DETAILED ACTION
This is the Office action based on the 18784608 application filed July 25, 2024. Claims 1-20 are currently pending and have been considered below.
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 .
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.
Claim Objections
Claim 16 objected to because of the following informalities: the phrase “wherein the chemical mechanical planarization includes a roller brush configured clean the wafer,” appears to contain a typographical error. For the purpose of examining it will be assumed that this phrase is “wherein the chemical mechanical planarization includes a roller brush configured to clean the wafer,”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 19 objected to because of the following informalities: the phrase “wherein cleaning the fluid is a cleaning chemical” appears to contain a typographical error. For the purpose of examining it will be assumed that this phrase is “wherein the cleaning fluid is a cleaning chemical”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Interpretations
Claim 1 recites “(a) system, comprising:
a chemical mechanical planarization platen configured to rotate;
a chemical mechanical planarization head configured to hold a wafer and to place the wafer in contact with a CMP pad on the platen during a chemical mechanical planarization process;
a pad conditioner configured to condition the chemical mechanical planarization pad during the chemical mechanical planarization process;…” (emphasis added). Since the specification discloses “FIG. 1A is a block diagram of the chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) system 100” ([0023]); for the purpose of examining, the term “chemical mechanical planarization pad” will be interpreted as having the same meaning as the term “CMP pad”. Likewise, the term “CMP process” in claim 2 will be interpreted as having the same meaning as the term “chemical mechanical planarization process”.
Claim 7 recites “an impurity removal system positioned adjacent to the chemical mechanical planarization equipment”. According to The Britannica Dictionary, the adjective “adjacent” means “close or near”. for the purpose of examining, this will be the interpretation of this term. The same interpretation is applied to this term in other claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention..
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.
The applied reference has a common assignee with the instant application. Based upon the earlier effectively filed date of the reference, it constitutes prior art under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2). This rejection under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) might be overcome by: (1) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(a) that the subject matter disclosed in the reference was obtained directly or indirectly from the inventor or a joint inventor of this application and is thus not prior art in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(A); (2) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(b) of a prior public disclosure under 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(B) if the same invention is not being claimed; or (3) a statement pursuant to 35 U.S.C.102(b)(2)(C) establishing that, not later than the effective filing date of the claimed invention, the subject matter disclosed and the claimed invention were either owned by the same person or subject to an obligation of assignment to the same person or subject to a joint research agreement.
Claim 1 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as anticipated by Suen et al. (U.S. PGPub. No. 20190099854), hereinafter “Suen”:--Claim 1: Suen teaches an apparatus for chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), comprising (Fig. 1)a platen 105;a polishing pad 115 positioned over the platen 105 (Fig. 1-2, [0018]);a polishing head 120 comprising a carrier 125 and a retainer ring 127 that is configured to hold a wafer that contacts the polishing pad 115 ([0020], Fig. 1-2);a pad conditioner head 135 comprising a pad conditioner 137 to remove debris from the polishing pad 115 ([0025], Fig. 1-2);a slurry dispenser 140 configured to deposit a slurry 150 onto the polishing pad ([0021] , Fig. 1-2)an electric field element 110 adjacent to the polishing pad 115, wherein the electric field element 110 may be a plate, a mesh or combination thereof ([0031-0036], Fig. 3-4);a voltage controller 1305 connected to the electric field element 110 to generate an electric field that attracts charged particles to fill in lower-lying region of the pad ([0036], Fig. 12), thus separate these particles from the slurry. It is noted that the combination of the voltage controller 1305 and the electric field element 110 reads on the claimed “impurity removal system” recited in claim 1.
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 of this title, 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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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 7-8 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Suen in view of Tsai et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5575706), hereinafter “Tsai”:--Claim 7: Suen teaches the apparatus for chemical mechanical polishing as in claim 1 above, wherein a voltage is applied to the electric field element 110 to generate an electric field attracts charged particles to the polishing pad. It is noted that generating an electric field requires applying different voltages to at least two electrodes, but the electric field element 110 shown in Fig. 5 consists of a single electrode. Suen is silent about the complete structure of the electric field element 110. Tsai, also directed to a method of chemical mechanical polishing a workpiece by using an apparatus comprising loading a semiconductor wafer 15 on a wafer carrier 13, then applying voltage is applied between a ground electrode 25 adjacent to a polishing pad 12 and a ground electrode 27 in the wafer carrier 13, and top electrode comprising electrode 27 and electrode 28 to create an electric field (Fig. 3; Col. 3, Line 53 through Col. 4, Line 40) to attract charged particles from the slurry (Fig. 1; Col. 4, Lines 13 – 40). For better an illustration, Fig. 3 of Tsai is copied and shown below
PNG
media_image1.png
448
740
media_image1.png
Greyscale
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the invention to use an electric field element including a voltage applied between the first electrode and the second electrode as the electric field element in the invention of Suen because Suen teaches to use such electric field element to attract charged particles from the polishing slurry but is silent about the structure of the electric field element, and Tsai teaches that such electric field element having a voltage applying between the first electrode and the second electrode would be effective.--Claim 8: It is noted that the electrodes 25, 27, 28 and 29 are adjacent to the polishing pad 12.
Claims 10-15 and 17-20 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Suen in view of Tsai as applied to claim 7 above, and further in view of Yi et al. (U.S. PGPub. No. 20060237031), hereinafter “Yi”:--Claims 10, 11, 12, 18: Suen modified by Tsai teaches the invention as above. Suen further teaches that the apparatus further comprise a cleaning system configured to perform a rinsing or cleaning the polishing pad by using water, DI water, an alcohol, azeotropic mixtures thereof, an organic solvent, a surfactant, combinations of same, or the like ([0046], Fig. 11). Suen fails to teach a system for cleaning the wafer. Yi teaches a cleaning system for cleaning a wafer to remove contaminants after a polishing ([0005]), comprising a tank filled with a cleaning solution and a pair of electrodes in the tank, wherein the wafer is placed in the tank while a voltage is applied to the pair of electrode to form an electric field to dissociate the cleaning solution molecule into ions and radicals that remove charged particles on the wafer, wherein the cleaning solution may be DI water (abstract, [0017-0027, 0041-0042], Claims 2-3, Fig. 1). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the invention, in routine experimentations, to include the cleaning system comprising the tank filled with water and the pair of electrodes taught by Yi to the polishing apparatus in the invention of Suen modified by Tsai because Yi teaches that it is necessary and effective.--Claims 13, 19: Yi further teaches that the water may be sprayed to the wafer by using a nozzle having an elongated rod shape ([0051]). Fig. 7 shows that the nozzle 320 is adjacent to the electrodes 520, 540 and 560.--Claims 14, 15, 20: It is obvious that the cleaning system taught by Yi is capable of using isopropyl alcohol or ethyl glycol instead of water as the cleaning solution.--Claim 17: Yi further teaches that after the cleaning the wafer is dried by using isopropyl alcohol vapor. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective filing date of the invention, to include a vapor dryer in the apparatus of Suen modified by Tsai.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-6 and 9 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. Claim 16 would be allowable if rewritten to correct the typographical error (see Claim Objections), and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: --With respect to claim 2, none of the cited prior arts teaches the feature “the charged particle separation process includes applying a voltage between the first electrode and the second electrode while the first electrode and the second electrode are positioned on the CMP pad during the CMP process” in the context of claim 2; --With respect to claim 9, none of the cited prior arts teaches the feature “the fluid is the slurry and the first and second electrodes are configured to adsorb the charged impurities from the slurry” in the context of claim 9;--With respect to claim 16, none of the cited prior arts teaches the feature “the chemical mechanical planarization includes a roller brush configured clean the wafer, wherein the first and second electrodes are positioned adjacent to the roller brush” in the context of claim 16;
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submission should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance”.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to THOMAS PHAM whose telephone number is (571) 270-7670 and fax number is (571) 270-8670. The examiner can normally be reached on MTWThF9to6 PST.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Joshua Allen can be reached on (571) 270-3176. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/THOMAS T PHAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1713