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 3/24/25 has been considered by the examiner.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 5 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over “Experiment and numerical Simulation of Melt Convection and Oxygen Distribution in 400 mm Czochralski Silicon Crystal Growth” (TENG ET AL) in view of US 2021/0079553 (HUDSON ET AL).
Regarding claim 5: The “Experiment” reference discloses a boron doped silicon crystal having a 400 mm diameter. See Abstract. The crystal was grown to control resistance uniformity having a variation of less than 1%. See Figure 5b. It is recognized that the reference does not include phosphorus as a dopant. However, the Hudson reference shows that including boron and phosphorus in silicon crystal growth helps to control the electrical resistance uniformity. See [0052]. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use multiple dopants to improve the resistance uniformity in the “Experiment” growth process. One would expect to control the electrical resistance value as shown in the Hudson reference.
Regarding claim 6: The Hudson reference discloses that controlling the resistance value from 0.1 Ohm-cm to up to 10,000 Ohm-cm by adding dopants. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to select the specific resistance within this range.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-4 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: The claims are allowable because the prior art does not teach or suggest a method of producing a single crystal of silicon, the method comprising: pulling the single crystal from a melt, the melt being present in a crucible and comprising phosphorus and boron as dopants in a ratio of not more than 0.41, the boron being in the melt with a concentration of not less than 5.0 X 10¹⁴ atoms/cm³ and not more than 2.2 x 10¹⁵ atoms/cm³, and the single crystal having a cylindrical section having a diameter of at least 300 mm, having a length, and being surrounded by a heat shield in a course of the pulling the single crystal from the melt, and a lower edge of the heat shield having a distance of not less than 18 mm from a surface of the melt, the pulling of the single crystal being at a speed of not less than 8 rpm and not more than 13 rpm; and applying a horizontal magnetic field to the melt, a magnetic flux density of the horizontal magnetic field being not less than 2000 Gs and not more than 3000 Gs. While both the above cited references disclose pulling a silicon single crystal from a melt in a crucible at pulling speed while applying a magnetic field to the melt, the references do not specify the ratio of the dopants or the concentration of boron in the melt.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ELIZABETH EVANS MULVANEY whose telephone number is (571)272-1527. The examiner can normally be reached 8am-4:30pm M-F.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Mark Ruthkosky can be reached at 571-272-1291. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ELIZABETH E MULVANEY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1785
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