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 § 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 1-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because the management device comprising a control section could be software, which is non-statutory subject matter. The Examiner recommends stating the management further comprises a physical, tangible element.
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) 1-7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Tanaka et al. U.S. PGPub 2003/00545473 (hereinafter “Tanaka”).
Regarding claims 1 and 6, Tanaka discloses a management device, wherein comprising a control section (e.g. Inspection Results Connection & Analysis Unit) which manages a plurality of wafer processing devices (e.g. manufacturing equipment) (e.g. ¶80-82; Fig. 2-3 and 13), and the control section determines a wafer processing device to be assigned to process a given type of wafers from among the plurality of wafer processing devices, based on a distance between post-processing characteristics (e.g. greatest matching degree, defect position(s)) of wafers processed by each of the wafer processing devices and a center value of a standard (e.g. reference position) for the given type of wafers (e.g. ¶82, 107, 119 and 121-122).
Regarding claim 2, Tanaka discloses the management device according to claim 1, wherein the control section calculates, for each of the wafer processing devices, the post-processing characteristics that are closest to the center value of the standard for the given type of wafers as an optimal characteristics, and determines a wafer processing device to be assigned to process the given type of wafers in order of the shortest distance between the optimal characteristics and the center value of the standard for the given type of wafers (e.g. ¶82, 107, 119 and 121-122).
Regarding claim 3, Tanaka discloses the management device according to claim 2, wherein the control section selects, from among the post-processing characteristics when processing conditions of each of the wafer processing devices are changed, the post-processing characteristics that comes closest to the center value of the standard for the given type of wafers as the optimal characteristics (e.g. ¶82, 107, 119 and 121-122).
Regarding claim 4, Tanaka discloses the management device according to claim 3, wherein the processing conditions are determined by each of the wafer processing devices performing an end point detection (e.g. evaluation values) (e.g. ¶67 and 82-84).
Regarding claim 5, Tanaka discloses the management device according to claim 1, wherein the control section plots a point representing the post-processing characteristics of wafers on a graph whose origin is the center value of the standard for the given type of wafers, and calculates a distance between the plotted point and the origin of the graph (e.g. ¶107, 119 and 121-122).
Regarding claim 7, Tanaka discloses a wafer manufacturing system, wherein comprising a management device as described in claim 1, and a wafer processing device that is managed by the management device (e.g. ¶80-82; Fig. 2-3 and 13).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHARLES R KASENGE whose telephone number is (571)272-3743. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 7:30am to 4pm EST.
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CK
September 15, 2026
/CHARLES R KASENGE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2116
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