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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 of this title, 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.
Claims 1-2, 4, 6-8, 14, and 16-19 are rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2016/0144608 to Chang in view of US 2005/0148106 to Iwafuchi, US 2004/0115849 to Iwafuchi (hereinafter referred as ‘849), US 2010/0237380 to Tanaka, and US 20220277983 to Kim.
As per claim 1, as best understood, Chang discloses a method for mounting microstructures comprising at least the steps of:
(i) laminating a plurality of microstructures (see devices 400, i.e. LEDs, in Fig 1) formed on one side of a supply substrate (see growth substrate 510 in Fig 1) with a silicone rubber layer (see adhesive layer 120 in Fig 2 that according to Para 0020 can include polysiloxanes which are silicone rubbers) formed on a donor substrate (see carrier substrate 110 in Fig 2), said microstructures being disposed between said supply substrate and said donor substrate (see Fig 2);
(ii) with the plurality of microstructures formed on one side of the supply substrate in a laminated state with the silicone rubber layer on the donor substrate, using a laser lift-off process (Para 0022), then releasing some or all of the plurality of microstructures from the supply substrate and transferring the released microstructures to the donor substrate, thereby obtaining a donor substrate having a plurality of microstructures temporarily fixed thereto (see Fig 3 that shows that the devices 400 are separated from the growth substrate 510 and temporarily fixed to the carrier substrate 110; also see Fig 7-8 that show intermediate steps of separating the devices 400 from the carrier substrate and temporarily fixing the devices 400 to a second carrier substrate 610);
(v) selectively picking up, from said dried donor substrate having temporarily fixed thereto the plurality of microstructures transferred, any of the microstructures using a microstructure transfer stamp (see transfer head 200 in Fig 4-5);
(vi) transferring the microstructures picked up by the microstructure transfer stamp to desired positions on a circuit board (see receiving substrate 310 in Fig 6) and joining together the microstructures and the circuit board; and
(vii) mounting the microstructures on the circuit board by separating the picked-up microstructures from the microstructure transfer stamp (see Fig 6; Para 0032).
wherein in step (v), the selectively picking up is performed by using the difference between adhesive strength of the silicone rubber layer (120) and the microstructure and adhesive strength of the transfer stamp and the microstructure (Para 0033 indicates that the transfer head 200 can use adhesive force; wherein it is inherent and/or obvious that the adhesive strength of the transfer head in this instance must be greater than the silicone rubber layer or the picking up would not be possible) and not using another step to separate the plurality of microstructures (see Fig 4-5 described in Para 0030-0031 wherein no other steps are disclosed for separating the plurality of microstructures outside the selectively picking up step; also see Para 0023-0024 that disclose methods for reducing the adhesion of the adhesive layer 120 which is interpreted as part of the selectively picking up step, not a separate step to separate the microstructures).
As per claim 1, Chang discloses the elements of the current invention as detailed above with respect to claim 1, but Chang does not explicitly disclose that the donor substrate with the microstructures temporarily fixed thereto is cleaned or neutralized or dried after cleaning or neutralizing. However it is known in the art that such lift-off processes using a laser as disclosed in Chang (see Para 0022) in which a microstructure device is separated from a growth substrate, that a portion of the growth substrate can remain attached to the separated microstructure devices that therefore need to be removed before further processing to prevent the remnant material from preventing proper adhering of the separated microstructure devices and/or prevent unwanted contamination of the remnant material on the separated microstructure devices.
Iwafuchi discloses a similar method of transferring microstructures, including laminating a plurality of microstructures (see light emitting diodes 12 in Fig 1-5; see light emitting diodes 42 in Fig 7- 12) formed on one side of a supply substrate (see sapphire substrate 10 in Fig 1-2; see sapphire substrate 40 in Fig 7-8) with a silicone resin layer (see device holding layer 13 in Fig 1-3) formed on a donor substrate (see holding substrate in Fig 1-4; see holding substrate 44 in Fig 7-10), separating some of the plurality of microstructures from the supply substrate using a selective laser lift-off process (see laser light 15 in Fig 1; see laser light 45 in Fig 8) and transferring the separated microstructures to the donor substrate by means of the silicone rubber layer so as to obtain the donor substrate having the plurality of microstructures temporarily fixed thereto (see Fig 2 and 8), wherein the donor substrate having the plurality of microstructures temporarily fixed thereto is cleaned to remove metal or the like remaining on the surface of the microstructures due to the lift-off process (see cleaning tank 16 with cleaning fluid 16f in Fig 3; see cleaning tank 46 with cleaning fluid 46f in Fig 9; Para 0040 and 0052); further it would be inherent and/or obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that after cleaning in the cleaning tank 16 with the cleaning fluid 16f that the donor substrate having the microstructures is dried before subsequent processing steps (see Fig 4-5; see Fig 10-12) so that the cleaning doesn’t interfere with the cleaned microstructures’ ability to adhere.
At the time the application was filed, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill it the art to modify the process of Chang as to add a step of cleaning and drying the donor substrate having the plurality of microstructures temporarily fixed thereto as taught by Iwafuchi. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that the decision to clean and/or dry a structure such as a microstructure or LED that is to be attached/adhered to another structure would be well within the skill of ordinary skill in the art and therefore it would be a routine matter to clean and dry the donor substrate and the plurality of microstructures attached thereto as taught by Iwafuchi; the obvious advantages being that this would allow for the microstructures to be cleaned to remove metal or the like remaining on the surface of the microstructures due to the lift-off process (Iwafuchi: Para 0040 and 0052) and drying would prevent any cleaning fluid from interfering with the cleaned microstructures’ ability to adhere as would be generally understood by one of ordinary skill in the art.
As per claim 1, Chang and Iwafuchi disclose the elements of the current invention as detailed above with respect to claim 1. Chang further discloses that the microstructures (400) formed on the supply substrate (510) laminated with the silicone rubber layer (120) of the donor substrate (110) can be released from the supply substrate and transferred to the donor substrate using a laser lift-off process (Para 0022), and Iwafuchi similarly discloses irradiating with a laser light in order to release the microstructures (12; 42) from a supply substrate (10; 40) and transfer the microstructures to a silicon resin layer (13; 43) of a donor substrate (14; 44) wherein the laser light is irradiated from a side of the supply substrate opposite the side on which the microstructures are formed (see laser light 15 shown in Fig 1 and 7; Para 0038-0039 and 0050); however neither Chang nor Iwafuchi explicitly disclose that the laser light is irradiated using pulsed oscillation. However it is understood by the examiner that lasers are generally applied using pulsed oscillations in order to better control the intensity of the laser light and/or the irradiation location of the laser light.
‘849 discloses a similar method of method of transferring microstructures including using a laser (see UV in Fig 7; see Fig 41) to irradiate microstructures (see microstructures represented by 52-54 in Fig 7-8; see microstructures represented by 272-274 and 277 in Fig 40-42) provided on a supply substrate (see sapphire substrate 51 in Fig 7-8; see substrate 270 in Fig 40-42) and laminated with a donor substrate (see temporary holding board 60 in Fig 7-8; see board 280 in Fig 41-42) in order to release and transfer the microstructures to the donor substrate from the supply substrate (see Fig 7-8 and Fig 41-42) using pulsed oscillations to decompose the material of the supply substrate and allow for the microstructures to be easily peeled from the supply substrate (Para 0173 and 0256).
At the time the application was filed, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill it the art to modify the method of the above combination of Chang and Iwafuchi as to modify the laser light to be pulsed oscillations as taught by ‘849. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that controlling a laser to have pulsed oscillations is very well-known in the art and would be well within the skill of one of ordinary skill in the art and therefore it would be a routine matter to irradiate the laser light by pulsed oscillations as taught by ‘849; the obvious advantages being that this would allow for the amount of energy applied with the laser to be better controlled as would be generally understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to effectively decompose the semiconductor material of the supply substrate and allow for the microstructures to be easily peeled from the supply substrate (‘849: Para 0173 and 0256).
As per claim 1, Chang, Iwafuchi, and ‘849 disclose the elements of the current invention as detailed above with respect to claim 1. Chang further discloses a method of mounting the microstructures laminated, separated, cleaned, dried, and transferred via the method of claim 1 (see above) and that the transfer stamp can use adhesive force and/or other gripping means (see Para 0033), but Chang does not explicitly disclose that the transfer stamp has a bonding layer made of an ultraviolet-curable silicone pressure-sensitive adhesive composition on a substrate which the adhesive strength of the bonding layer is different from the silicone rubber layer. Iwafuchi further discloses picking up from the donor substrate (14) having temporarily fixed thereto the plurality of microstructures (12) any of the microstructures using a microstructure transfer stamp having a bonding layer made of a pressure-sensitive ultraviolet-curable adhesive composition in a cured and uncured form (see adhesive layer 19 formed of a UV curable adhesive including cured regions and uncured regions 19y as shown in Fig 4; Para 0041) on a substrate a (see second substrate 18 in Fig 4-5) wherein the uncured portions of the bonding layer are cured when in contact with the microstructures to adhere the microstructures to the bonding layer.
Further, Tanaka discloses a similar microstructure mounting method using a transfer stamp (see second substrate 21 in Fig 6) with an ultraviolet-curable silicone pressure-sensitive adhesive composition (see adhesion layer 22 in Fig 6 that is shown to be a pressure-sensitive adhesion layer, i.e. transferred through pressure; see Para 0066 that indicates that the adhesion layer 22 can be a ultraviolet curable silicon rubber resin) that is used to transfer/mount microstructures (see electronic devices 14 formed on first substrate 11 and transferred to the interconnection substrate 31 and then the second substrate 21 using the adhesion layer 22 in Fig 2-4 and 6) as taught by Cheng and Iwafuchi, wherein the ultraviolet-curable silicone pressure-sensitive adhesive composition is in a cured form when coming into contact with the microstructures so as to have more adhesion that a silicone layer (see adhesion layer 32 in Fig 6) of a donor substrate (see interconnection substrate 31 in Fig 6) (see Para 0066-0067).
Furthermore, Kim discloses a similar microstructure mounting method that also includes using a transfer stamp (see transfer substrate 210 with organic stamp layer 212 in Fig 6) that includes an ultraviolet-curable silicone pressure-sensitive adhesive composition (see organic stamp layer 212 in Fig 6; Para 0118-0119) in a cured form (see Fig 13 that discloses the forming of the organic stamp layer 212 that includes curing the organic stamp layer 212 as disclosed in Para 0181-0185), wherein Kim discloses that the amount that the ultraviolet-curable silicone pressure-sensitive adhesive composition is cured by UV exposure time determines the amount of curing which increases the stiffness and decreases the tacky force of the ultraviolet-curable silicone pressure-sensitive adhesive composition therefore the amount of UV exposure can be controlled to ensure sufficient adhesion and decrease arrangement errors (see Para 0148-0155).
At the time the application was filed, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill it the art to modify the process of the above combination of Chang, Iwafuchi, and ‘849 as to modify the transfer stamp of Cheng to include a bonding layer made of ultraviolet-curable silicone pressure-sensitive adhesive composition in cured form that has a different adhesion strength from the silicone rubber layer which transfers the microstructures to the bonding layer as taught by Iwafuchi, Tanaka, and Kim. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that ultraviolet-curable silicone pressure-sensitive adhesive compositions are known in the art and the choice of what type of adhesive materials to be used for such transferring application would be well within the skill of one of ordinary skill in the art and therefore it would be a routine matter to modify the material transfer stamp of Cheng to include an ultraviolet-curable silicone pressure-sensitive adhesive composition as taught by Iwafuchi, Tanaka, and Kim; the obvious advantages being that the ultraviolet-curable silicone pressure-sensitive adhesive composition would improve the adhesion between the transfer stamp and the microstructures as taught by Tanaka (Tanaka: Para 0066) so that the adhesion between the bonding layer and the microstructures can be greater than with the silicone rubber layer to ensure transfer to the bonding layer as would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, and the adhesive being UV curable would allow for a convenient and controllable means for controlling the amount of curing the adhesive composition so that the adhesion strength and/or the stiffness of the adhesive composition can be controlled to increase adhesiveness and decrease arrangement errors as taught by Kim (Kim: Para 0148-0155).
As per claim 2, Chang, Iwafuchi, ‘849, Tanaka, and Kim disclose the elements of the current invention as detailed above with respect to claim 1. Chang further discloses that the donor substrate (110) can be a glass substrate (Para 0019) and Iwafuchi discloses that the donor substrate (14) can be a quartz glass substrate or a glass substrate (Para 0037); further it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that the glass substrate of Chang and/or the quartz glass substrate of Iwafuchi could be synthetic, i.e. a synthetic quartz glass substrate, and/or replaced with synthetic quarts glass since a mere change in material of a substrate is nothing more than one of numerous materials that one of ordinary skill in the art would find obvious to provide based on the suitability for the intended final application since the donor substrate being specifically synthetic quartz glass provides no criticality insofar as the record is concerned to the claimed method; the obvious advantages of choosing a synthetic quartz glass would be that synthetic quartz is generally known for its superior optical properties (such as would be beneficial for laser lift-off processes as disclosed in Chang, Iwafuchi, and ‘849) and chemical resistance (such as would be beneficial for resisting being damaged by the cleaning fluid of Iwafuchi) and would be cheaper than natural quartz as would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art.
As per claim 4, Chang, Iwafuchi, ‘849, Tanaka, and Kim disclose the elements of the current invention as detailed above with respect to claim 1, however, both Chang and Iwafuchi are silent regarding the load applied during the step of laminating the microstructures on the supply substrate with the silicone rubber layer of the donor substrate; however, the lamination load specifically being from 0.01 to 5 kPa provides no criticality insofar as the record is concerned to the claimed method. It would have been an obvious matter of design choice to a person of ordinary skill in the art in view of the Chang and Iwafuchi references apply a load of from 0.01 to 5 kPa during the lamination step as claimed because discovering the optimum lamination load would have been a mere design consideration based on the desired level of adherence, the lamination load required to adequately laminate the microstructures to the silicone rubber layer based on the shape/surface area of the microstructures and/or the stickiness of the silicone rubber used, and/or a lamination load that does not damage the microstructures. Such a modification would have involved only routine skill in the art to accommodate proper adhesion between the silicone rubber based layer. It has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art.
As per claim 6, Chang, Iwafuchi, ‘849, Tanaka, and Kim disclose the elements of the current invention as detailed above with respect to claim 1. ‘849 further discloses that laser light can be a KrF excimer laser (Para 0256).
As per claim 7, Chang, Iwafuchi, ‘849, Tanaka, and Kim disclose the elements of the current invention as detailed above with respect to claim 1. Iwafuchi further discloses that the supply substrate is a sapphire substrate in order to better transmit a desired laser energy beam during transfer of the microstructures (see sapphire substrate 10 in Fig 1; Para 0011 and 0036-0037) and ‘849 further discloses that the supply substrate is a sapphire substrate (see sapphire substrate 51 in Fig 5-8 and sapphire substrate 270 in Fig 40-41); therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill it the art to modify the method of the above combination of Chang, Iwafuchi, ‘849, and Tanaka as to modify the substrate to be sapphire. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that choosing an appropriate material of a substrate for a given application would be within the skill of one of ordinary skill in the art and therefore it would be a routine matter to change the material of the supply substrate to be sapphire; the obvious advantages being that this would allow for the sapphire substrate to better transmit a desired laser energy beam during transfer of the microstructures (Para 0011).
As per claim 8, Chang, Iwafuchi, ‘849, Tanaka, and Kim disclose the elements of the current invention as detailed above with respect to claim 1. Iwafuchi further discloses that in the cleaning step, the cleaning is done with a cleaning fluid including an acid (Para 0040).
As per claim 14, Chang, Iwafuchi, ‘849, Tanaka, and Kim disclose the elements of the current invention as detailed above with respect to claim 13. Chang inherently discloses that the grip force of the transfer stamp (200) that can use an adhesion force (Para 0033) is greater than the adhesion force of the silicon rubber layer (120) in order to enable the transfer stamp to separate the microstructures (400) from the silicone rubber layer (see Fig 4-5); Iwafuchi discloses that the UV curable resin (19) of the transfer stamp (18) has cured portions and uncured portions (19y, Fig 4) wherein the uncured portions are put into contact with the microstructures and cured such that the adhesion force of the cured UV curable resin is greater than the adhesion force of the silicon resin layer (13) so as to enable the transfer stamp to separate the microstructures (12) from the silicone rubber layer (see Fig 4-5); Tanaka similarly discloses that ultraviolet-curable silicone pressure-sensitive adhesive composition (22) in its cured state has a greater adhesion force than the adhesion layer (32) of the donor substrate (31) in order to enable the transfer stamp to separate the microstructures (14) from the adhesion layer (see Fig 6B-C); and Kim similarly discloses that the ultraviolet-curable silicone pressure-sensitive adhesive composition (212) in its cured state has a greater adhesion force than a growth substrate (111) holding the microstructures (150) in order to enable the transfer stamp to separate the microstructures from the growth substrate (see Fig 6).
As per claim 16, Chang, Iwafuchi, ‘849, Tanaka, and Kim disclose the elements of the current invention as detailed above with respect to claim 1. Chang is silent regarding the material of the circuit board, but circuit boards are known to be made of silicon materials with a tensile strength of over 300 MPa, Iwafuchi discloses that the final substrate (18) is made of glass or quartz glass which have tensile strengths of at least 7 MPa, Tanaka discloses that the final substrate (21) can be made of silicon, synthetic quartz, glass, etc. (Para 0065) with a tensile strength of at least 7MPa and that the ultraviolet-curable silicone pressure-sensitive adhesive composition can be silicone rubber (Para 0066) which has an adhesive strength of less than 3 MPa; therefore the circuit board which can be any of silicon, glass, or quartz glass would have a larger tensile strength than the adhesive strength of the ultraviolet-curable silicone pressure-sensitive adhesive composition i.e. silicone rubber, in cured form as claimed.
As per claim 17, Chang, Iwafuchi, ‘849, Tanaka, and Kim disclose the elements of the current invention as detailed above with respect to claim 1. Chang further discloses that in step (ii) the plurality of microstructures (400) temporarily fixed to the donor substrate (110) comprises a plurality of microstructures that are contiguously adjacent on the supply substrate (see Fig 2-3).
As per claim 18, Chang, Iwafuchi, ‘849, Tanaka, and Kim disclose the elements of the current invention as detailed above with respect to claim 1. Tanaka further discloses selectively picking up of the microstructures (see electronic devices 14 in Fig 6A) using a stamp (see interconnection substrate 31 in Fig 6A) is performed by the adhesive strength of raised areas (see convex section 32C of adhesive layer 32 in Fig 6A) of the microstructure transfer stamp.
therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill it the art to modify the method of the above combination of Chang, Iwafuchi, ‘849, and Tanaka as to modify stamp to include raised adhesive areas corresponding to the areas of the adhesive layer that are to contact and pickup/transfer the microstructures as taught by Tanaka. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that providing raised adhesive areas for picking up and/or transferring structures is very well-known in the art and would be well within the skill of one of ordinary skill in the art and therefore it would be a routine matter to choose to include raised adhesive areas for contacting the microstructures; the obvious advantage being that this would aid in the selective picking up and/or transferring of the microstructures by only contacting the microstructures to be picked up and/or transferred with the adhesive of the transfer stamp, thereby increasing the accuracy and/or reliability of the transfer stamp as would be generally understood by one of ordinary skill in the art.
As per claim 19, Chang, Iwafuchi, ‘849, and Tanaka disclose the microstructure mounting method as claimed in claim 1 (see above rejection of claim 1), therefore Chang, Iwafuchi, ‘849, and Tanaka similarly disclose a method for manufacturing a circuit board on which the microstructures are mounted as claimed in claim 19.
Claim 9 is rejected under AIA 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2016/0144608 to Chang, US 2005/0148106 to Iwafuchi, US 2004/0115849 to Iwafuchi (hereinafter referred as ‘849), US 2010/0237380 to Tanaka, and US 20220277983 to Kim in further view of US 2012/0320581 to Rogers.
As per claim 9, Chang, Iwafuchi, ‘849, Tanaka, and Kim disclose the elements of the current invention as detailed above with respect to claim 8, however, none of Chang, Iwafuchi, nor ‘849 explicitly disclose using an acid selected from hydrochloric acid, nitric acid and sulfuric acid for cleaning the cleaning step as taught by Iwafuchi.
Rogers discloses a similar method of method of transferring microstructures wherein a step of cleaning micro LEDs after transferring the micro LEDs from a supply substrate to a donor substrate using a laser lift-off process includes using specifically hydrochloric acid to etch away residual metals and cleaning a top surface (“HCL”; Para 0310-0311).
At the time the application was filed, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill it the art to modify the method of the above combination of Chang, Iwafuchi, ‘849, and Tanaka as to modify the acid to be specifically hydrochloric acid as taught by Rogers. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that sulfuric acid is very well-known in the art as a cleaning/etching solution and it would be well within the skill of one of ordinary skill in the art to choose what type of acid to be used for a cleaning step based on the application and therefore it would be a routine matter to use hydrochloric acid as claimed; the obvious advantages being that hydrochloric acid is widely used and therefore easily attainable, and that the hydrochloric acid would effectively etch away residual metals and clean a top surface of the microstructures as taught by Rogers (Rogers: Para 0311).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 15 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
A statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter for claim 15 can be found in the office action filed 09/05/2024.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 12/03/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
The applicants argue that the Chang reference fails to teach how to “selectively pick up Device 400 and the specific construction thereof”, but then goes on to discuss Para 0023-0024 of the Cheng reference that discusses reducing the adhesion force of adhesive layer 120 to each of the devices 400 using various methods
However, as shown in Fig 5 of the Cheng reference and described in Para 0031-0033, the transfer head 200 picks up some devices 400 and does not pick up other devices 400 provided on the carrier substrate 110, therefore the Cheng reference clearly does disclose “selectively” picking up the devices 400. As for the language of “and the specific construction thereof” it is not clear what this argument means because a further explanation of what this means is not present. Further, Para 0023-0024 pointed out by the applicants discusses the reduction of the adhesion force of the adhesive layer 120 to allow the devices to be selectively picked up provides an explanation of one way the specific construction of the Cheng reference provides an adhesion force of the transfer head 200 greater than the adhesion force between the device 400 and the carrier substrate 110 is provided; the Cheng reference also mentions in Para 0033 that the transfer head 200 can provide the grip force using electrostatics forces, vacuum forces, adhesion forces, mechanical forces, or any combinations thereof. Therefore this argument is not persuasive.
The applicants argue that the reduction of the adhesion force of the adhesive layer is reduced by “another process” before the transfer head contacts it which is distinct from the claimed invention.
However, the Cheng reference does not mention anywhere that the adhesion force is reduced “before the transfer head contact it”; contrarily, the Cheng reference discloses in Para 0029 specifically not reducing the adhesion force until other processes are performed such as laser lift-off and chip processes so that the locations of the devices remain in controllable regions during the processes and to allow the adhesive layer to act as a buffer layer to absorb external forces. As for the reducing of the adhesion force of the adhesive layer being “another process” performed, the applicant is arguing the claim is more narrow than it actually is. For example, claim 1 has been amended to recite “and not using another step to separate the plurality of microstructures from the donor substrate” in reference to the selectively picking up step of step (v), but claim 1 does not specifically limit what is and is not included in the selective pickup up step (v) other than the use of the microstructure transfer stamp with a bonding layer that has an adhesion strength stronger than the silicone rubber layer when the pickup occurs. In other words, the selective pickup step (v) as claimed can include any number of processes because the specific processes that are included or excluded are not specified; therefore the adhesion reduction step as disclosed in the Cheng reference can easily be interpreted as being part of a selective pickup step as claimed. Therefore this argument is not persuasive.
The applicants argue that the second substrate disclosed in the Iwafuchi reference is a component integrated into the final product and therefore is not a temporary stamp component as claimed and that the Iwafuchi reference discloses that the thin film transistors are securely attached to the device holding layer in Para 0073 confirming that this is not a temporary bond.
However, the previous and current rejection of claim 1 do not rely on the Iwafuchi reference for these claimed limitations, rather the Iwafuchi reference is used for teaching cleaning or neutralizing the donor substrate having the plurality of microstructures temporarily fixed thereto followed by drying the donor substrate as claimed in steps (iii) and (iv). A single reference is not required to disclose all of the deficiencies of a primary reference in order to teach certain limitation that would make a combination with that reference obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art; in the current rejection the Tanaka reference and the Kim reference are used in combination with the Cheng and Iwauchi references to teach the ultraviolet-curable silicone pressure-sensitive adhesive composition of the bonding layer (see above rejection). Therefore this argument is not persuasive.
The applicants argue that the examiner uses the second substrate 21 and the adhesion layer 22 of Tanaka to read on the stamp and bonding layer as claimed, but the stamp as claimed would correspond to the interconnection substrate 31 and the adhesion layer 32 in the Tanaka reference, and the adhesion layer 32 is not disclosed as being a ultraviolet-curable silicone rubber resin.
However, a simple assertion that the stamp should be interpreted as one structure in a reference rather than another structure is not convincing because it would be an obvious matter for one of ordinary skill in the art to take and apply any teachings from a prior art reference that could improve any part of the current invention; therefore even if a prior art reference uses a stamp/structure in a different way or in a different timewise order, it would still be obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art to apply these teachings to the current invention. Further, the structure and use of the stamp structure as claimed and the second substrate 21 and the adhesion layer 22 of the Tanaka reference, i.e. for the transferring of a structure, it would be reasonable for one of ordinary skill in the art to interpret the second substrate 21 and the adhesion layer 22 as the stamp structure as claimed. It is also noted, that the previous and current rejection of claim 1 does not use the Tanaka reference alone to read on these limitations, but also uses the teachings of the Kim reference which clearly discloses the use of a ultraviolet-curable silicone pressure-sensitive adhesive composition as a stamp structure as discussed in the above 103 rejection of claim 1. Therefore this argument is not persuasive.
The applicants argue that the support layer 13 of the Tanaka reference is broken and transferred onto the interconnection substrate (stamp) and therefore, there is no donor substrate, and therefore the method does not use differences in adhesive force for transferring.
However, as shown in Fig 6A it is clear that the support layer 13 does not need to be broken for the transfer which is supported by Para 0059 that indicates that “it is possible to preferentially break the bent section” of the support layer 13; therefore the Tanaka reference does not require the breaking of the support layer as argued and therefore would rely on a difference in adhesion force. Further, the breaking of the support layer 13 could be considered a difference in adhesion force because a material’s adhesion force is limited by its structural integrity, and therefore if a structure breaks during a pickup operation, the adhesion force of the structure can be interpreted as less then the structure picking up the device. Further, the previous and current rejection of claim 1 do not rely solely on the Tanaka reference to read on these limitations, but also uses the teachings of the Kim reference which clearly discloses the use of a ultraviolet-curable silicone pressure-sensitive adhesive composition as a stamp structure in which the adhesion force is controlled as desired as discussed in the above 103 rejection of claim 1. Therefore this argument is not persuasive.
The applicant argues that the Tanaka reference uses the adhesion layer in an uncured state and therefore is used for the final product similar to the above argument with the Iwafuchi reference.
However, the previous and current rejection of claim 1 do not rely solely on the Tanaka reference for these claimed limitations, rather the previous and current rejection of claim 1 rely on the Kim reference which clearly discloses the use of a ultraviolet-curable silicone pressure-sensitive adhesive composition in a cured state as a stamp structure in which the adhesion force of the stamp structure is controlled by the amount of curing as desired as discussed in the above 103 rejection of claim 1. Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine the teachings of the Cheng, Iwafuchi, Tanaka, and Kim references as discussed in the above 103 rejection to read on the limitations of claim 1 as recited as discussed in the above 103 rejection. Therefore this argument is not persuasive.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Joshua D. Anderson, whose telephone number is (571) 270-0157. The examiner can normally be reached from Monday to Friday between 7 AM and 1 PM Arizona time.
If any attempt to reach the examiner by telephone is unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Thomas Hong, can be reached at (571) 272-0993.
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Applicants are invited to contact the Office to schedule an in-person interview to discuss and resolve the issues set forth in this Office Action. Although an interview is not required, the Office believes that an interview can be of use to resolve any issues related to a patent application in an efficient and prompt manner.
/JOSHUA D ANDERSON/
Examiner, Art Unit 3729
/THOMAS J HONG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3729