METHODS OF DEPOSITING LINER LAYERS OF THROUGH GLASS VIA

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 . DETAILED ACTION Claims 15-21 withdrawn Claims 1-14 pending Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set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. 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. Claim(s) 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen (PG Pub 2022/0020675 A1) in view Hess (US. Pat. 4,863,755) and in further view of Moghadam (US. Pat. 6,413,583 B1). Consider Claim 1-5, Chen teaches the process of forming liner layer into an opening (via (48)) within a substrate (abstract, figure 2). Chen teaches the deposition of first dielectric liner (50) as adhesion layer on the substrate and in via (48) comprising silicon nitride with thickness between 50 Å to 1500 Å (figure 3, [0027]), where this SiN layer is deposited using PECVD system [0027]. Chen teaches the deposition of second dielectric liner (52) within the via (48) and in the substrate (figure 4) where the second liner layer (52) comprises silicon oxide with thickness from 500Å to 2500Å using CVD system [0028]. Chen does not teach the detailed process of forming the SiN withing the PECVD. However, Hess is in the prior art of depositing films containing silicon and nitrogen using PECVD (abstract), teaches the process of forming SiN (silicon nitride) film using silicon precursor with ammonia within CVD chamber having temperature from 200-400℃, pressure form 0.2 to 0.7 Torr, RF from 0.4 to 1.2 W/cm2 (Col. 4, lines 36-56). A person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention would combine Chen with Hess to from SiN liner layer within the above parameters, to provide with a carbon and oxygen with lower concentration than 51 atomic % (Col. 4, lines 5-10). In the case where the claimed ranges, “overlap or lie inside ranges disclosed by the prior art” a prima facie case of obviousness exists. In re Wertheim, 541 F.2d 257, 191 USPQ 90 (CCPA 1976). (MPEP 2144.05). Chen does not teach the detailed process of forming the silicon oxide withing the CVD. However, Moghadam is in the prior art of depositing silicon oxide layer (abstract), teaches the process of forming silicon oxide using organosilicon compound with oxidizing gas (Col. 3, lines 12-20) where the organosilicon compound include TEOS (Col. 3, lines 28-36) and the oxidizing gas include oxygen (Col. 5, lines 28-30). Moghadam teaches the process of depositing of silicon oxide with parameters including, temp less than 300℃, RF with 0.05-1000W/cm2 (Col. 3, lines 15-20), under pressure from 0.2-20 Torr, with flow rate of the organosilicon from 5-500 sccm with oxidizing 5-2000 sccm, including ratio 0.02 – 0.035 (Col. 14, lines 16-27). In the case where the claimed ranges, “overlap or lie inside ranges disclosed by the prior art” a prima facie case of obviousness exists. In re Wertheim, 541 F.2d 257, 191 USPQ 90 (CCPA 1976). (MPEP 2144.05). A person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention would combine Chen with Moghadam to deposit silicon oxide liner layer within the above parameters, to provide with gap fill layers having a dielectric constant less than about 3.0 (abstract). The combined Chen (with Hess and Moghadam) does not explicitly teach the claimed the tensile stress and the Young’s modulus values for the adhesion layer and the compressive stress and the Young’s modulus values for the second layer. However, the combined Chen (with Hess and Moghadam) teaches each and every process step and limitation of the applicant’s claims, including the “list of steps of forming the adhesion layer from silicon nitride and forming second layer from silicon oxide”. Since the “tensile stress of about −30 MPa to about 80 MPa and a Young's modulus of about 115 GPa to about 200 GPa for the adhesion layer, and compressive stress greater than −50 MPa, and a Young's modulus of about 35 GPa to about 70 GPa second layer” by the applicant’s claimed process is simply a function of the “list of steps of forming the adhesion layer from silicon nitride and forming second layer from silicon oxide”, and the combination of the Chen (with Hess and Moghadam) teaches the claimed process steps. The process of the combination of the Chen (with Hess and Moghadam) would have naturally flow or inherently produced “tensile stress of about −30 MPa to about 80 MPa and a Young's modulus of about 115 GPa to about 200 GPa for the adhesion layer, and compressive stress greater than −50 MPa, and a Young's modulus of about 35 GPa to about 70 GPa second layer” unless essential process steps and/or limitations are missing from the applicant’s claims. Consider Claim 6, the combined Chen (with Hess and Moghadam) teaches the use of CENTURA DxZ system (Moghadam, Col. 15, lines 55-60), where the Centura platform is a cluster tool (single processing chamber) for forming multiple layers sequentially (Moghadam, Col. 10, lines 44-46) of the adhesion layer/silicon nitride and the second layer/silicon oxide of Chen, without exposing the layers to the outside environment and or contamination. Claim(s) 7-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen (PG Pub 2022/0020675 A1) in view Moghadam (US. Pat. 6,413,583 B1). Consider Claim 7, 9-14, Chen teaches the process of forming liner layer into an opening (via (48)) within a substrate (abstract, figure 2). Chen teaches the deposition of first dielectric liner (50) as adhesion layer on the substrate and in via (48) comprising silicon oxycarbide with thickness between 50 Å to 1500 Å (figure 3, [0027]), where this silicon oxycarbide layer is deposited using PECVD system [0027]. Chen teaches the deposition of second dielectric liner (52) within the via (48) and in the substrate (figure 4) where the second liner layer (52) comprises silicon oxide with thickness from 500Å to 2500Å using CVD system [0028]. Chen does not teach the detailed process of forming the silicon oxycarbide withing the PECVD, nor teach the detailed process of forming the silicon oxide withing the CVD. However, Moghadam is in the prior art of depositing films containing silicon and nitrogen using PECVD (abstract), teaches the process of forming carbon doped silicon oxide (silicon oxycarbide) film (Col. 4, lines 35-38) using organosilicon HMDSO (Table Col. 5) with nitrous oxide (N2O) (Col. 5, lines 28-32), within CVD chamber temp less than 300℃, RF with 0.05-1000 W/cm2 (Col. 3, lines 15-20), under pressure from 0.2-20 Torr, with flow rate of the organosilicon from 5-500 sccm with oxidizing 5-2000 sccm, including ratio 0.3 – 1.5 (Col. 14, lines 16-27). Additionally, Moghadam teaches the doping with fluorine atom (Col. 6, lines 30-40). Moghadam also teaches the process of forming silicon oxide using organosilicon compound with oxidizing gas (Col. 3, lines 12-20) where the organosilicon compound include TEOS (Col. 3, lines 28-36) and the oxidizing gas include oxygen (Col. 5, lines 28-30). Moghadam teaches the process of depositing of silicon oxide with parameters including, temp less than 300℃, RF with 0.05-1000W/cm2 (Col. 3, lines 15-20), under pressure from 0.2-20 Torr, with flow rate of the organosilicon from 5-500 sccm with oxidizing 5-2000 sccm, including ratio 0.02 – 0.035 (Col. 14, lines 16-27). In the case where the claimed ranges, “overlap or lie inside ranges disclosed by the prior art” a prima facie case of obviousness exists. In re Wertheim, 541 F.2d 257, 191 USPQ 90 (CCPA 1976). (MPEP 2144.05). A person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the claimed invention would combine Chen with Moghadam to deposit silicon oxycarbide layer and silicon oxide liner layer within the above parameters, to provide with gap fill layers having a dielectric constant less than about 3.0 (abstract). The combined Chen (with Moghadam) does not explicitly teach the claimed the tensile stress and the Young’s modulus values for the adhesion layer and the compressive stress and the Young’s modulus values for the second layer. However, the combined Chen (with Moghadam) teaches each and every process step and limitation of the applicant’s claims, including the “list of steps of forming the adhesion layer from silicon oxycarbide and forming second layer from silicon oxide”. Since the “tensile stress of about −30 MPa to about 200 MPa and a Young's modulus of about 1 GPa to about 50 GPa for the adhesion layer, and compressive stress greater than −50 MPa, and a Young's modulus of about 35 GPa to about 70 GPa second layer” by the applicant’s claimed process is simply a function of the “list of steps of forming the adhesion layer from silicon oxycarbide and forming second layer from silicon oxide”, and the combination of the Chen (with Moghadam) teaches the claimed process steps. The process of the combination of the Chen (with Moghadam) would have naturally flow or inherently produced “tensile stress of about −30 MPa to about 200 MPa and a Young's modulus of about 1 GPa to about 50 GPa for the adhesion layer, and compressive stress greater than −50 MPa, and a Young's modulus of about 35 GPa to about 70 GPa second layer” unless essential process steps and/or limitations are missing from the applicant’s claims. Consider Claim 8, the combined Chen (with Moghadam) teaches the use of CENTURA DxZ system (Moghadam, Col. 15, lines 55-60), where the Centura platform is a cluster tool (single processing chamber) for forming multiple layers sequentially (Moghadam, Col. 10, lines 44-46) of the adhesion layer/silicon nitride and the second layer/silicon oxide of Chen, without exposing the layers to the outside environment and or contamination. Response to Arguments Applicant's arguments filed 09/09/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. The applicant argued against the applied rejection, on the ground that the combined prior arts do not identify a particular process that would necessarily produce the claimed tensile stress and the claimed Young’s modulus, as both are the mechanical properties. However, the prior arts of Chen and Hess (in combination) disclose the process of forming an adhesion layer having the claimed material (SiN, in claim 4) within the claimed thickness (in claim 1) using the claimed precursors and precursor ratio (in claim 4) and using the claimed temp, pressure, and RF (in claim 2). Moreover, the prior arts of Chen and Moghadam (in combination) disclose the process of forming a second layer having the claimed material (SiO2, in claim 3) within the claimed thickness (in claim 1) using the claimed precursors and precursor ratio (in claim 3) and using the claimed temp, pressure, and RF (in claim 2). Regarding claim 7 and its dependent, Chen disclose the forming of liner layer having adhesion layer (including silicon oxycarbide and/or SiO2) with a second layer (of SiO2), and Moghadam disclose the forming of adhesion layer and second layer using the claimed processes. Therefore, since the prior arts of Chen and Hess identify the claimed materials used for forming the liner layer having a silicon nitride as an adhesion layer, and a silicon dioxide as a second layer, along with identifying the claimed processing steps with the claimed materials, this would necessarily produce the claimed tensile stress and the claimed Young’s modulus, unless essential process steps and/or limitations are missing from the applicant’s claims. The applicant argued against claims 6 and 8, on the ground that the cluster system of Centura DxZ (made by Applied materials) of Moghadam does not disclose the claimed sequentially depositing the adhesion layer and the second layer within a single system. However, Chen disclose the forming of adhesion layer along with forming a second layer on the adhesion layer using the cluster tool (Centura DxZ) of Moghadam. All other applicant arguments not specifically addressed above are deemed unpersuasive as either not commensurate in scope with the broadly drafted claims or are unsupported by factual evidence and are deemed mere attorney speculation. Conclusion THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Mohammad Mayy whose telephone number is (571)272-9983. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday, 11:00AM-7:00PM EST. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Gordon Baldwin can be reached at 571-272-5166. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. 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