DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
The Applicant's amendment filed on January 22, 2026 was received. Claims 1-11 were amended. No claim was canceled. No claim was added. Claim 12 was withdrawn.
Election/Restrictions
Claim 12 was withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on January 22, 2026.
Accordingly, the requirement is made FINAL.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Regarding claim 1, the limitations of “performing synchronizing processing of reducing a difference between a current time measured by the controller and a current time measured by the camera” and “detecting an event change in the chamber based on the image data, calculating an occurrence time of the event change based on an imaging time of the image data, and obtaining a time difference between an output time of the control signal and the occurrence time of the event change based on the synchronized time”, as drafted, is a process that, under the broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the mind carrying out the functions through observation, evaluation, judgment and /or opinion, or even with the aid of pen and paper, or generic computer components. Thus, these limitations recite and fall
within the “Mental Processes” grouping of abstract ideas. According, the claim recites an abstract idea (Step 2A, Prong 1).
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. In particular,
the claim does not include a process/step of actively applying the result of the “time differences”. Thus, there is no application much less a particular practical application. The additional elements in the claims do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. Accordingly, the claim is directed to an abstract idea. (Step 2A, prong 2).
The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to
significantly more than the judicial exception. The other limitations of the claim (outputting a control signal to at least one driver of at least one processing unit while a controller measures a time and making the processing unit perform processing on at least one substate transported into the chamber, making a camera taking an image in the chamber to generate image data in at least a part of a period) represent no more than what is well-understood, routine, and conventional in the art (Seo US20090104720 in view of Yoneda US20200043763, see 103 rejections below). There are no other elements to the claim other than the abstract ideas and the attempts at integration into a practical application, therefore, there is nothing that goes beyond the well understood, routine and conventional within the art. The claim is not patent eligible. (Step 2B).
Claims 2-11 do not resolve the issues above.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claims 1 and 3-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Seo (US20090104720) in view of Yoneda (US20200043763).
Regarding claim 1, Seo teaches a method of coating photoresist (a substate processing method). Seo teaches to place an semiconductor wafer in a photoresist coating unit (chamber) to coat the photoresist on the wafer via a nozzle (paragraphs 0051 and 0054, figure 1), wherein the controller 600 process electric signal (control signal) to the photoresist supplier (processing unit with driver) to control the on/off and the flow rate of the photoresist sprayed from the nozzle (paragraphs 0029 and 0055) (outputting a control signal to at least one driver of at least one processing unit while a controller measures a time and making the processing unit perform processing on at least one substate transported into a chamber). Seo teaches to monitor the process parameters in the chamber and generate data (paragraphs 0053-0055 and 0058) (making a camera take an image in the chamber to generate image data in at least a part of a period). Seo teaches to monitor parameters (an event change) such as a time taken to a spray, the spray amount of the photoresist or a time taken to delay the spraying of the photoresist (detecting an event change in the chamber based on the image data), specifically the time taken to delay (time difference) the spraying of the photoresist is monitored by comparing the on/off time of the electric signal processed by the controller(output time of the control signal) with the spaying/interruption times (an occurrence time) of the photoresist detected by the camera (pargraph 0053-0054).
Seo does not explicitly teach the control sign measures a time or performing synchronizing processing of reducing a difference between a current time measured by the controller and a current time measured by camera. However, Yoneda teaches a substrate processing apparatus (abstract) with a camera system to monitor process parameters (paragraph 0083) and a controller system (apparatus controller plus the monitoring controller) to execute the procedure of the process recipe and record the event data at the occurrence time (paragraph 0049 and 0084) (controller measures a time). Yoneda teaches the clocks of the controller and the camera are synchronized with millisecond accuracy (pargraph 0083) (performing synchronizing processing of reducing a difference between a current time measured by the controller and a current time measured by the camera). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to synchronizing the current time measured by controller and camera as suggested by Yoneda in the method of Seo because Yoneda teaches such synchronizing process allow the controller to be accurately holding the imaging data (paragraphs 0083-0084), which would be expected to accurately determine the delay in Seo’s method.
Regarding claim 3, Seo teaches the open instruction or close instruction as the control signal to supply valve provided to a supply pipe connected to a nozzle discharging a processing solution to a main surface of the substrate (paragraphs 0027, 0062-0063) and the controller detects change of the discharge state (spraying/interruption times) of the processing solution from the nozzle based on the image data and obtains a delay time as the time difference from the output time of the control signal (on/off time of the electric signal) to a change time of the discharge state based on a synchronize time (paragraphs 0053-0054).
Regarding claim 4, Seo teaches the after the controller outputs the open instruction to the supply valve to discharge the processing solution from the nozzle, the controller outputs the close instruction to the supply valve to stop discharge the processing solution from the nozzle (paragraphs 0027, 0062-0063), the controller detects discharge start of the processing solution from the nozzle corresponding to the open instruction based on the image data (on time and spraying time), detects discharge stop of the processing solution from the nozzle corresponding to the close instruction based on the image data (off time and interruption time), and obtains a supply time (time taken to spray the photoresist) from a discharge start time to a discharge stop time of the processing solution (paragraphs 0053-0054).
Claims 2, 7, 9 and 10-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Seo (US20090104720) in view of Yoneda (US20200043763) as applied to claims 1 and 3-4 above, and further in view of Medler (US4957782) and Okita (WO2021241228 using co-pending US Patent Application Publication US20230241634 as English translation).
Regarding claim 2, Seo teaches the camera can detect whether or not a nozzle of the nozzle assembly deviates from its decided position (paragraph 0053) (movement of the nozzle based on the image data), thus, Seo in view of Yoneda does not explicitly teach the controller outputs movement instruction as the control signal or obtain the delay time as the time difference from the output time of the movement instruction to a movement time of the nozzle. However, Medler teaches a method for controlling the sequential coating of a substate using a preprogram painting robot (similar to Seo’s painting nozzle) (abstract) Medler teaches the delay time of the signal/response for opening and closing the paint needle vale and for switching times of other paint flow valves are initially adjusted to accurately maintain the program control signals ready for instantaneous change in response to the operation conduction during movement of the robot relative to the predetermined locations on the workpiece (column 1 lines 30-45), wherein the signal/response time (controller outputs) and the actual time (event change in the chamber based on the image data in Seo) are continuously monitored to update the delay time of the program (column 4 lines 45-52). Medler further teaches such adjustments of the delay time are applied to other various parameters (column 4 lines 45-52). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to monitor the delay time between the signal/response time (controller output) and the actual time (event change based on the image data) of various other coating parameters as suggested by Medler in the method of Seo in view of Yoneda because Medler teaches such delay times are required to be adjusted accurately in the program to accurately maintain the program control signals ready for instantaneously change in response to the operation conductions (column 1 lines 30-40).
Seo in view of Yoneda and Medler does not explicitly teaches the movement of the nozzle is being monitored. However, Okita teaches a substrate processing method (abstract), comprising monitoring target and changing an image condition based on the monitoring target, and a monitoring step of preforming a monitoring step on the monitoring targe based on the image data by camara having the image condition corresponding to the monitoring target (abstract, paragraph 009), wherein the monitoring target including position of the nozzle (movement of the nozzle based on the image data) (paragraphs 0147-0159). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to the movement of the nozzle as suggested by Okita in the method of Seo in view of Yoneda because Okita teaches such parameter is required to be monitor to appropriately process the substrate (paragraph 0006). Since Okita teaches the movement of the nozzle is an necessary parameter to facilitate the substrate processing, the combination of Seo in view of Yoneda, Medler and Okita would result in the delay times (time difference) of the movement of the nozzle being monitored and calculated.
Regarding claim 7, Seo teaches to output signal to open or close the supply valve (paragraph 0055), and the camera can detect whether or not a nozzle of the nozzle assembly deviates from its decided position (paragraph 0053) (displacement target) and spraying/interruption of the photoresist (discharge state) (paragraph 0054), thus, Seo in view of Yoneda does not explicitly teach the controller further outputs movement instruction as the control signal or obtain the time difference between the output time of the control signal to the displacement driver and a change time of the discharge state of the processing solution. However, Medler teaches a method for controlling the sequential coating of a substate using a preprogram painting robot (similar to Seo’s painting nozzle) (abstract) Medler teaches the delay time of the signal/response for opening and closing the paint needle vale and for switching times of other paint flow valves are initially adjusted to accurately maintain the program control signals ready for instantaneous change in response to the operation conduction during movement of the robot relative to the predetermined locations on the workpiece (column 1 lines 30-45), wherein the signal/response time (controller outputs) and the actual time (event change in the chamber based on the image data in Seo) are continuously monitored to update the delay time of the program (column 4 lines 45-52). Medler further teaches such adjustments of the delay time are applied to other various parameters (column 4 lines 45-52). Medler further teaches it is desirable to control other elements chronologically in relation to each other, and the program control maybe improved if the different lead-times for the various coating parameters are taken into account (column 5 lines 55 to column 6 line 6). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to monitor the delay time between the signal/response time (controller output) and the actual time (event change based on the image data) of various other coating parameters as suggested by Medler in the method of Seo in view of Yoneda because Medler teaches such delay times are required to be adjusted accurately in the program to accurately maintain the program control signals ready for instantaneously change in response to the operation conductions (column 1 lines 30-40).
Seo in view of Yoneda and Medler does not explicitly teaches the movement of the nozzle is being monitored. However, Okita teaches a substrate processing method (abstract), comprising monitoring target and changing an image condition based on the monitoring target, and a monitoring step of preforming a monitoring step on the monitoring targe based on the image data by camara having the image condition corresponding to the monitoring target (abstract, paragraph 009), wherein the monitoring targets including position of the nozzle (movement of the nozzle based on the image data) and the ejection time of the nozzle (change of state of the processing solution from the nozzle) (paragraphs 0147-0165, 0094), and the nozzle is movements/position is in relative to the ejection state (paragraph 0006). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to the movement of the nozzle as suggested by Okita in the method of Seo in view of Yoneda because Okita teaches such parameter is required to be monitor to appropriately process the substrate (paragraph 0006). Since Okita teaches the movement of the nozzle (displacement) and the subsequent eject state of the nozzle (discharge state) are necessary parameter to facilitate the substrate processing, the combination of Seo in view of Yoneda, Medler and Okita would result in the delay times (time difference) of the control signal to the displacement driver and a change time of the discharge state of the processing solution.
Regarding claim 9, Seo teaches the camera can detect whether or not a nozzle of the nozzle assembly deviates from its decided position (paragraph 0053) (positional change of the displacement target) and Yoneda teaches synchronizing process based on an output time of the control signal and an actual start time, thus, Seo in view of Yoneda does not explicitly teach the controller detects start of position change of the displacement target int eh chamber based on the image data, calculates a displacement start time at which a position of the displacement target starts to be changed based on an imaging time of the image data. However, Medler teaches a method for controlling the sequential coating of a substate using a preprogram painting robot (similar to Seo’s painting nozzle) (abstract) Medler teaches the delay time of the signal/response for opening and closing the paint needle vale and for switching times of other paint flow valves are initially adjusted to accurately maintain the program control signals ready for instantaneous change in response to the operation conduction during movement of the robot relative to the predetermined locations on the workpiece (column 1 lines 30-45), wherein the signal/response time (controller outputs) and the actual time (event change in the chamber based on the image data in Seo) are continuously monitored to update the delay time of the program (column 4 lines 45-52). Medler further teaches such adjustments of the delay time are applied to other various parameters (column 4 lines 45-52). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to monitor the delay time between the signal/response time (controller output) and the actual time (event change based on the image data) of various other coating parameters as suggested by Medler in the method of Seo in view of Yoneda because Medler teaches such delay times are required to be adjusted accurately in the program to accurately maintain the program control signals ready for instantaneously change in response to the operation conductions (column 1 lines 30-40).
Seo in view of Yoneda and Medler does not explicitly teaches the movement of the nozzle is being monitored. However, Okita teaches a substrate processing method (abstract), comprising monitoring target and changing an image condition based on the monitoring target, and a monitoring step of preforming a monitoring step on the monitoring targe based on the image data by camara having the image condition corresponding to the monitoring target (abstract, paragraph 009), wherein the monitoring target including position of the nozzle (a position of the displacement target) (paragraphs 0147-0159). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to the movement of the nozzle as suggested by Okita in the method of Seo in view of Yoneda because Okita teaches such parameter is required to be monitor to appropriately process the substrate (paragraph 0006). Since Okita teaches the movement of the nozzle (a position of a displacement target) is an necessary parameter to facilitate the substrate processing, the combination of Seo in view of Yoneda, Medler and Okita would result in the delay times (time difference) of the movement of the nozzle being monitored and calculated.
Regarding claim 10, Medler the signal/response time (controller outputs) and the actual time (event change in the chamber based on the image data in Seo) are continuously monitored to update the delay time of the program (column 4 lines 45-52) since the delay time might change I the course of time due to wear of the moving parts in the coating device (column 1 lines 45-60). Thus, it would be obvious that all the steps are performed for all the substrates to generate temporal data indicating temporal change of the time difference for the plurality of substrate.
Regarding claim 11, Medler further teaches it is desirable to control other elements (processing units) chronologically in relation to each other, and the program control maybe improved if the different lead-times for the various coating parameters are taken into account (column 5 lines 55 to column 6 line 30), thus, Medler teaches inter-device data indicating variation of the time difference between the plurality of processing units is generated.
Claims 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Seo (US20090104720) in view of Yoneda (US20200043763) as applied to claims 1 and 3-4 above, and further in view of Morinishi (US6260562).
Regarding claim 5, Seo only teaches the camera detects the “spray” time of the photoresist by the nozzle as change of the discharge state of the processing solution based on the image data, but does not explicitly teach the fluctuation of the processing solution in a landing position where the processing solution lands on the main surface of the substate as change of the discharge state of the processing solution based on the image data. However, Morinishi teaches a substate cleaning apparatus and discloses the CCD camera can be used to detect the solution supply position (landing position) over the surface wafer for adjusting process parameters (column 10 line 65 to column 11 line 10), the start and stop of supplying the processing solution on the landing position reads on the limitation of “change of fluctuation of the processing solution in a landing position”. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the camera in the chamber to detect the solution supply position over the surface wafer along as suggested by Morinishi in the method of Seo in view of Yoneda when determining the delay time of the supplying solution (spraying photoresist) because Morinishi teaches camera is capable of monitoring the the actual solution supply position over the surface wafer (column 10 line 65 to column 11 line 10), which includes when the solution start and stop supplying to such landing position (change of fluctuation of the processing solution).
Claims 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Seo (US20090104720) in view of Yoneda (US20200043763) as applied to claims 1 and 3-4 above, and further in view of Takekuma (JP2003347206) and Morinishi (US6260562).
Regarding claim 6, Seo teaches to output signal to open or close the supply valve (causing a nozzle to discharge a processing solution toward a main surface of the substate) (paragraph 0055), and the camera can spraying/interruption times of the photoresist (paragraph 0054), thus, Seo in view of Yoneda does not explicitly teach the controller outputs speed change instruction as the control signal to a rotation driver rotating the substate or the controller detects change of fluctuation of the processing solution on the main surface of the substate in a position of the landing position of the processing solution.
Seo in view of Yoneda and Medler does not explicitly teaches the rotation speed of the substate is being monitored. However, Takekuma teaches a resist coating method on a substrate (pargraph 0002). Takekuma teaches the resist solution is first discharged while the substrate is rotated at the relatively high speed to spread it evenly by a controller controlling the drive motor, subsequently, the supply of the resist solution is stopped, and the rotation speed of the wafer is reduced to enables the film thickness adjustment function, promoting uniformity of the film thickness across the wafer surface (paragraphs 0060 and 0070). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to change the rotational speed of the substrate while causing the nozzle to discharge a processing solution by the controller as suggested by Takekuma in the method of Seo and Yoneda because Takekuma teaches such change helps distributing the coating liquid (paragraph 0070).
Seo only teaches the camera detects the “spray” time of the photoresist by the nozzle as change of the discharge state of the processing solution based on the image data, but does not explicitly teach the fluctuation of the processing solution in a landing position where the processing solution lands on the main surface of the substate as change of a rotational speed of the substrate based on the image data. However, Morinishi teaches a substate cleaning apparatus and discloses the CCD camera can be used to detect the solution supply position (landing position) over the surface wafer for adjusting process parameters (column 10 line 65 to column 11 line 10), the start and stop of supplying the processing solution on the landing position reads on the limitation of “change of fluctuation of the processing solution in a landing position”. Since Takekuma teaches the change of the rotational speed is associated with the discharge status of the process solution, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the camera in the chamber to detect the solution supply position over the surface wafer along (change of fluctuation) as suggested by Morinishi in the method of Seo in view of Yoneda when determining the supplying solution (spraying photoresist) because Morinishi teaches camera is capable of monitoring the actual solution supply position over the surface wafer (column 10 line 65 to column 11 line 10), which includes when the solution start and stop supplying to such landing position (change of fluctuation of the processing solution), and be able to indicate if the change of rotational speed occurs.
Claims 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Seo (US20090104720) in view of Yoneda (US20200043763) as applied to claims 1 and 3-4 above, and further in view of Medler (US4957782) and Takekuma (JP2003347206).
Regarding claim 8, Seo teaches to output signal to close the supply valve (paragraph 0055), and the camera can detect the interruption times of the photoresist (paragraph 0054) (paragraph 0054) (discharge stop of the processing solution from the nozzle based on the image data), thus, Seo in view of Yoneda does not explicitly teach the controller further outputs speed change instruction as the control signal to a rotation driver as the displacement driver rotation the substrate. However, Medler teaches a method for controlling the sequential coating of a substate using a preprogram painting robot (similar to Seo’s painting nozzle) (abstract) Medler teaches the delay time of the signal/response for opening and closing the paint needle vale and for switching times of other paint flow valves are initially adjusted to accurately maintain the program control signals ready for instantaneous change in response to the operation conduction during movement of the robot relative to the predetermined locations on the workpiece (column 1 lines 30-45), wherein the signal/response time (controller outputs) and the actual time (event change in the chamber based on the image data in Seo) are continuously monitored to update the delay time of the program (column 4 lines 45-52). Medler further teaches such adjustments of the delay time are applied to other various parameters (column 4 lines 45-52). Medler further teaches it is desirable to control other elements chronologically in relation to each other, and the program control maybe improved if the different lead-times for the various coating parameters are taken into account (column 5 lines 55 to column 6 line 6). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to monitor the delay time between the signal/response time (controller output) and the actual time (event change based on the image data) of various other coating parameters as suggested by Medler in the method of Seo in view of Yoneda because Medler teaches such delay times are required to be adjusted accurately in the program to accurately maintain the program control signals ready for instantaneously change in response to the operation conductions (column 1 lines 30-40).
Seo in view of Yoneda and Medler does not explicitly teaches the speed change is associated with the discharge stop time, and the speed change is being monitored. Takekuma teaches a resist coating method on a substrate (pargraph 0002). Takekuma teaches the resist solution is first discharged while the substrate is rotated at the relatively high speed to spread it evenly by a controller controlling the drive motor, subsequently, the supply of the resist solution is stopped, and the rotation speed of the wafer is reduced to enables the film thickness adjustment function, promoting uniformity of the film thickness across the wafer surface (paragraphs 0060 and 0070). Takekuma teaches the speed change is being monitored (paragraphs 0060-0065). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to change the rotational speed of the substrate while causing the nozzle to stop discharge a processing solution to by the controller as suggested by Takekuma in the method of Seo and Yoneda because Takekuma teaches such change helps distributing the coating liquid (paragraph 0070). Thus, the combination of references teaches the controller detects stop of the processing solution from the nozzle based on the image data and obtains the time difference between the output time of the speed change instruction and a discharge stop time of the processing solution.
Conclusion
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