Attorney’s Docket Number: 6810-1428-CON
Filing Date: 11/3/2022
Inventors: Takizawa et al.
Examiner: Marcos D. Pizarro
DETAILED ACTION
This Office action responds to the amendment filed on 10/28/2025.
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 . In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for a rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Amendment Status
The amendment filed on 10/28/2025 in reply to the Office action in paper no. 10, mailed on 10/1/2025, has been entered. The present Office action is made with all the suggested amendments being fully considered. Accordingly, pending in this Office action are claims 1-4, 6-17 and 19-21.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the upper electrode having a concave portion recited in claim 10 must be shown or the features canceled from the claim. No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered, and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
Claims 10 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) as failing to comply with the written description requirement.
The claims contain subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claims 10 recites that the upper electrode has a concave portion. The specification, as originally filed, fails to describe or otherwise disclose these limitations.
In particular, the specification does not describe any portion of the upper electrode as being concave, nor does it provide any description of its geometry that would reasonably convey to one of ordinary skill in the art that the inventor was in possession of such features at the time of filing. The specification does not identify any specific region of the electrodes as being concave, nor does it attribute any structural or functional significance to such a feature.
Accordingly, the originally filed disclosure does not reasonably convey to one of ordinary skill in the art that the inventor had possession of the claimed subject matter. Therefore, claims 10 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-4 are 6-17 are allowed.
Response to Arguments
The applicant argues:
Figure 3 discloses the element of an electrode having a concave portion. For this reason, the objection to the drawings and the rejection under 112 as failing to comply with the written description requirement should be withdrawn.
The examiner responds:
Applicant’s arguments have been fully considered but are not persuasive.
Applicant asserts that the recited “concave portion” is illustrated in FIG. 3. However, applicant does not identify which specific structure in FIG. 3 corresponds to the claimed “concave portion,” nor does applicant explain how the figure conveys that the upper electrode, insulating film, and lower electrode each include such a feature.
The specification, as originally filed, does not describe any portion of the upper electrode, insulating film, or lower electrode as being “concave,” nor does it otherwise characterize the geometry of these elements using language that would reasonably convey such a feature to one of ordinary skill in the art. While FIG. 3 illustrates a trench capacitor structure, the mere depiction of layers formed within a trench does not, without further description, reasonably convey that any particular electrode or insulating film includes a “concave portion” as positively recited in the claims.
Furthermore, applicant has not directed the Examiner to any portion of the specification that attributes a concave shape to any of the recited elements, nor explained how one of ordinary skill in the art would understand the depicted structure as necessarily including such concavity for each of the claimed components.
Accordingly, the originally filed disclosure fails to reasonably convey possession of the subject matter of claims 10 and 12. The rejection under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) and the objection to the drawing are therefore maintained.
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.
Papers related to this application may be submitted directly to Art Unit 2814 by facsimile transmission. Papers should be faxed to Art Unit 2814 via the Art Unit 2814 Fax Center. The faxing of such papers must conform to the notice published in the Official Gazette, 1096 OG 30 (15 November 1989). The Art Unit 2814 Fax Center number is (571) 273-8300. The Art Unit 2814 Fax Center is to be used only for papers related to Art Unit 2814 applications.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Marcos D. Pizarro at (571) 272-1716 and between the hours of 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM (Eastern Standard Time) Monday through Thursday or by e-mail via Marcos.Pizarro@uspto.gov. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, Wael Fahmy, can be reached on (571) 272-1705.
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/Marcos D. Pizarro/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2814
MDP/mdp
March 28, 2026