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 .
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.
Claims 1-2, 4-6, 11, 13-16, and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wontae Noh et al (U. S. Patent Application: 2022/0119939, here after 939).
Claim 1 is rejected. 939 teaches a method for filling a feature of a structure on a substrate in a chamber, the method comprising:
performing one or more cycles of:
(a) providing to the chamber under non-plasma conditions [fig. 4b] to inhibit deposition on at least part of the feature; and
(b) after (a), inletting dielectric deposition reactants(co-reactant) to performing one or more atomic layer deposition cycles to deposit a dielectric material in the
feature [fig. 4b, 0153]. 939 also teaches inhibitors such as halogen-containing gas, hydrogen, and oxygen [0120, 0121, 0071].
Claim 2 is rejected as 939 teaches the dielectric material is an oxide [0135].
Claim 4 is rejected as the feature comprising silicon oxide (102) [0073], and
exposing it to F gas would result in etching and then deposition on surface therefore
(a) results in a self-limiting etch.
Claim 5 is rejected as exposing surface (silicon oxide) to F inherently results in a
halogen-terminated surface.
Claim 6 is rejected as 939 teaches step (a) further comprises providing water to the chamber [0121].
Claim 11 is rejected as 939 teaches providing inhibitors such as water in chamber [0121], 939 also teaches inhibitors such as hydrogen and oxygen [0120, 0121] which in fact can react and make water.
Claim 13 is rejected as 939 teaches the inhibition in (a) is greater at a feature
opening than deeper within the feature [fig. 2].
Claim 14 is rejected as 939 teaches (b) comprises performing a plurality of
atomic layer deposition cycles to deposit the dielectric material [0134].
Claim 15 is rejected. 939 teaches (b) is performed more times per cycle than (a)
[0148 lines 15-26].
Claim 16 is rejected as in step (a) F etch the dielectric layer and form a layer on it
(adsorption, 0155), therefore step a is diffusion-limited.
Claim 22 is rejected. 939 teaches a method for filling a feature of a structure on a substrate in a chamber, the method comprising:
performing one or more cycles of:
(a) providing a halogen-containing gas to the chamber under non-plasma conditions to inhibit deposition on at least part of the feature[abstract]; and
(b) performing one or more atomic layer deposition cycles to deposit a dielectric material in the feature [0134, 0159, 0160]. 939 teaches inhibitors such as water in chamber [0121], 939 also teaches inhibitors such as hydrogen and oxygen [0120, 0121] which in fact can react and make water.
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 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Wontae
Noh (U. S. Patent Application 2022/0119939, here after 939), further in view of Dustin Z.
Austin et al (WO 2021/202808, here after 808).
Claim 3 is rejected. 939 teaches inhibitor comprising fluorine, but does not teach
before performing one or more cycles of (a) and (b), depositing a liner layer in the
feature by atomic layer deposition. 808 teaches prior to depositing inhibitor and by ALD
depositing a liner to protect the feature (from unwanted etch) [0032, 0035]. Therefore, it
would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention
was made to have a method of 939 and deposit a lining layer, because it protects
features from etching (by fluorine).
Claims 8-9, and 17-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being
unpatentable over Wontae Noh (U. S. Patent Application 2022/0119939, here after 939)
further in view of Joseph Able et al (WO 2020/009818, here after 818).
Claim 8 is rejected. 939 teaches the limitation of claim 1, and teaches the
structure comprises a vertically-oriented feature, where the vertically-oriented feature
having sidewalls [fig. 2] for forming a memory device [0073], but does not teach the
structure comprises a plurality of openings in the sidewalls leading to a plurality of
laterally-oriented features. 818 teaches a method of gap filling structure for making
memory device, where the structure comprises a plurality of openings in the sidewalls
leading to a plurality of laterally-oriented features fluidically accessible through the
plurality of openings, and wherein the feature is one of the laterally-oriented features
[fig. 1c, 0001108]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the
art at the time of the invention was made to have a method of 939 where the feature in
substrate comprising vertical feature with horizontal opening, because it is suitable to
make memory devices.
Claim 9 is rejected as 939 teaches inhibitor may generated with or without
plasma [0026]; therefore, in some cycles can perform as steps (1) and (b) and in some
cycles as (c) and (d).
Claim 17 is rejected. 939 teaches a method for filling a feature of a structure on a
substrate in a chamber, the method comprising: performing one or more cycles of:
a) inletting a halogen-containing gas to a chamber housing the structure under
non-plasma conditions to inhibit deposition on features [abstract, 0003], exposing surface (silicon oxide) to F inherently results in a
halogen-terminated surface; and
b) after (a), performing one or more atomic layer deposition cycles to deposit a dielectric material in the feature [abstract, fig. 4b, 0153] and performing it a plurality of times (ALD). 939 teaches the structure comprises a vertically-oriented feature, where the vertically-oriented feature having sidewalls [fig. 2] for forming a memory device [0073], but does not teach the structure comprises a plurality of openings in the sidewalls leading to a plurality of laterally-oriented features. 818 teaches a method of gap filling structure for making memory device, where the structure comprises a plurality of openings in the sidewalls leading to a plurality of laterally-oriented features fluidically
accessible through the plurality of openings, and wherein the feature is one of the
laterally-oriented features [fig. 1c, 0001108]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to
one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to have a method of
939 where the feature in substrate comprising vertical feature with horizontal opening,
because it is suitable to make memory devices. 818 also teaches using inhibitors prior to gasp filling [0068] which in fact leads to formation of inhibitors on at least part of each of the plurality of laterally-oriented features.
Claim 18 is rejected as 939 teaches (a) further comprises inletting hydrogen (H₂)
and (O2) to the chamber [0120, 0121, 0071].
Claim 19 is rejected as the structure is high aspect ratio, and the gases come
from a showerhead (above the substrate) in step (a) therefore inhibiting a portion of
each feature near a feature opening to a greater extent than deeper within the feature.
Claim 20 is rejected as 939 teaches step (b) comprises performing a plurality of
atomic layer deposition cycles to deposit the dielectric material (ALD) [0146].
Claim 21 Claim 15 is rejected. 939 teaches (b) is performed more times per cycle
than (a) [0148 lines 15-26].
Claim 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Wontae
Noh (U. S. Patent Application 2022/0119939, here after 939) further in view of Heon
Byeon et al (U. S. Patent Application 2021/0028187, here after 187).
Claim 12 is rejected. 939 teaches halogen containing gas is fluorine but not
hydrogen fluoride. 187 teaches a method for filling a feature of a structure by
providing an inhibitor such as fluorine-containing gas to the chamber to inhibit
deposition on at least part of the feature [0017, fig. 2D], prior to step of depositing a dielectric Material (silicon oxide) in the feature [0021]. 187 also teaches the
halogen-containing gas is hydrogen fluoride [0017]. Therefore, it would have been
obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention was made to have a
method of 939 where the inhibitor is HF, because it is suitable fluoride inhibitor for
selectively deposition and gas filling.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 07/09/26 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. The applicant argues Noh teaches oxygen and hydrogen as reactant gas and not inhibitor, the examiner does not agree, Noh teaches providing oxygen and hydrogen as inhibitors [0120, 0121, 0071].
The applicant augments regrading claim 5 rejection is not persuasive, adsorbing(physiosorbed) of halogen(fluorine) on surface leads to halogen terminated surface although Noh also teaches plasma treatment on some cycles along with non-plasma treatment cycles.
The applicant argument regarding claim 11 is not persuasive as Noh teaches water as inhibitor [0121], furthermore existing hydrogen and oxygen and reaction or dissociation of inhibitors could lead to formation of water.
Same above argument is valid for claim 17 rejection and rest of the claims.
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TABASSOM TADAYYON ESLAMI whose telephone number is (571)270-1885. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30-6.
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/TABASSOM TADAYYON ESLAMI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1718
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