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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 02/24/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, filed 02/24/2026, with respect to Claims 1-17have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejection of Claim 1-17 has been withdrawn.
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, 3, 4, 11, 12, 17 recites the limitation "fluorine-containing substance" in claims 1 and 17 respectively. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. Specifically, the claims recite “a fluorine-containing material” previously and as such, is believed to refer to said material. However, due to the use of “fluorine-containing material” in other dependent claims and the use of the phrase “respective” materials in the independent claims, it is unclear if this could be considered a typo and easily corrected. As such, the Examiner requests clarification on the record.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-17 and 19-20 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: the prior art of record, whether alone or in combination, does not expressly teach substrate processing apparatus with a quartz reaction tube, metal flanges, metal supports, and quartz nozzles that are coated with a fluorine coating in the surfaces that face the substrate, a heating mechanism, and a controller that controls the heating mechanism to treat the substrates without decomposing the raw material gas or the fluorine coating. Specifically, the teachings of Yamada expressly teach that quartz gas manifolds are expensive to make and as such a metal manifold with Teflon coating resolves the issues found with previous manifolds, such that making the manifold out of quartz and then coating with Teflon would be a teaching away of making a manifold affordable. Furthermore, the arguments presented by the Applicant are considered persuasive and are incorporated herein.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. United States Patent Application No. 2020/0303185 to Nakagawa and United States Patent Application No. 2021/0035835 to Suzaki et al.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TIFFANY Z NUCKOLS whose telephone number is (571)270-7377. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10AM-7PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, PARVIZ HASSANZADEH can be reached at (571)272-1435. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TIFFANY Z NUCKOLS/Examiner, Art Unit 1716
/PARVIZ HASSANZADEH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1716
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