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 .
This is a Final office action based on application 18/006,569 in response to reply filed June 10, 2026. Claims 1-14 are currently pending and have been considered below.
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, 3-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hasegawa (Pre-Grant Publication 2019/0371863) in in view of Murata (Pre-Grant Publication 2017/0092876) and Matsuo (Pre-Grant Publication 2019/0214417).
Regarding claim 1, Hasegawa discloses a photoelectric conversion element comprising:
a first electrode (Fig. 1, 15a);
a second electrode (18) opposed to the first electrode; and
an organic photoelectric conversion layer (17) between the first electrode and the second electrode and
the organic photoelectric conversion later includes a first organic semiconductor material, a second organic semiconductor material, and a third organic semiconductor material (Paragraph [0063]), the second organic semiconductor material having a Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital (HOMO) level such as -6.06, which is deeper than a Lowest Unoccupied Molecular Orbital (LUMO) level such as -4.50 of the first organic semiconductor material,
A difference between the HOMO level of the second organic semiconductor material and the LUMO level of the first organic semiconductor material is 1.0 eV or more and 2.0 eV or less (Paragraph [0203] Table 4 & 5),
the third organic semiconductor material having a crystalline property (Paragraph [0078) and having an optical absorption edge wavelength of 550 nm or less (Table 6).
Hasegawa does not disclose the third organic semiconductor material having a linear absorption coefficient of 10000 cm-1 or less in a visible light region or a through-electrode; a plurality of first contacts on the through-electrode; a plurality of pad sections on the through-electrode; and a floating diffusion coupled to the first electrode via the through-electrode, wherein the through-electrode has: a first end coupled to the first electrode via the plurality of first contacts and the plurality of pad sections, and a second end coupled to the floating diffusion. However Murata discloses a photoelectric conversion device comprising:
a photoelectric conversion layer (30) wherein the photoelectric conversion layer can have an absorption coefficient of 1x104 cm-1 (10000) (Paragraph [0047]).
It would have been obvious to those having ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to form a photoelectric layer having a absorption coefficient such as 1x104 cm-1 because it will allow the photoelectric conversion layer to be formed at a reduced thickness thereby avoiding high resistance, low mobility and/or low carrier density and increasing sensitivity and high speed response (Paragraph [0025]).
Further Matsuo discloses a photoelectric conversion device comprising:
a through-electrode (Fig. 1, 34);
a first contacts (39A) on the through-electrode;
a pad sections (29A) on the through-electrode; and
a floating diffusion (36B/FD1) coupled to the first electrode (21) via the through-electrode, wherein the through-electrode has: a first/upper end coupled to the first electrode via the plurality of first contacts (39A) and the plurality of pad sections, and a second/lower end coupled to the floating diffusion (36B/FD1).
It would have been obvious to those having ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to form the through-electrode coupled between the electrode of the photoelectric conversion element and the floating diffusion because it will allow charges to be transferred from a first side of the through electrode to circuitry in a second side of the through electrode thereby improving characteristic of the device (Paragraph [0053]). Further although Matsuo does not explicitly disclose a plurality of contacts and pad sections it would have been obvious to those having ordinary skill in the art to form multiple metallization levels having a plurality of pad sections/contact sections to adjust the height/distance between the organic photoelectric conversion region and the one or more inorganic photoelectric conversion.
Regarding claim 3, Hasegawa further discloses:
the first organic semiconductor material comprises an electron-transporting material (Paragraph [0064]), the second organic semiconductor material comprises a dye material (Paragraph [0205]), and the third organic semiconductor material comprises a hole-transporting material (Paragraph [0074]).
Regarding claim 4, Hasegawa further discloses:
the first organic semiconductor material comprises one of fullerene or a derivative of the fullerene (Paragraph [0064])
Regarding claim 5, Hasegawa further discloses:
the second organic semiconductor material comprises a donor-acceptor dye material (Paragraph [0205]).
Regarding claim 6, Hasegawa further discloses:
the second organic semiconductor material has a local maximum absorption at a wavelength band of 380 nm or more and 750 nm or less (Paragraph [0068]).
Regarding claim 7-9, Hasegawa, Murata, and Matsuo disclose all of the limitations of claim 1 (addressed above). Hasegawa does not disclose the first electrode includes, as the multiple independent electrodes, a charge readout electrode and a charge accumulation electrode, and the charge readout electrode is independent of the charge accumulation electrode. However Matsuo further discloses:
the first electrode includes multiple independent electrodes, such as a charge readout electrode (Fig. 1, 21A) and a charge accumulation electrode (21B) wherein the charge redout electrode is independent of the charge accumulation electrode and a voltage is individually input to the electrodes (Paragraph [0117]).
It would have been obvious to those having ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to form the first electrode as an independent charge readout electrode and a charge accumulation electrode because it will serve to suppress reset noise and improve image quality (Paragraph [0117]).
Regarding claim 10, Hasegawa disclose an image device comprising:
A plurality of pixels (Fig. 11, 1a; Paragraph [0150]) each pixel includes at least one photoelectric conversion elements including;
a first electrode (Fig. 1, 15a);
a second electrode (18) disposed to be opposed to the first electrode; and
an organic photoelectric conversion layer (17) provided between the first electrode and the second electrode and including a first organic semiconductor material, a second organic semiconductor material, and a third organic semiconductor material (Paragraph [0063]), the second organic semiconductor material having a Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital (HOMO) level such as -6.06, which is deeper than a Lowest Unoccupied Molecular Orbital (LUMO) level such as -4.50 of the first organic semiconductor material and
A difference between the HOMO level of the second organic semiconductor material and the LUMO level of the first organic semiconductor material is 1.0 eV or more and 2.0 eV (Paragraph [0203] Table 4 & 5),
the third organic semiconductor material having a crystalline property (Paragraph [0078) and having an optical absorption edge wavelength of 550 nm or less (Table 6).
Hasegawa does not disclose the third organic semiconductor material having a linear absorption coefficient of 10000 cm-1 or less in a visible light region or a through-electrode; a plurality of first contacts on the through-electrode; a plurality of pad sections on the through-electrode; and a floating diffusion coupled to the first electrode via the through-electrode, wherein the through-electrode has: a first end coupled to the first electrode via the plurality of first contacts and the plurality of pad sections, and a second end coupled to the floating diffusion.. However Murata discloses a photoelectric conversion device comprising:
a photoelectric conversion layer (30) wherein the photoelectric conversion layer can have an absorption coefficient of 1x104 cm-1 (10000) (Paragraph [0047]).
It would have been obvious to those having ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to form a photoelectric layer having a absorption coefficient such as 1x104 cm-1 because it will allow the photoelectric conversion layer to be formed at a reduced thickness thereby avoiding high resistance, low mobility and/or low carrier density and increasing sensitivity and high speed response (Paragraph [0025]).
Further Matsuo discloses a photoelectric conversion device comprising:
a through-electrode (Fig. 1, 34);
a first contacts (39A) on the through-electrode;
a pad sections (29A) on the through-electrode; and
a floating diffusion (36B/FD1) coupled to the first electrode (21) via the through-electrode, wherein the through-electrode has: a first/upper end coupled to the first electrode via the plurality of first contacts (39A) and the plurality of pad sections, and a second/lower end coupled to the floating diffusion (36B/FD1).
It would have been obvious to those having ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to form the through-electrode coupled between the electrode of the photoelectric conversion element and the floating diffusion because it will allow charges to be transferred from a first side of the through electrode to circuitry in a second side of the through electrode thereby improving characteristic of the device (Paragraph [0053]). Further although Matsuo does not explicitly disclose a plurality of contacts and pad sections it would have been obvious to those having ordinary skill in the art to form multiple metallization levels having a plurality of pad sections/contact sections to adjust the height/distance between the organic photoelectric conversion region and the one or more inorganic photoelectric conversion.
Regarding claim 11, Hasegawa further discloses:
each of the plurality of pixels, includes one or more organic photoelectric conversion sections (11g) and one or more inorganic photoelectric conversion sections (11b/11r),
The one or more organic photoelectric conversion sections are configured to perform photoelectric conversion of a first wavelength such as green wavelength (Paragraph [0054])
the one or the more inorganic photoelectric conversion sections configured to perform photoelectric conversion of a second wavelength region such as blue & red wavelength different from the organic photoelectric conversion section green wavelength (Paragraph [0054]).
Regarding claim 12, Hasegawa further discloses:
each of the plurality of pixels further includes a semiconductor substrate (Fig. 1, 11), the semiconductor substrate includes the one or more inorganic photoelectric conversion sections (11b/11r) and the one or more organic photoelectric conversion (11g) sections are on a side of a first surface of the semiconductor substrate.
Regarding claim 13, Hasegawa further discloses:
each of the plurality of pixels further includes a multilayer wiring layer (Fig. 1, 51), the semiconductor substrate has a second surface opposed to the first surface, and a multilayer wiring layer (51) is formed on a side of the second surface.
Regarding claim 14, Hasegawa, Murata, and Matsuo disclose all of the limitations of claim 1 (addressed above). Hasegawa does not disclose a second contact; and a coupling section, wherein the second end of the through-electrode is coupled to the floating diffusion via the second contact and the coupling section. However Matsuo further discloses:
a second contact (46); and a coupling section (41A), wherein the second end of the through-electrode (34) is coupled to the floating diffusion ( via the second contact and the coupling section.
It would have been obvious to those having ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to form a second contact and coupling section coupled to the through electrode because it will serve to couple the through electrode to the source/drain of transistors serving as floating diffusion regions to allow charges to flow between the transistor device and the photoelectric conversion element ([Paragraph [0053]).
Claim(s) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hasegawa (Pre-Grant Publication 2019/0371863) in in view of Murata (Pre-Grant Publication 2017/0092876) and Matsuo (Pre-Grant Publication 2019/0214417) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Saturo (Japanese Publication 2019/096632).
Regarding claim 2, Hasegawa, Murata, and Matsuo disclose all of the limitations of claim 1 (addressed above). Neither explicitly disclose the first, second, and third organic semiconductor material comprises a low molecular compound having a molecular weight of 2000 or less. However Saturo discloses a photoelectric conversion device comprising:
A photoelectric conversion layer including a first, second, and third organic semiconductor layer (Fig. 5, 1/2/3) wherein the organic semiconductor layers comprise a low molecular material wherein the molecular weight can be 1500 or less (Paragraph [0051]).
It would have been obvious to those having ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to form the layer of the photoelectric conversion layer as low molecular weight material will serve to form a photoelectric conversion device having low dark current and high sensitivity (Paragraph [0007]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 & 10 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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 BRANDON C FOX whose telephone number is (571)270-5016. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00AM-6:00PM.
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/BRANDON C FOX/Examiner, Art Unit 2818
/DAVID VU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2818
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