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 § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 10 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Anderson et al. (US Pat. 8,053.870).
Regarding claim 10, Anderson teaches a resistor structure (fig. 1) comprising:
a first layer of electrically insulating material (insulating layer 102 on a silicon substrate 101);
a second layer of resistive material (polysilicon resistor 110; col. 4, lines 45-55) directly above and in contact with the first layer (102), the first layer (102) having an area equal to or larger than that of the second layer; and
a third layer of electrically insulating material (silicon nitride layer 121) directly on top of the second layer, wherein the first and third layers fully encompass the second layer (insulating layer 121 conformally covering the resistor 110; see col. 4, line 56-64).
Regarding claim 15, Anderson teaches the resistor structure, further comprising a first
and a second via contact (via contacts comprising of 150 and 170; col. 5, line 54 to col. 6, line 12 and col. 7, lines 33-50), the first and second via contacts passing through the third layer of electrically insulating material (121) and in direct contact with the second layer of resistive material (110).
Claims 10, 11 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Tsurume et al.
Regarding claims 10 and 13, Tsurume teaches a resistor structure comprising:
a first layer of electrically insulating material (the insulation layer comprises of AIN layer 102; see figs. 1B and 1C); and
a second layer of resistive material (resistive layer comprises of In-Ga-Zn layer 104 and/or TiN layer; see at least paragraphs 0116-0118 and 0168) directly adjacent to the first layer, wherein thermal conductivity of the first layer is equal to or larger than 100 W/m/K, and wherein the first layer of electrically insulating material has a band gap equal to or larger than 4 eV (AIN has a thermal conductivity of 140 to 230 W/m/K and a band gap of approximately 6.2 eV).
Regarding claim 11, Tsurume teaches the resistor structure of claim 10, wherein the electrically insulating material of the first layer is selected from a group consisting of aluminum- nitride (AIN; see paragraph 0086), and the resistive material of the second layer is titanium- nitride (TiN; see paragraph 0168).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-5, 7-9 are allowed.
Amended claim 1 includes all of the distinctive features of claim 6, which was indicated as allowable in the Office action dated November 3, 2025. Claims 2-5 and 7-9 depend on amended claim 1.
Claims 12 and 16 are 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.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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 KYUNG S LEE whose telephone number is (571)272-1994. The examiner can normally be reached 7AM-3PM M-F.
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/KYUNG S LEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2831