L./Examiner, Art Unit 1737
/JONATHAN JOHNSON/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1734