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 .
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 10-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 10, it is not clear to which structure in the specification, the claimed a first pattern region and a second pattern region in the second main surface correspond. It seems the specification discloses one pattern region 20. In para 0035, a plurality of alternating projections is labelled 80a and a plurality of recesses is labelled 80b.
In order to expedite prosecution, it is assumed that the claimed first pattern region is the projections 80a and the second pattern region is the recesses 80b. Applicant is respectfully requested to clarify or confirm that the assumption is correct.
The remaining claims, not specifically mentioned, are rejected for incorporating the defects from the base claim by dependency.
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) 16-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nagai et al. (Nagai) (2019/0086798).
Regarding claim 16, Nagai discloses a mask (Fig. 1, 24E), comprising: a device region (22, Fig. 1) including a device pattern (23, para 0108); an overlapping region (21, para 0108) surrounding the device region (Fig. 1, para 0108) and having a light shielding material (31, para 0108); and a peripheral region (11) surrounding the device region and the overlapping region (Fig. 1, para 0108, 0110), and having a light blocking material (Fig. 1, 24E, para 0346, “the light shielding material layer 170 on the main surface 11 is usually removed” means sometimes the light shielding material layer 170 remains on the main surface 11), wherein the light blocking material is at a first level (170, Fig. 24E), the light shielding material is at a second level (31, 170, Fig. 1, Fig. 24E), and the device pattern is a third level (23, Fig. 1), and wherein the first, second, and third levels are at different positions (Fig. 1). Although Nagai does not disclose a light absorbing material at a second level, Nagai discloses light shielding material (31). Since light absorbing material is a type of a light shielding material, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide a light absorbing material at the second level since it has been held to be within the general skill of a worker in the art to select a known material on the basis of its suitability for the intended use as a matter of obvious design choice.
Regarding claim 17, Nagai discloses wherein the mask comprises a substrate (10, Fig. 1) including a planar first main surface (40), the device region (22), the overlapping region (21), and the peripheral region (11, para 0108, 0154).
Regarding claim 18, Nagai discloses wherein the substrate has a planar first main surface (40, Fig. 1) and a second surface (22) opposing the first main surface (Fig. 1), and the device pattern (23) is formed in the second surface (22).
Regarding claim 19, Nagai discloses wherein the second level (21) is closer to the first main surface (40) than the third level (22, Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 20, Nagai discloses wherein the first level (11) is closer to the first main surface (40) than the second level (21, Fig. 1).
Claim(s) 1-4, 10 and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nagai et al. (Nagai) (2019/0086798) in view of Kamita et al. (Kamita) (2024/0319587).
Regarding claim 1, Nagai discloses a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device (Fig. 2), comprising: forming a resist layer (60) over a substrate (50, para 0115); contacting the resist layer with a mask (Fig. 2, para 0115), wherein the mask comprises: a device region (22, Fig. 1, para 0108) having a device pattern (23); an overlapping region (21) surrounding the device region (Fig. 1, para 0108) and having a light shielding material (31, para 0108); and a peripheral region (11) surrounding the device region and the overlapping region (Fig. 1, para 0108, 0110), and having a light blocking material (Fig. 1, 24E, para 0346, “the light shielding material layer 170 on the main surface 11 is usually removed” means sometimes the light shielding material layer 170 remains on the main surface 11), wherein the light blocking material is at a first level (170, Fig. 24E), the light shielding material is at a second level (31, 170, Fig. 1, Fig. 24E), and the device pattern is a third level (23, Fig. 1), and wherein the first, second, and third levels are at different positions (Fig. 1); exposing the resist layer to actinic radiation (UV, para 0115) through the mask (1, Fig. 2, para 0117); removing the mask from the resist layer (inherent). Although Nagai does not explicitly disclose removing portions of the resist layer not exposed to the actinic radiation, removing uncured resist is a common process as disclosed by Kamita (para 0068, 0069, “remaining resist layer 1 is removed” refers to resist portion where no pattern is formed and not exposed). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to remove the unexposed portion of the resist in order to obtain the desired pattern. Further, although Nagai does not disclose a light absorbing material at a second level, Nagai discloses light shielding material (31). Since light absorbing material is a type of a light shielding material, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide a light absorbing material at the second level since it has been held to be within the general skill of a worker in the art to select a known material on the basis of its suitability for the intended use as a matter of obvious design choice.
Regarding claim 2, Nagai discloses wherein the actinic radiation is ultraviolet radiation (para 0115).
Regarding claim 3, Nagai discloses wherein the contacting the resist layer with the mask forms a pattern in the resist layer corresponding to the device pattern in the mask (Fig. 2, para 0003, 0115, 0116).
Regarding claim 4, Nagai discloses wherein the exposing the resist layer to actinic radiation hardens exposed portions of the resist layer (curing, para 0115).
Regarding claim 10, Nagai discloses a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device (Fig. 2), comprising: forming a resist layer (60) over a substrate (50, para 0115); contacting the resist layer with a stamp (Fig. 2, para 0115) including a pattern comprising recesses and projections (23, Fig. 1) so that the resist layer fills the recesses in the stamp (Fig. 2), wherein the stamp comprises: an ultraviolet light transmissive substrate (10, Fig. 1, para 0108, 0115) having a first main surface (40, Fig. 1, para 0154), a second surface (22, Fig. 1), opposing the first main surface, a third surface (21) opposing the first main surface, and a fourth surface (11) opposing the first main surface; a first pattern region (projections of 23) and a second pattern region (recesses of 23) in the second main surface (Fig. 1); a light shielding layer (31, para 0108) disposed over the third surface (Fig. 1); and an opaque layer (Fig. 1, 24E, para 0346, “the light shielding material layer 170 on the main surface 11 is usually removed” means sometimes the light shielding material layer 170 remains on the main surface 11) disposed over the fourth surface (Fig. 1, 24E), wherein the fourth surface is closer to the first main surface than the third surface, and the third surface is closer to the first main surface than the second main surface (Fig. 1); exposing the resist layer to actinic radiation through the stamp thereby curing the resist layer exposed to the actinic radiation (Fig. 2, UV, para 0115); removing the stamp from the resist layer thereby providing a pattern in the resist layer disposed over the target layer (inherent). Although Nagai does not explicitly disclose removing portions of the resist layer not exposed to the actinic radiation, removing uncured resist is a common process as disclosed by Kamita (para 0068, 0069, “remaining resist layer 1 is removed” refers to resist portion where no pattern is formed and not exposed). Also, Nagai does not disclose a target layer on which the resist layer is formed, but Kamita discloses a substrate (3, Fig. 1) and a target layer (2) on which the resist layer (1) is formed (para 0050). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to remove the unexposed portion of the resist in order to obtain the desired pattern and to provide a target layer for active electronic functionality or to improve adhesion.
Also, although Nagai does not disclose a light absorbing material, instead of a light shielding layer (31), on the third surface, since light absorbing material is a type of a light shielding material, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide a light absorbing material at the third surface since it has been held to be within the general skill of a worker in the art to select a known material on the basis of its suitability for the intended use as a matter of obvious design choice.
Regarding claim 15, Nagai discloses wherein the ultraviolet light transmissive substrate comprises a glass or a silicone (para 0115, 0164).
Claim(s) 10-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nagai et al. (Nagai) (2019/0086798) in view of Kamita et al. (Kamita) (2024/0319587) and Ota et al. (Ota) (2017/0229300).
Regarding claims 11 and 12, Nagai does not disclose wherein the resist layer comprises a plurality of resist droplets and wherein the resist droplets are formed by an inkjet operation. Ota discloses wherein the resist layer comprises a plurality of resist droplets (1a, Fig. 1, para 0022), and wherein the resist droplets are formed by an inkjet operation (para 0022). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to provide droplets of resist by an inkjet operation to further modify Nagai in order to minimize material waste and enable highly precise patterning.
Regarding claim 13, Nagai does not disclose transferring the pattern in the resist layer into the target layer. Ota discloses the pattern in the resist layer into the target layer (Fig. 5E, 5F, para 0045, 0046, Fig. 6A-6C, para 0047-0049). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to further modify Nagai by transferring the pattern in the resist layer into the target layer in order to manufacture electronic circuits or optical components.
Regarding claim 14, although Nagai does not disclose wherein the transferring the pattern comprises an etching operation, transferring pattern on resist by an etching operation is a common process as disclosed by Kamita in para 0050 and 0067. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to perform an etching operation to transfer the pattern on resist to remove material and form the pattern on substrate and obtain electronic circuits or optical components.
Claim(s) 5-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nagai et al. (Nagai) in view of Kamita et al. (Kamita) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Park et al. (Park) (2022/0115683).
Regarding claim 5, the further difference between the claimed invention and the modified Nagai is wherein the portions of the resist layer not exposed to actinic radiation are removed by an air flushing operation. Park discloses in para 0136 removing uncured resin by supplying gas with a pressure. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to remove the portions of the resist layer not exposed to actinic radiation in many different methods available in the art, including air flushing for high precision without using chemical solvent.
Regarding claim 6, Nagai discloses wherein the mask comprises a substrate (10, Fig. 1) including a planar first main surface (40), the device region (22), the overlapping region (21), and the peripheral region (11, para 0108, 0154).
Regarding claim 7, Nagai discloses wherein the substrate has a second surface (22, Fig. 1) opposing the first main surface, and the device pattern (23) is formed in the second surface.
Regarding claim 8, Nagai discloses wherein the second level (21) is closer to the first main surface (40) than the third level (22, Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 9, Nagai discloses wherein the first level (11) is closer to the first main surface (40) than the second level (21, Fig. 1).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Jung (2018/0299772) discloses a mask for imprint lithography (Fig. 1) comprising a device region (120, Fig. 1, para 0026) having a device pattern (121), a peripheral region with light blocking material (151) and an overlapping region with light blocking material (152, para 0026). Jung discloses the peripheral region and the overlapping on a different level from the device region, but discloses that the peripheral region and the overlapping region are on the same level (Fig. 1).
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/PETER B KIM/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2882 June 17, 2026
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