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.
Claim(s) 1-5, 14-15, 17-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WU (CN216288355) in view of Takahashi (EP1988568).
Referring to claim 1. Wu discloses a “Wafer Transfer System”. See Figs. 1-59 and respective portions of the specification. Wu further discloses a wafter handling system comprising: a wafer flipping apparatus (600) comprising: a support member (640); a housing (630) rotatably coupled to the support member, the housing comprising a cavity, a first side having a first opening into the cavity (Fig. 33), and a second side having a second opening into the cavity (Fig. 33)., the cavity comprising a plurality of slots (comb posts 620 provide a plurality of slots used to clamp and fix wafers and spaced apart slots permit a plurality of wafers to be held in spaced apart manner, Figs. 34-35) each configured to receive a wafer such that the cavity is configured to hold a plurality of wafers in a spaced manner (See Sect. 0193-0197); wherein the wafers are configured to be inserted into and removed from the cavity through both of the first and second openings (Its noted that wafers enter and exit through both the first and second openings as indicated by direction arrows, See Fig.35); and wherein during rotation of the housing relative to the support member, the wafers in the cavity are configured to be inverted (See Sect. 0174-0181, Figs. 33-35). Wu doesn’t explicitly disclose rotating the housing through 180 degrees to invert wafers from a front side down orientation to a front side up orientation. Takahashi discloses a “Substrate Treating Device, Substrate Convey Device, Substrate Grasping Device, and Chemical Treating Device”. See Figs. 1-63 and respective portions of the specification. Takahashi further discloses a reversing machine (31) that inverts a semiconductor wafer and more specifically, discloses that reversing mechanism (318) rotates the opening/closing mechanism (312) and holding members (310) about the rotational shaft (316) whereby, the wafer (W) held by the holding members, is turned through 180 degrees (See Sect. 0113). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the apparatus of Wu to configure the rotatable wafer turning device to rotate through 180 degrees, as taught by Takahashi, in order to invert wafers from a first orientation to an inverted orientation for backside processing.
Referring to claims 2-4. Wu in view of Takahashi disclose the combination as set forth above as applied to claim 1. Wu further discloses a first robot apparatus (500) configured to insert a first set of wafer in a front side up orientation; and a second robot apparatus (700) configured to remove the first set of wafers in the front side down orientation. More specifically, Wu discloses that the robot arm (500) transfers wafers into the wafer turning device (600) operating from one side of the system and wafer carrying device (700) that receives wafers from the opposite side of the turning device after rotation. Thus, Wu discloses a first apparatus that inserts wafers into the cavity via one opening and a second apparatus that removes wafers from the opposite opening. Likewise Wu discloses bidirectional wafer access through the wafer turning device. Furthermore, Takahashi discloses a transfer robot (22) in the loading/unloading section that inserts a wafer into the reversing machine (31) in a front-side up orientation (Sect. 0105), after which the reversing machine reverses the wafer through 180 degrees (Sect. 0113) and further that transfer robot (22) can remove post-processed wafers from the system and a second robot system (33, 34) moving wafers between the housing and process tool (See Sect. 0041-0046, 0165). Takahashi further discloses It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the two-robot, dual-opening transfer architecture as taught by Takahashi in the wafer system of Wu in order to enable automated loading and unloading of wafers from the opposite sides of the housing before and after inversion, which would allow continuous throughput and to sue the same turning device for both pre-processing inversion and post-processing re-inversion to reduce the need for additional flipping equipment and to maintain an automated wafer flow.
Referring to claim 5. Wu in view of Takahashi disclose the combination as set forth above as applied to claim 1. Wu does not disclose a storage pod; a tool configured to perform processing operations on the wafers; or wherein the first robot moves the wafers between the storage pod and the housing or wherein the second robot apparatus is configured to move the wafers between the tool and the housing. However, Wu discloses a cassette/Foup handing in connection with a wafer transfer robot and wafer turning device, while Takahashi discloses a storage pod (wafer cassette 200 on front loading units 20), a process tool (300A-D), a first robot (transfer robot 22) moving wafers between the storage pod and the housing, and a second robot system (33-34, 301A-D) moving wafers between the housing and the tool (Sect. 0041-0046, 0165). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine Wu wafer turning device with Takahashi storage to processing wafer transfer structure so that the wafers are moved from storage, through the turning device and to a processing tool in an automated processing system.
Referring to claims 14-15. Wu in view of Takahashi disclose the combination as set forth above as applied to claim 1. Wu doesn’t disclose wherein the wafer flipping apparatus comprises: a wafer flipping device that comprises the support member and the housing; and a frame having frame walls that at least partially enclose the wafer flipping device or wherein the frame walls comprise: a front frame wall having a front frame opening that is aligned with the first opening in the first side of the housing when the housing is in an upright orientation and in an inverted orientation; and a rear frame wall having a rear frame opening that is aligned with the second opening in the second side of the housing when the housing is in the upright orientation and in the inverted orientation; and wherein the housing is rotated 180º between the upright and inverted orientations. Takahashi discloses a reversing machine (31) enclosed within the frame (102) of the polishing section casing, with the frame walls providing structural enclosure of the reversing machine, and with the reversal operation accessible from a front side and a process side through aligned openings in the frame (See Sect. 0046, 0081, 0105). Takahashi further discloses wherein the frame opening aligned with the reversing machine remains accessible in both the wafer delivery orientation and the post inversion orientation, as noted the reversing machine rotates the wafer through 180 degrees and release it from the same physical position, thus confirming front and rear frame openings aligned with the housing openings in both the upright and inverted orientations (See Sect. 0113-0124) and discloses that the housing is rotated 180 degrees between the upright and inverted orientations (See Sect. 0113). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the frame enclosure with aligned front and rear openings as taught by Takahashi into the wafer inversion apparatus of Wu in order to provide a contained inversion environment that isolates the rotating housing from external fab environment, that protects semiconductor wafers from contamination during inversion, and ensures reliable, repeatable wafer access from both loading and process sides in either housing orientation.
Referring to claim 17. Wu in view of Takahashi disclose the combination as set forth above as applied to claim 1. Wu discloses inserting wafers into the cavity of the turning device housing (630) via a first opening at one channel end in an initial upright horizontal orientation and removing the wafers from the cavity via the second opening at the opposite channel end after rotation of the housing. Wu does not disclose rotating the housing 180º to invert the first set of wafers into a first inverted orientation (See Sect. 0113). Takahashi discloses a transfer robot (22) inserts a wafer into a reversing machine, reversing mechanism (318) rotates the wafer holding mechanism through 180 degrees to turn the wafer upside down, thereby inverting wafers from a first upright orientation to a first inverted orientation, and wherein the inverted wafer is removed via the opposite side of the machine to the lifter (32) (See Sect. 0124). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Takahashi and apply the 180 degree inversion step to Wu’s wafer transfer system to invert wafers during transfer so that the opposite side of the wafers is accessible for processing.
Referring to claims 18-19. Wu in view of Takahashi disclose the combination as set forth above as applied to claim 1. Wu discloses that wafers may be re-inserted from either side of the channel and that the turning device performs multi-directional rotation. Takahashi discloses a complete round trip method and specifically after polishing wafers in an inverted orientation (Sect. 0072), the polished wafer is transferred back to the reversing machine (41) and re-inverted through 180 degrees (Sect. 0116), and the transfer robot (22) removes the re-inverted wafer in the upright orientation for return to the cassette (Sect. 0165). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Takahashi known inversion, processing, and re-inversion sequence to provide automated backside processing and return wafers to their original orientation, which would reduce manual handling and avoid the need for separate inversion equipment before and after processing.
Claim(s) 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WU (CN216288355) in view of Takahashi (EP1988568) and in further view of Lee (US4568234)
Referring to claim 9. Wu in view of Takahashi disclose the combination as set forth above as applied to claim 1. Wu does not discloses that the housing comprising a bottom wall, a top wall, a first side wall coupled to the bottom and top walls, and a second side wall coupled to the bottom and top walls, the first side wall comprising a first plurality of slits extending from the first side of the housing to the second side of the housing and the second side wall comprising a second plurality of slits extending from the first side of the housing to the second side of the housing, the first and second plurality of slits in the first and second side walls, respectively, being spaced apart in a direction between the bottom and top walls, and wherein each of the wafers is configured to be supported in the cavity by one of the first plurality of slits in the first side wall and one of the second plurality of slits in the second side wall. Lee discloses a “Wafer Transfer Apparatus”. See Figs. 1-11 and respective portions of the specification. Lee further discloses the transfer of wafers (18) between slotted carriers and teaches that wafers are positioned in a carrier having a plurality of spaced slots receiving wafers in edgewise, coaxial relation with the wafers spaced from each other and a standard cassette (16) that has a sidewall structure with inwardly extending ribs defining a series of slots into which wafers are positioned so as to support the wafers in edgewise, coaxial, spaced, roughly parallel relation. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the wafer support structure of Wu to use fixed, passive slotted side walls as taught by Lee, in place of the active rotating comb columns (610) of WU, in order to simply the mechanical design of the housing, reduce the number of moving components within the housing, and improve the structural integrity during 180 degree rotation of the housing. It should be noted that Wu and Lee are both directed to the same problem of supporting a plurality of wafers in uniformly spaced apart relation during wafer handling, and passive slotted side walls are an established alternative to the Wu’s active comb structure.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 6-8, 10-13, 16-18, 20 are 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.
Conclusion
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/TERRELL H MATTHEWS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3653
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