Claims 1-14 are pending in this application.
DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1 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
2 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.
3 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)(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.
Claims 1-4, 8 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)2 as being anticipated by Pang et al. (US 2021/0300860 A1).
Pang et al. (US’ 860 A1) teaches a composition for removing wafer from a surface of a semiconductor device (see page 1, paragraph, 0003), wherein the composition comprises alkyl ammonium compound having a formula (4-1) which is identical to the claimed formula (B), when in the reference’s formula (4-1) R6 to R9 each are an alkyl group having 3-10 carbon atom and when in the claimed formula (B), Rb1 to Rb4 each independently represent an alkyl group as claimed in claim 1 and 2 (see page 2, paragraphs, 0024-0025), wherein the composition also comprises corrosion inhibitors (anticorrosion agents) (see page 5, paragraph, 0071), organic solvents include dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) (see page 3, paragraph, 0052) and water as claimed in claims 1 and 8 (see page 2, paragraph, 0020), the composition also comprises an amine compound having a formula 3, which is identical to the claimed formula (C), when in the reference’s formula 3, n is a positive integer of 3, and when in the claimed formula (C), nc represents an integer 1, Lc represents an alkylene group and Rc1 to Rc4 represent alkyl groups as claimed in claim 3 (see page 4, paragraphs, 0064-0065), wherein the composition comprises two kinds of the amine compounds having (formulae 4-1 and 3) as claimed in claim 4. Pang et al. (US’ 860 A1) teaches a composition identical to the claimed composition which inherently should have same property of cleaning a semiconductor substrate as claimed in claim 13. Pang et al. (US’ 860 A1) teaches all the limitations of the instant claims. Hence, Pang et al. (US’ 860 A1) anticipates the claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4 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.
Claims 5-6 , 11, 13 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pang et al. (US 2021/0300860 A1) in view of Thomas et al. (CN 112771144 A). English translation of the Patent No. CN 112771144 A is used in this Office action.
Pang et al. (US’ 860 A1) teaches a composition for removing wafer from a surface of a semiconductor device (see page 1, paragraph, 0003), wherein the composition comprises alkyl ammonium compound having a formula (4-1) which is similar to the claimed formula (B), when in the reference’s formula (4-1) R6 to R9 each are an alkyl group having 3-10 carbon atom and when in the claimed formula (B), Rb1 to Rb4 each independently represent an alkyl group as claimed (see page 2, paragraphs, 0024-0025), wherein the composition also comprises corrosion inhibitors (anticorrosion agents) (see page 5, paragraph, 0071), organic solvents include dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) (see page 3, paragraph, 0052) and water as claimed (see page 2, paragraph, 0020).
The instant claims differ from the teaching of Pang et al. (US’ 860 A1) by reciting a cleaning composition for cleaning a substrate which has been subjected to a chemical mechanical polishing treatment and wherein the cleaning composition comprises anticorrosion agents.
However, Pang et al. (US’ 860 A1) suggests the use of corrosion inhibitors (anticorrosion agents) in a composition for removing (cleaning) the surface of a semiconductor (see page 5, paragraph, 0071).
Thomas et al. (CN’ 144 A) in analogous art of cleaning formulation, teaches a chemical mechanical polishing cleaning composition (see page 17, Abstract) comprising metal corrosion inhibitors include heterocyclic compounds of pyrazole, triazole and tetrazole as claimed in claims 5 and 6 (see page 22, second paragraph), wherein the cleaning composition also comprises organic acids as claimed in claim 11 (see claim 7) and wherein the cleaning composition used for cleaning a semiconductor substrate having a copper and tungsten containing residue materials as claimed in claim 13 (see page 21, paragraph, 6) and wherein the semiconductor substrate has been subjected to a chemical mechanical polishing cleaning step as claimed in claim 14 (see page 17, last paragraph).
Therefore, in view of the teaching of Thomas et al. (CN’ 144 A), it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to be motivated to modify the cleaning composition of Pang et al. (US’ 860 A1) by incorporating the heterocyclic compounds of pyrazole, triazole and tetrazole as the corrosion inhibitors as taught by Thomas et al. (CN’ 144 A) to arrive at the claimed invention. Such a motivation would be obvious based on the teaching of Pang et al. (US’ 860 A1) that suggest the use of corrosion inhibitors (anticorrosion agents) (see page 5, paragraph, 0071) in a cleaning composition and, thus, the person of the ordinary skill in the art would expect that the use of corrosion inhibitors as taught by Thomas et al. (CN’ 144 A) would be similarly useful and applicable to the analogous cleaning composition taught by Pang et al. (US’ 860 A1) and would expect such a composition to have similar results to those claimed, absent unexpected results.
Allowable Subject Matter
5 Claims 7, 9-10 and 12 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. The closest prior art of record (US 2021/0300860 A1) does not teach or disclose the limitations of the instant claims.
Conclusion
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/EISA B ELHILO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1761
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