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.
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 1-7 and 14 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.
With respect to claim 1, there is no antecedent basis for “the to-be-measured X-ray signal”.
Claims 2-6 are rejected for reasons of dependency.
With respect to claims 7 and 14, there is no antecedent basis for the term “the predetermined angular range”. This term appears to find antecedent in claims 2 and 9.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8-13 are allowed.
Claims 1-7 and 14 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 a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Shchegrov et al. (US 2019/0212281 A1, cited by Applicant) discloses an X-ray reflection analysis system (X-ray reflectometry, abstract) utilizing multi-mode signals (may employ multi-mode inspection tool, par. [0158]), the system comprising: an X-ray generator configured to generate a measurement X-ray beam (110); an X-ray optical element group configured to guide the measurement X-ray beam to a to-be-measured sample (111); an X-ray detector configured to receive a to-be-measured X-ray signal generated by the measurement X-ray beam irradiating the to-be measured sample (119).
With respect to claims 1 and 8, the cited prior art does not appear to disclose or reasonably suggest the claimed steps of: collecting the to-be-measured X-ray signal and extracting a plurality of mode signals with different orders; performing a first fitting analysis process on the mode signals whose order is less than a predetermined order, to generate a plurality of initial parameter ranges corresponding to a plurality of structural parameters, respectively; and based on the plurality of initial parameter ranges, performing a second fitting analysis process on the mode signals whose order is greater than or equal to the predetermined order, to generate a plurality of parameter fitting results corresponding to the plurality of structural parameters, respectively.
Claims 9-13 are allowable for reasons of dependency.
Conclusion
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/MARK R GAWORECKI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2884 18 June 2026
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