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 .
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 10/09/2024, 4/18/2025, and 11/14/2025 are 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 § 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, 3-6 and 8-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sugihara (US 2022/0013327).
Regarding claim 1:
Sugihara discloses an inspection apparatus (see Figs. 1 and 6) comprising:
an imaging mechanism configured to capture an image of a wafer or a mask (see Fig. 6, frame image generation unit 54 and paragraph [0008]; “an image acquisition mechanism configured to include an emission source to emit beams, a lens to focus the beams, and a detector to detect a beam intensity, and configured to acquire an image of a substrate on which a figure pattern has been formed”);
a two-dimensional direction filtering process circuit configured to perform a filtering process for each of pixels of the image, using a plurality of two-dimensional direction filters corresponding to different filter angles (see Fig. 6, two-dimensional spatial filtering unit 62 and paragraph [0008]; “a filter processing circuit configured to perform, for each direction, filter processing on the image, using a plurality of two-dimensional spatial filter functions with different orientations”; different orientations correspond to different filter angles);
a contour extraction circuit configured to extract, as a contour point candidate pixel, a pixel in which at least one of intensities for each of the filter angles calculated by the filtering process is larger than a threshold value set for each of the filter angles (see Fig. 6, outline pixel candidate extraction unit 64 and paragraph [0008]; “an outline pixel candidate extraction circuit configured to extract a plurality of pixels each having a predetermined value larger than a first threshold, in pixel values each for the each direction of after the filter processing, as a plurality of outline pixel candidates through which an outline of the figure pattern passes”);
a normal direction calculation circuit configured to convert the intensities for each of the filter angles into polar coordinates in the contour point candidate pixel and calculate an angle in a first direction based on a result of the conversion into polar coordinates (see Fig. 6, normal line direction profile generation unit 70 and paragraph [0078]);
a contour point coordinate calculation circuit configured to calculate coordinates of a contour point in the contour point candidate pixel, based on a one-dimensional profile in the first direction (see Fig. 6, outline position calculation unit 74 and paragraph [0083]);
a reference image generation circuit configured to generate a reference image (see Fig. 6, reference outline data 52 and paragraph [0095]); and
a comparison circuit configured to compare the reference image with an inspection image based on the contour point (see Fig. 6, comparison unit 84 and paragraph [0102]).
Regarding claim 3:
Sugihara discloses the inspection apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a one-dimensional profile calculation circuit configured to set a plurality of sampling points at size intervals of the pixels along the first direction with a center position of the contour point candidate pixel as an origin and calculate a pixel value for each of the sampling points (see paragraph [0078]; “the normal direction profile generation unit 70 generates, for each outline pixel, a one-dimensional profile in the normal direction centering on the center position of the outline pixel concerned, using luminance values at respective, for example, seven sampling positions”).
Regarding claim 4:
Sugihara discloses the inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the contour point coordinate calculation circuit is configured to perform an edge filtering process for the one-dimensional profile and then perform spline interpolation of values calculated by the edge filtering process (see paragraphs [0084]-[0085]).
Regarding claim 5:
Sugihara discloses the inspection apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the contour point coordinate calculation circuit is configured to set, as the coordinates of the contour point, a position having a maximum value as a result of the spline interpolation (see paragraph [0083]; peak position corresponds to position having a maximum value).
Regarding claims 6 and 8-10:
Claims 6 and 8-10 recites similar limitations as in claims 1 and 3-5. Hence, claims 6 and 8-10 are rejected under the same reasons as discussed above in claims 1 and 3-5, respectively.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 and 7 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.
In regards to claim 2, none of the reference of record alone or in combination discloses or suggests the inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the normal direction calculation circuit is configured to calculate an angle in a direction of a major axis of an equivalent ellipse of the polar coordinates as the angle in the first direction.
Claim 7 recites similar limitation as in claim 2. Hence, claim 7 is objected under the same reason.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Fang et al. (US 2019/0206041) discloses an inspection of reticles using machine learning that obtains images having different intensity values corresponding to different positions.
Kitamura et al. (US 2004/0081350) discloses a pattern inspection apparatus that performs inspection simultaneously for a plurality of positions within one imaging region.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LIXI CHOW SIMPSON whose telephone number is (571)272-7571. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 7:00am-3:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, William Boddie can be reached at 517-272-0666. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/LIXI C SIMPSON/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2625
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