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 .
This non-final Office action is in response to Applicant’s patent application number 18/873,737 filed on 12/11/2024.
Currently, claims 1-8 are pending and examined.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/11/2024 is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Re claim 1, line 3; a citation “the surface” does not have a proper antecedent basis. Correction is required. Claims 2-8 depending upon the rejected claim 1 are also rejected.
Re claim 4, line 2; a citation “the group” does not have a proper antecedent basis. Correction is required. Claims 7, 8; having the same issue as mentioned are also rejected.
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) 1-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US No. 2022/0351960 to Enman et al. (‘Enman’).
Re claim 1: Enman discloses a method (see flowcharts of Figs. 1-3) for atomic layer etching of a metal oxide film formed on a predetermined underlayer on a substrate (par. [0017], line 2), comprising: a fluorination step of supplying a fluorine (par. [0017], lines 1-2) containing gas to react with the surface of the metal oxide film (par. [0022], line 6) to form a fluorinated surface layer ; and a chemical etching step of supplying a chemical etching gas (par. [0028], lines 1-4) to the substrate to remove the fluorinated surface layer, wherein a cycle including the fluorination step and the chemical etching step is repeated a predetermined number of times to remove a portion of the metal oxide film (par. [0022], and the fluorine-containing gas reacts with the underlayer to form a non-volatile passivation layer (see Abstract, Fig. 1)
Re claim 2: wherein the fluorine-containing gas is in a non-plasma state, and a process temperature of the fluorination step is 200-500°C (see Abstract).
Re claim 3: wherein the process temperature of the fluorination step is 300-400°C (see par. [0008]).
Re claims 4, 5: wherein the fluorine-containing gas includes one or more gases selected from the group consisting of HF gas (par. [0006]), NF₃ gas, F3NO gas, and FNO gas, and the underlayer is a titanium nitride film; wherein the HF gas is anhydrous HF gas (par. [0071]).
Re claim 6: wherein the non-volatile passivation layer includes one or more of titanium difluoride (TiF₂) and titanium trifluoride (TiF₃) (see par. [0065]).
Re claim 7: wherein the chemical etching gas includes one or more gases selected from the group consisting of TiCl4 gas and SiCl4 gas (see par. [0065]).
Re claim 8: wherein the metal oxide film includes one or more oxide films selected from the group consisting of hafnium oxide film, zirconium oxide film, and hafnium zirconium composite oxide film (see pars. [0080] and [0092]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure (see attached PTO-892).
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communication from the examiner should be directed to CHI Q. NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571) 272-6847. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 7AM-5PM or email: chi.nguyen@uspto.gov. If attempt to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Brian Mattei can be reached at (571) 270-3238. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pairdirect.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at (866) 217-9197.
/CHI Q NGUYEN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3635
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