Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1, 3-4 and 6-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 2006/0240278 A1 to Hatwar et al. with evidentiary support from Kim et al., Journal of Information Display 2025, 26, 1, 9-18.
Regarding claim 1, Hatwar et al. discloses a tandem OLED comprising a plurality of emitting units disposed between an anode and a cathode (Fig. 1) wherein each unit comprises a light-emitting layer sandwiched between a hole transport region and an electron transport region (Fig. 2), wherein the units are separated from one another by a charge-generation layer (Fig. 2), wherein the unit closest to the cathode has, from the cathode side, an EIL and an ETL, and wherein the EIL comprises an organic semiconductor compound doped with a metal (abstract). Exemplary devices include those wherein the EIL is made of Bphen doped with 2 or 3 vol% Li [0132] wherein Bphen stands for 4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline and has a structure of
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This compound is representative of the compound of Formula A: R1 = R2 = H, R4 = Ph, L1 = phenylene and R3 = H. Claim 1 is therefore anticipated. So are claims 4 and 6-8. The binding energy of Bphen:Li is reported by Kim et al. to be 2.474 eV (p. 14). Thus, claim 3 is anticipated.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2006/0240278 A1 to Hatwar et al. in view of EP 2463927 A1 to Dorok et al.
Hatwar et al. fails to disclose the compounds in claim 9. However, Dorok et al. discloses an OLED [0116] having the configuration of anode/HIL/HTL/EML/ETL/EIL/ cathode, wherein the EIL comprises 20 wt% of Mg and 75 wt% of 2,9-di(biphenyl-4-yl)-4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline which has the following structure:
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598
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.
In fact, the matrix in the EIL can be any compound of the form
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wherein t can be CH and R1-R4 are selected from a group that includes H and Ph (p. 14). Species of the compound include not only Bphen but also its derivative such as
compounds 43 and 44 in claim 9. Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time the instant invention was filed to modify the device disclosed by Hatwar et al. by replacing Bphen with its derivatives, such as compound 43 or 44 in claim 9, and expect a similar result.
Rationale for the following rejections can be found in the Office action dated 11/26/2026.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2006/0240278 A1 to Hatwar et al.
Claims 2, 13-19 and 24-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2006/0240278 A1 to Hatwar et al. in view of Sasaka et al., Nature Communications 2021, 12:2706.
Claims 20 and 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hatwar et al. in view of Sasaka et al. as applied to claims 13 and 24 above, and further in view of EP 2463927 A1 to Dorok et al. for the same reason as the rejection of claim 9.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 02/19/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive because the amendment to the claims fails to overcome Hatwar et al. as explained above.
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.
Contact Information
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/VU A NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1762
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