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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of group I claims 1-17 in the reply filed on 12/30/2025 is acknowledged. Claims 18-20 are withdrawn.
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) 1-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kang.
Kang (WO 2017018834 A1) teaches nucleating chalcogen, the substrate can be grapehene or boron nitride 2D material, surface treatment oof the substrate is performed with a chalcogen precursor and a transition metal. The crystalline material of the substrate can form defects which can be used for nucleation sites for the chalcogen precursor and a transition metal (see translation and claims).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to provide a 2d material with defects for nucleating a patterned chalcogen precursor and a transition metal for growth of a 2D thin film (see translation and claims).
Regarding claims 1 2, 11, Kang teaches a growth process in a CVD chamber employing a transition metal (cyanide, arsenide) radical (see translation figure 9).
Regarding claims 1-17, Kang teaches forming a 2D decalcogenide thin film from the chalcogen precursor and transition metal radical, including reacting with another metal radical, as claimed (See translation including claims and Examples).
Kang is considered to show substantially identical process as that claimed by applicant (see Examples).
To the extent necessary to provide it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to provide a combination of embodiments taught within the scope of the art.
CITED RELEVEANT ART:
US 2014/40251204 teaches graphene growth from chalcogen linked transition metal films (See abstract, [0006, 0010] and claims).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIEL H MILLER whose telephone number is (571)272-1534. The examiner can normally be reached M-TH 9-6.
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/DANIEL H MILLER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1783
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