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 § 102
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.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 3-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Shimizu et al. (US 2021/0391178A1).
With respect to claims 1, 3, 4 Shimizu teaches an etching method comprising selectively etching a silicon material including silicon oxide and/or polysilicon film or claimed etching object over non-etching object has a carbon material including an amorphous carbon film and/or photoresist (para 16, 18) using an etching compound comprising a sulfur-containing fluorocarbon compound CxFySz, for example x=2, y =4 (para 8; 29, 30). The etching composition doesn’t have any type of metals of claimed 1.
With respect to claims 5-7, the etching composition further includes tetrafluoromethane CF4, difluoromethane CH2F2 and an inert gas (para 34, 36, 37).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 8-12 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.
Claims 2 and its dependent claims 8-12 are allowed because Shimizu, while teaches the use of sulfur-containing fluorocarbon or fluoro-dithiethane; however, he fails to teach that the fluoro-dithiethane has at least one type among 2,2,4,4-tetrafluoro-1,3-dithietane, 1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4-octafluoro-1,3- dithietane, 2,2,4-trifluoro-4-trifluoromethyl-1,3-dithietane, 2,4-difluoro-2,4-bis(trifluoromethyl)- 1,3-dithietane, and 2,2,4,4-tetrakis(trifluoromethyl)-1,3-dithietane.
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/DUY VU N DEO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1713
8/17/2026
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