Appeal 2006-2759
Application 10/043,860
1. A method for pre-etching a semiconductor wafer comprising
tungsten oxide prior to a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process to
achieve a uniform tungsten polishing rate comprising the steps of:
providing a wafer process surface having a layer of tungsten oxide
overlaying tungsten to be chemically mechanically polished;
removing the layer of tungsten oxide according to an etching process
selected from the group consisting of dry etching with a fluorocarbon
etching chemistry and wet etching with a aqueous basic solution;
cleaning the semiconductor wafer to include the wafer process surface
according to a wet cleaning process; and,
chemically mechanically polishing the wafer process surface
according to a CMP process comprising applying at least an abrasive slurry
to the wafer process surface.
The references relied on by the Examiner are:
Manos US 5,672,212 Sep. 30, 1997
Torii US 2002/0068451 A1 Jun. 6, 2002
Miller US 6,464,568 B2 Oct. 15, 2002
The Examiner has rejected appealed claims 1, 5, 6, 10 through 12 and
21 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Torii and Miller
(Answer 3-5) and appealed claims 3, 4, 9, 13, and 15 through 19 under 35
U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Torii and Miller as applied to
claim 1 above, further in view of Manos (id. 5-6).
Appellants state that the appealed claims “do not stand or fall
together” and group the claims as grouped in each of the grounds of
rejection (Br. 5). Thus, we decide this appeal based on appealed claims
1 and 3 as representative of the grounds of rejection and Appellants’
grouping of claims. 37 C.F.R. § 1.192(c)(7) (2003); see also 37 C.F.R. §
41.37(c)(1)(vii) (September 2004).
We affirm.
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