Appeal 2005-2100
Application 09/826,038
ll. 30 – p. 17, ll. 1-2).
Appellant states that, therefore, in the fifth embodiment, in order to accurately set
the final dimensions of the interconnection 52 to a desired value, dimensional errors in
the resist film 50 and those in the oxide film 48 are corrected by means of the feed
forward technique. Specifically, the resist film 50 is formed by photolithography, then
the oxide film 48 is dry-etched, and then the resist film 50 is removed. Then, the
dimension of the patterned oxide film 48 is measured.1 The measured value is
reflected in the requirements for wet-etching the oxide film 48 by means of the feed
forward technique (Specification, p. 17, ll. 7-19).
As made evident from the above-described parts of Appellant’s specification,
Appellant uses the feed-forward technique to improve upon techniques used in
semiconductor processing (e.g., techniques such as step formation, as in embodiment
1, or formation a miniaturized interconnection pattern, as in embodiment 5). In other
words, by measuring the dimension of a film between a step in a process, and using the
measured values for setting the optimal requirements of the etching machine, the film
is processed according to the optimal requirements. The critical aspect, therefore, of
Appellants’ claim 6 is the use of the feed forward technique in the formation of a
semiconductor structure. The type of processing steps is not indicated as critical. That
is, the feed forward technique is used by Appellant in-between a variety of steps (e.g.,
CMP, measuring, followed by etching (embodiment 1) or etching, removal of resist,
measuring, followed by etching (embodiment 5)).
1The description of this embodiment actually indicates that an additional step (resist
removal) is also conducted after the dry etch step and before the wet etch step.
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