Cfmt, Inc. v. Yieldup Intern. Corp.
| Decision Date | 04 April 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. Civ.A.95549RRM.,Civ.A.95549RRM. |
| Citation | 92 F.Supp.2d 359 |
| Parties | CFMT, INC. and CFM Technologies, Inc., Plaintiffs, v. YIELDUP INTERNATIONAL CORP., Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Delaware |
Josy W. Ingersoll, John W. Shaw, Young, Conaway, Stargatt & Taylor, LLP, Wilmington, DE, David C. Berry, Douglas J. Kline, Stephen D. Whetstone, Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, LLP, Boston, MA, for plaintiffs.
Mary B. Graham, Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell, Wilmington, DE, Susan K. Knoll, L. Gene Spears, James C. Pistorino, Arnold, White & Durkee, Houston, TX, for defendant.
This is a patent case. Plaintiff CFMT, Inc. is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Wilmington, Delaware. Plaintiff CFM Technologies, Inc. ("CFM") is a Pennsylvania corporation with its principal place of business in West Chester, Pennsylvania. CFMT, Inc. is the owner of U.S.Patent Nos. 4,778,532 (the '532 patent) and 4,917,123 (the '123 patent). CFM is the exclusive licensee under the patents. Prior to October 1999, defendant YieldUP International Corp. ("YieldUP") was a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Mountain View, California. In October 1999, YieldUP was acquired by FSI International, a Minnesota corporation with its principal place of business in Chaska, Minnesota.
On December 30, 1998, CFMT, Inc. and CFM (collectively, "CFMT") filed a complaint alleging that YieldUP infringes one or more claims of the '532 and '123 patents. YieldUP filed its answer and counterclaim on January 25, 1999, in which it denied CFMT's allegation of infringement, asserted affirmative defenses of invalidity and unenforceability and sought a declaratory judgment of invalidity and non-infringement. The case is scheduled for a ten-day jury trial beginning May 1, 2000.
On December 22, 1999, YieldUP moved for a summary judgment that the '532 and '123 patents are invalid because the patents' specifications are non-enabling. On January 31, 2000, CFMT filed a cross-motion for a summary judgment that the patents are enabling. The parties have completed briefing on the motions. On March 15, 2000, the court heard oral argument on the motions and held a trial in accordance with Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., 517 U.S. 370, 116 S.Ct. 1384, 134 L.Ed.2d 577 (1996), to construe disputed claims of the '532 and '123 patents. This is the court's construction of those disputed claims and its decision on the motions for summary judgment.
The court draws the following facts from the affidavits, documents and deposition transcripts submitted by the parties.
The patents in suit relate to technology for cleaning silicon wafers during computer chip manufacturing. A computer chip typically consists of a wafer of processed silicon, a surrounding case that protects the silicon, and wires that extend from the silicon and enable the chip to interact with the computer or other equipment in which it is used. Manufacturing computer chips requires more than 200 processing steps in which discs of silicon, called semiconductor wafers, are repeatedly etched and implanted with circuitry. Over 40 of these steps are wet processing steps where the wafers are subjected to process fluids.
Prior to the patents in suit, individual wet processing steps were performed by dipping semiconductor wafers into a series of open sinks, where each successive sink contained a different process fluid. Because the sinks were open to the atmosphere, however, unwanted airborne particles could enter the process fluids and contaminate the wafer's microscopic circuits. In subsequent processing steps when layers or coatings were added to the wafer, the contaminants could become trapped or "burned into" the wafer, resulting in a defective computer chip. During a previous trial concerning a related CFMT patent, one of the inventors of the patents in suit explained:
If there is even the tiniest speck of material in one of those lines, it is like a boulder on a railroad track. And if it tends to be conducting material then it shorts those railroad tracks together and you are going to end up with a dead device.
On October 18, 1988, the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("PTO") issued the '532 patent to CFM as assignee of the inventors, Christopher F. McConnell and Alan E. Walter. The '532 patent is entitled "Process and Apparatus for Treating Wafers with Process Fluids." On April 17, 1990, the PTO issued the '123 patent to CFM as assignee of the inventors, McConnell and Walter. The '123 patent is entitled "Apparatus for Treating Wafers with Process Fluids." The '532 and '123 patents were later assigned to CFMT, Inc. and CFM became the exclusive licensee of the patents.
The '532 and '123 patents describe the same technology. The '532 patent claims a method for practicing the invention and the '123 patent claims an apparatus. The patents describe a "Full Flow" system for wet processing semiconductor wafers wherein process fluids (gases or liquids) are pumped into an enclosed vessel where the wafers remain stationary. The "Full Flow" system allows process fluids to flow past the wafers sequentially and continuously. The apparatus then drains the fluids out the bottom as new fluids come in the top for rinsing or drying.
By consolidating the cleaning, rinsing and drying steps used in wafer fabrication into a single, enclosed vessel with a continuous flow of process fluids past wafer surfaces, the inventions purport to offer several advantages over the prior art. First, because the system is enclosed, safety concerns about various chemicals used during processing are minimized. In addition, because the wafers do not move through the atmosphere from one process fluid to another, the likelihood of contamination by airborne particles is reduced.
The '532 and '123 patents were based on a prototype that McConnell and Walter started building in the summer of 1984. The two inventors designed and constructed the prototype in the basement of a house owned by McConnell's father-in-law. When McConnell and Walter finished the prototype in the spring of 1985, it covered most of the basement. The tool's design was later incorporated as Figure 1 of the '532 and '123 patent specifications.
CFMT has asserted Claims 1, 3-5, 7, 20, 21, 36, 43, 44, 47 and 54-58 of the '532 patent against YieldUP. Of the claims asserted against YieldUP, Claims 1, 54, 55, 57 and 58 are independent claims.
On August 13, 1985, inventors McConnell and Walter applied for a patent for a process and apparatus for treating wafers with process fluids. The original application for the '532 patent included claims for the apparatus that were later withdrawn and resubmitted in a separate application for the '123 patent. In the summary of the invention, the inventors described an enclosed, full-flow method wherein process fluids flow sequentially and continuously past the wafers. The inventors recommended their wet processing method for cleaning semiconductor wafers. The specification states that the "processes and apparatus of the present invention are especially useful in the prediffusion cleaning of wafers...."
In the original application, Claim 1 reads as follows:
1. An enclosed, full flow method for the cleaning of semiconductor wafers wherein process fluids flow sequentially and continuously past said wafers in a vessel, comprising the steps of
(a) contacting said wafers with at least one cleaning fluid to remove contaminants from said wafers.
(b) removing said cleaning fluid from said wafers with a rinsing fluid, and
(c) removing said rinsing fluid from said wafers with a drying fluid;
whereby the processing does not require movement or operator handling of said wafers between said steps, and
wherein the vessel containing said wafers is hydraulically full during each process step.
Claim 55 is representative of the other independent claims of the '532 patent. In the original application, Claim 55 reads as follows:
55. An enclosed, full flow method for the treatment of semiconductor wafers wherein process fluids flow sequentially and continuously past said wafers in a vessel comprising reacting the surface of said wafers with at least one chemical reagent, whereby the processing does not require movement or handling of said wafers between said steps and wherein the vessel containing said wafers is hydraulically full during each process step.
On November 25, 1986, the PTO rejected the claims in the application. The examiner stated that the claims were obvious under 35 U.S.C. § 103 based on the prior art references of Aigo and Gluck.1 According to the examiner, Aigo suggests a flow process for cleaning semiconductor wafers by contacting the wafers with a cleaning fluid, removing the cleaning fluid with a rinsing fluid, and rinsing the wafers with a drying fluid. The examiner wrote that "[i]t would have been obvious to clean silicon wafers in view of the teachings of Aigo since the environment and process is similar to that of the instant invention."
On April 13, 1987, the inventors submitted an amendment to the PTO. The inventors suggested that the examiner had misinterpreted the Aigo patent because the etchant in Aigo is used not to clean the wafers, but to selectively remove portions of the surface layer of the wafer in order to form the semiconductor wiring circuit. Even if the etchant in Aigo is a cleaning fluid, the inventors wrote that Aigo does not teach or suggest the present invention because Aigo uses open tanks rather than an enclosed, full flow system. Specifically, the inventors wrote that Aigo does not teach or suggest:
1. An enclosed, full flow method for cleaning or...
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Cfmt Inc. v. Yieldup Intern. Corp., 01-1452.
...Inc.'s U.S. Patent No. 4,778,532 (the '532 patent) and U.S. Patent No. 4,917,123 (the '123 patent) are invalid, CFMT, Inc. v. Yieldup Int'l Corp., 92 F.Supp.2d 359 (D.Del.2000), and, after a bench trial, unenforceable, CFMT, Inc. v. Yieldup Int'l Corp., 144 F.Supp.2d 305 (D.Del.2001). Becau......
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Cfmt, Inc. v. Yieldup Intern. Corp.
...already determined that the undisclosed TI data are clear and convincing evidence of invalidity for non-enablement in CFMT, Inc. v. YieldUP, 92 F.Supp.2d 359 (D.Del.2000). Thus, the same data must be sufficient to establish a prima facie case of unpatentability, which requires a far lesser ......