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 .
Remarks
Applicant’s election without traverse of Specie 2 in the reply filed on 05/18/26 is acknowledged. Examiner acknowledged that claims 1-8 and 10-31 are pending.
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/03/25 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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) 1-3, 9-11, 13, 15, 20, 22-24, 26-31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Song (US 2022/0165548) in view of Ahn (US 2018/0028998).
Regarding Claim 1, Song teaches a multi-plenum gas manifold comprising: a monolithic body; a first plenum (Fig. 6: 2310) arranged within the monolithic body and configured to distribute to or divert from one or more substrate processing stations a first gas species (Fig. 6: via 2117), the first plenum comprising a first cavity (Fig. 6: IH1), and a first set of channels (Fig. 7: 2117) extending outward from the first cavity; and a second plenum (Fig. 7: 2320) arranged within the monolithic body isolated from the first plenum and configured to distribute to or divert from the one or more substrate processing stations a second gas species (Fig. 7: via 2227), the second plenum comprising a second cavity (Fig. 7: IH2), and a second set of channels (Fig. 7: 2227) extending outward from the second cavity.
Song does not teach a second cavity disposed radially outward of the first cavity.
Ahn is in the filed of gas distribution using plenum (abstract) and teaches a second cavity (Fig. 3: outer 230)disposed radially outward of the first cavity (fig. 3: most inner 230).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling of the claimed invention to modify the device of Song with a second cavity disposed radially outward of the first cavity as taught by Ahn in order to uniformly heat the reaction spaces since the gas can be controlled independently [0109].
Regarding Claim 2, Song teaches the multi-plenum gas manifold of claim 1, wherein the first cavity and the second cavity are circular shaped (Fig. 3: IH2 and IH1 are circular).
Regarding Claim 3, the combination of Song and Ahn teach the multi-plenum gas manifold of claim 1, wherein the first cavity and the second cavity are concentric cavities (Ahn Fig. 3: 230 are concentric cavities).
Regarding Claim 9, the combination of Song and Ahn teach the multi-plenum gas manifold of claim 1, wherein a first volume of the first cavity is equal to a second volume of the second cavity (Song Fig. 7: IH1 same vol as IH2).
Regarding Claim 10, the combination of Song and Ahn teach the multi-plenum gas manifold of claim 1, wherein a first volume of the first cavity is different than a second volume of the second cavity (Ahn Fig. 3: center 230 has different vol from outer 230 cavity).
Regarding Claim 11, the combination of Song and Ahn teach the multi-plenum gas manifold of claim 1, wherein: the first set of channels comprises a plurality of draw channels (Song Fig. 3: 257) and a divert channel (Song Fig. 4: 225); the plurality of draw channels draw the first gas species into the first cavity; and the first cavity directs the first gas species from the plurality of draw channels to the divert channel.
Regarding Claim 13, the combination of Song and Ahn teach the multi-plenum gas manifold of claim 1, wherein: the second set of channels comprises a plurality of draw channels (Song Fig. 3: 255) and a divert channel (Song Fig. 4: 215); the plurality of draw channels draw the second gas species into the second cavity; and the second cavity directs the second gas species from the plurality of draw channels to the divert channel.
Regarding Claim 15, the combination of Song and Ahn teach the multi-plenum gas manifold of claim 1, wherein the second set of channels are at least one of axially or vertically offset (Song Fig. 4: 227 vertically offset from 217) from the first set of channels.
Regarding Claim 20, the combination of Song and Ahn teach a substrate processing system comprising: the multi-plenum gas manifold of claim 1; and a substrate processing chamber (Fig. 2: 10) comprising a plurality of substrate processing stations (Fig. 2: left and right 100), wherein the multi-plenum gas manifold transfers the first gas species and the second gas species between the multi-plenum gas manifold and the plurality of substrate processing stations (Fig. 2; 200).
Regarding Claim 22, the combination of Song and Ahn teach the substrate processing system of claim 20, wherein: the first set of channels comprises a plurality of draw channels (Song Fig. 3: 255) and a divert channel (Song Fig. 4: 215); the plurality of draw channels are connected respectively to the plurality of substrate processing stations (Song Fig. 2: left and right 100) and draw the first gas species into the first cavity from the plurality of substrate processing stations; and the first cavity directs the first gas species from the plurality of draw channels to the divert channel.
Regarding Claim 24, the combination of Song and Ahn teach the substrate processing system of claim 20, wherein: the second set of channels comprises a plurality of draw channels (Song Fig. 3: 257) and a divert channel (Song Fig. 4: 225); the plurality of draw channels are connected respectively to the plurality of substrate processing stations (Song Fig. 2: left and right 100) and draw the second gas species into the second cavity from the plurality of substrate processing stations; and the second cavity directs the second gas species from the plurality of draw channels to the divert channel.
Regarding Claim 26 and 27, the combination of Song and Ahn teach the substrate processing system of claim 20, wherein a number of channels in the first set of channels is less than (Fig. 3: 2 channels of 257) or equal to a total number of substrate processing stations (Fig. 2: 2 different stations 100) in the substrate processing chamber plus one.
Regarding Claims 28-31, the combination of Song and Ahn teach the substrate processing system of claim 20, wherein: the first set of channels comprises a plurality of draw/source channels (Fig. 3: 257) and a divert/distribution channel (Fig. 4: 225); and a total number of draw channels (fig. 3: 2) of the first plenum is less than or equal to a total number of substrate processing stations (Fig. 2: 2 plasma stations) in the substrate processing chamber.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-8, 12, 14, 16-19, 21, 25 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HENRY T LUONG whose telephone number is (571)270-7008. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday: 8:00-6:00.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Alexander Taningco can be reached at (571) 272-8048. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Henry Luong/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2845
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