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, 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.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gerardo (US 2019/0187101) in view of Namkung (2015/0195915).
[claim 1] Gerrado discloses a method for manufacturing a display apparatus (fig. 1-16) comprising: preparing a carrier substrate (10, fig. 1), and forming a sacrificial layer (11, fig. 1, [0171]) on a top surface of the carrier substrate, the sacrificial layer including a cover area (area of 11 under 12, fig. 3,4) and an exposure area (area of 11 under 13, fig. 3,4) located on at least one side of the cover area; forming a first flexible material (12, fig. 3, 4 [0174]) having a bottom surface in contact with the sacrificial layer on a top surface of the cover area of the sacrificial layer to expose the exposure area of the sacrificial layer (fig. 4); and removing the exposure area of the sacrificial layer (fig. 4, 5, [0177]). Gerrado does not expressly disclose removing the carrier substrate (which may be an insulator in Gerrado, [0170]) from the display device layer directly overlying the carrier substrate structure as a final step in processing the device.
Nakmung discloses a method of manufacturing a display device wherein a carrier substrate (20,10, fig. 4) is removed from the display device layer directly overlying carrier the substrate structure as a final step (fig. 4, 7).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of filing to have removed Gerrado’s carrier substrate from the display device layer directly overlying the carrier substrate as a final step in order to reduce the thickness of the overall device thereby aiding miniaturization, device integration, and reducing the amount of space the device takes up.
With this modification Gerrado discloses:
[claim 1] removing the carrier substrate from the first flexible material after removing the exposure area of the sacrificial layer (upon modification the removal of the carrier substrate would occur at the very end of processing).
Claim(s) 2 and 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gerardo (US 2019/0187101) in view of Namkung (2015/0195915) and further in view of Seok (KR 101968814B1) (English Translation Provided).
Gerardo/Namkung discloses the method of making a layered structure of claim 1 but does not expressly disclose preparing the carrier substrate with negatively charging the top surface of the carrier substrate with an atmospheric pressure plasma device.
Seok discloses a method of making a layered structure by preparing the carrier substrate with negatively charging (fig. 4a) the top surface of the carrier substrate (600, fig. 4a, top pg. 7 of the translation) with an atmospheric pressure plasma device (top of pg. 7 of the translation).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of filing to have negatively charged the top of Gerardo’s carrier substrate with an atmospheric pressure plasma device in order to prevent static charges from affecting subsequent etching processes as well as to provide for surface passivation by reducing the reduced in reducing the number of dangling bonds and defects at the surface.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 20 is allowed.
Claims 4-15 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: A search of the prior art fails to disclose or reasonably suggest the limitations:[claim 4]” the forming of the sacrificial layer comprises alternately forming a first coating layer charged with a first electric charge and a second coating layer charged with a second electric charge having a different polarity from a polarity of the first electric charge” and [claim 20]” wherein the second flexible substrate is made of a same material as that constituting the first flexible substrate” in combination with the remaining limitations of all claims depended upon.
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.
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/AMAR MOVVA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2898