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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 11-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected Group, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on March 17, 2026.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by JUNG et al. (2022/0074848).
Claim 1
JUNG et al. (2022/0074848) discloses operating method of a semiconductor measurement device including an optical system (Fig. 1, Ref. 1000), comprising: aligning the optical system (Fig. 1, Ref. 1000) and a sample (Fig. 1, Ref. 2000) to be measured; adjusting an angle of an analyzer (Fig. 1, Ref. 620; polarizer; Para. 0045; “and the rotation of a polarizer and the compensator may also be required”; rotation of the polarizer would be adjusting the angle of the analyzer) included in the optical system (Fig. 1, Ref. 1000) to extinguish, with an interference generator (Fig. 1, Ref. 600; “self-interference generator), a first electromagnetic field from a light reflected from the sample (Fig. 2A; black dots with bidirectional arrows), the light including the first electromagnetic field (Fig. 2A, a first polarized beam represented by black dots) and a second electromagnetic field (Fig. 2A, a second polarized beam represented by bidirectional arrows); measuring (Fig. 2A, Ref. 720) an intensity of the second electromagnetic field (Para. 0040); generating a hologram (Para. 0040, lines 1-2) of the sample (Fig. 1, Ref. 2000) by rotating the analyzer to a first rotation angle (Para. 0045; “and the rotation of a polarizer and the compensator may also be required”); and measuring an interference pattern by measuring an intensity of the hologram (Para. 0041; “The image of this interference pattern may be a hologram image. While an ordinary image includes information about only the intensity of light, a hologram image may include information about both the intensity and the phase of light”).
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Claim 2
JUNG et al. (2022/0074848) discloses the sample (Fig. 1, Ref. 2000) includes a wafer (Para. 0032; “mask or wafer”), and the aligning (Para. 0008; “pupil ellipsometry”) includes aligning the wafer (Fig. 1, Ref. 2000) using an optical vision system (Fig. 1, Ref. 1000).
Claim 3
JUNG et al. (2022/0074848) discloses the interference generator (Fig. 2A, Ref. 600) includes a prism (Fig. 2A, Ref. 610) configured to separate the light reflected from the sample (Fig. 1, Ref. 2000) into the first electromagnetic field (Fig. 2A, a first polarized beam represented by black dots) and the second electromagnetic field (Fig. 2A, a second polarized beam represented by bidirectional arrows) having a different polarization to the first electromagnetic field (Para. 0037; “The polarizing prism 610 may split incident light into beams having different polarization states.”).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-10 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The closest prior art of JUNG et al. (2022/0074848) discloses a pupil ellipsometry measurement apparatus having a stage configured to support the object to be measured, a light source unit configured to generate and output light, an irradiation optical system configured to focus the light from the light source unit on the object, a first detector configured to detect an image of reflected light from the object on an imaging plane, a self-interference generator (SIG) configured to generate self-interference with respect to the reflected light, a second detector configured to detect a hologram image of interference light of the SIG on a pupil plane, and a processor configured to reconstruct reflectance information based on the hologram image, and measure the object. But the prior art fails to show the following:
Regarding claim 4, the prior art fails to disclose or make obvious the adjusting the angle of the analyzer comprises: adjusting the angle of the analyzer to be perpendicular to a polarization direction of the first electromagnetic field and to be parallel to a polarization direction of the second electromagnetic field, and in combination with the other recited limitations of claim 1.
Regarding claim 5, the prior art fails to disclose or make obvious the rotating the analyzer to the first rotation angle includes rotating the analyzer such that an intensity of the first electromagnetic field is less than the intensity of the second electromagnetic field, and in combination with the other recited limitations of claim 1. Claim 6 would be allowed by the virtue of dependency on the allowable subject matter of claims 1, 5.
Regarding claim 7, the prior art fails to disclose or make obvious restoring reflectance information about the sample based on a Kramers-Kronig relation of the intensity of the second electromagnetic field and the intensity of the hologram, and in combination with the other recited limitations of claim 1. Claims 8-10 would be allowed by the virtue of dependency on the allowable subject matter of claims 1, 7.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL PATRICK STAFIRA whose telephone number is (571)272-2430. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 6:30am-3pm.
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/MICHAEL P STAFIRA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2877 April 15, 2026
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