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 .
NOTE on 35 USC §101:
Claims 1 and 7 have been reviewed for subject matter eligibility. The recitations of [an abnormality determiner for] determining abnormal deliver of the substrate based on time difference is considered an abstract idea and thus, a judicial exception. However, the Examiner concludes that for claim 1, the limitation of a plurality of sensor including a first sensor and a second sensor configured to detect different sites of the substrate to detect that the substate is placed on the placement surface transfer stage by the abnormality determiner integrates the judicial exception into a practical application [Eligibility Step 2A prong 2, see MPEP 2106.04(d))]. Also, for claim 7, the limitation of a substrate processing apparatus comprising a transfer stage configured so that the substrate is delivered to the placement surface from the substrate holding device by a detachment operation of the substrate by the substrate holding device is considered as amounting to significantly more that the judicial exception [Eligibility Step 2B, see MPEP 2106.05].
At least for the reasons above, the claim has NOT been rejected under 35 USC 101.
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.
Claim(s) 1-4, 6-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable Nakamura US 2014/0011305 A1 in view of Li CN 113130362 A and Nakamura KR 20220074905 A (KR 905) and Takahashi US 2015/0371883 A1.
Re claims 1, 7, Nakamura discloses a substrate processing apparatus for performing a polishing process on a surface to be polished of a substrate [figs.1-2, 4], comprising:
a polishing table 10 [fig. 1] for supporting a polishing pad 20;
a substrate holding device 2 having a substrate holding surface 104a [fig. 2] and a pressure chamber [5-8] composed of an elastic film 4, and configured to hold the substrate on the substrate holding surface and press the substrate to the polishing pad by pressure in the pressure chamber;
a transfer stage 92 [fig. 4] having a placement surface on which the substrate is placed, and configured so that the substrate is delivered to the placement surface from the substrate holding device by a detachment operation of the substrate by the substrate holding device;
a plurality of sensors [105, 106] including a first sensor and a second sensor configured to detect different sites of the substrate to detect that the substrate is placed on the placement surface.
Nakamaura does not disclose an abnormality determiner that determines abnormal delivery of the substrate to the transfer stage from the substrate holding device, based on a time difference a first timing at which the first sensor detects that the substrate is placed on the placement surface, and a second timing at which the second sensor detects that the substrate is placed on the placement surface.
However, Li teaches an abnormality determiner [“wafer locating device”] that determines abnormal delivery of the substrate to the transfer stage from the substrate holding device, based on optical sensors [“when the wafer is normally placed, the wafer locating device measured by the light signal along with the time change of the graph, wherein the abscissa represents time, in the ordinate, " 0 " represents the light signal is shielded; The "1" represents that the optical signal is not shielded. As can be seen from FIG. 11, when the wafer 200 is normally placed, the optical signal is not shielded in most of the time interval, and wherein the periodically presented " 0 " signal represented by the rotation of the wafer 200; the positioning part 203 and the guide part 204 for the periodic shielding of the optical signal, each " 0 " signal represents the time required by the optical signal scanning the positioning part 203 and the guide part 204…when the wafer is abnormal deviation, the wafer locating device measured by the optical signal with time change of the graph. Compared with FIG. 11 and FIG. 12 can be seen, because the wafer 200 in FIG. 9 or FIG. 10 most shielding the light signal swept area, the optical signal is presented as 0 in a large time interval, which indicates that the wafer locating device provided by this embodiment can accurately detect the abnormal condition of the wafer deviation. It should be noted that, as the rotation of the wafer 200, the detector 202 can completely sweep the wafer bearing platform 201 of the edge area, so, even if the wafer 200 only at a certain area of the edge of the shielding light signal deviation; can also be detected by the wafer positioning device provided by this embodiment, and due to the presence of the positioning part 203 and the guide part 204; Any wafer deviation not across the top of the guide portion 204 will automatically return to its normal set position under the guidance and limitation of the positioning portion 203 and the guide portion 204….As an example, as shown in FIG. 13, the wafer positioning device provided by the embodiment further can detect the state of the positioning part 203 or the guide part 204. Specifically, when the driving module drives the wafer bearing platform 201 to rotate, the connection line of the transmitting end 202a and the receiving end 202b passes through the locating part 203 or the guide part 204; the judging module according to the change state of the optical signal received by the receiving end 202b judges whether the locating part 203 or the guide part 204 is damaged. Compared with FIG. 11 and FIG. 13 can be seen, the original periodically repeated, characterizing the locating part 203 and the guide part 204 of the " 0 " signal is deleted in the specific time interval. This indicates that the position of the light signal of the locating part 203 and the guide part 204 has been damaged and cannot shield the light signal, needs to stop the device maintenance in time. It should be noted that, it is not limited to damage, when the locating part 203 and the guide part 204 is inclined or inverted and other abnormal, also can through the locating part 203 and the guide part 204 of the characteristic " 0 " signal of the change to the corresponding judgment“].
KR 905 teaches an abnormality determiner 10 that determines abnormal delivery of the substrate to the transfer stage from the substrate holding device, based on a time difference data based on optical sensor and learning models [figs. 2-3, 5, 13, “the estimating unit 121 may process for each lot of the substrate W (eg, 25 sheets per lot), that is, the estimating unit 121 . is input, a data set 131 including sensor data from the start of transfer of the first substrate to the end of transfer of the last substrate at the time of transferring a plurality of new substrates”].
Takahashi teaches using the time difference between a first timing at which the first sensor detects that the substrate is placed on the placement surface, and a second timing at which the second sensor detects that the substrate is placed on the placement surface to determine the substrate position [¶145, “[w]hen the sensor 117a and the sensor 117b each detects edges of the wafer that are ends of the wafer, the control unit 300 stores position information (for example, XY coordinate values) of a center position A of the wafer at a time t1 detected by the sensor 117a as the substrate reference position information sk (first substrate reference position information sk) on the wafer moving path toward the substrate support unit 217b(1) in the memory unit 301 based on a time difference t between the time t1 detected by the sensor 117a and a time t2 detected by the sensor 117b. In this case, position information (path unit reference position information s2=encoder value ek) of the tweezers 113 at the time t1 detected by the sensor 117a is stored in the memory unit 301 by corresponding to the substrate reference position information sk. The encoder value ek includes encoder values in X and Y directions within the XY plane. Also, the positions of the tweezers 113 at the time t2 detected by the sensor 117b may be the path unit reference position.”].
The only difference between the claimed invention and the prior art is that the prior art does not incorporate an abnormality determiner based on time difference detection of each sensor on a transfer stage of a substrate transfer from the polishing pad into a single combined apparatus. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have had the technological capabilities to incorporate both the transfer of the wafer from the polishing pad of Nakamura and the abnormality determiner based on time difference calculation taught by Li, KR 905, and Takahashi into a combined apparatus/method before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. The resulting combined apparatus would yield predictable results of determining an abnormal position of the wafer in the transfer stage.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the abnormality determiner based on time difference detection of each sensor taught by Li, KR 905, and Takahashi with the transfer stage of Nakamura in order to yield the predictable result of determining errors when positioning the wafer.
Re claim 2, Nakamura, Li, KR 905, and Takahashi teach the invention as discussed above. Takahashi further teaches wherein the plurality of sensors has at least three sensors [¶263,”in the above-described embodiment, a substrate deviation degree on the substrate moving path was detected using two transmission sensors serving as substrate detecting units, but it may be configured to use three or more transmission sensor”] that detects that the substrate is placed on the placement surface first among the plurality of sensors as the first sensor, and a sensor that detects that the substrate is placed on the placement surface last among the plurality of sensors as the second sensor. Li and KR 905 teach the abnormality determiner determines abnormal delivery of the substrate to the transfer stage from the substrate holding device,
Re claim 3, Nakamura, Li, KR 905, and Takahashi teach the invention as discussed above. KR 905 further teaches wherein the abnormality determiner 10 determines that there is a possibility that abnormality occurs to the substrate by delivery of the substrate, when it is detected that the substrate is placed on the placement surface in all the sensors [51-53] of the plurality of sensors, and the time difference is a predetermined abnormality determination time or more [Fig. 5, abnormality occurrence is determined by a time difference threshold].
Re claim 4, Nakamura, Li, KR 905, and Takahashi teach the invention as discussed above. Li further teaches wherein the abnormality determiner determines that the substrate is placed in an inclined state on the placement surface, when it is detected that the substrate is placed on the placement surface in some sensors of the plurality of sensors, and it is not detected that the substrate is placed on the placement surface in remaining sensors of the plurality of sensors [figs. 9-10].
Re claim 6, Nakamura, Li, KR 905, and Takahashi teach the invention as discussed above Nakamura further teaches a release nozzle 93 [fig. 10] configured to inject a pressurized fluid to a gap between the substrate holding surface and the substrate at a time of the detachment operation of the substrate.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 5 is 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 following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Nakamura further teaches wherein the plurality of sensors each has a light emitter 105 that emits light so that the light is blocked by the substrate when the substrate is placed on the placement surface. The prior art of Myamoto KR 20230112047 A teaches stopping all sensor when an abnormality is determined [Abstract, “[a] substrate transport method that can prevent corrosion caused by light from occurring on the surface of a substrate is provided. The substrate transport method includes: loading the substrate into a receiving unit; detecting that light emitted from an optical sensor (302) is blocked by the substrate transported to the receiving unit to confirm that the substrate is present in the receiving unit; and stopping the irradiation of light from the optical sensor (302) before the substrate is unloaded from the receiving unit.”]. However, this occurs if at least one sensor is blocked. The prior art of record does not show or fairly render obvious the combination set forth in the claims. In particular, the prior art does not show when it is detected that the substrate is placed on the placement surface in all the sensors of the plurality of sensors, light emissions from the light emitters of the plurality of sensors are stopped.
Correspondence
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Carlos A. Rivera whose telephone number is (571)270-5697. The examiner can normally be reached 9AM -4PM.
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, Brian Keller can be reached at (571) 272-8548. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
C. A. R.
Primary Patent Examiner
Art Unit 3723
/C. A. RIVERA/Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3723
Prosecution Insights