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 .
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed by the Applicant on 7/20/26 is acknowledged.
Specification
The specification is objected to as failing to provide proper antecedent basis for the claimed subject matter. See 37 CFR 1.75(d)(1) and MPEP § 608.01(o). Correction of the following is required:
In the last lines of claims 1 and 19, the limitation of “and the interlayer dielectric layer is made of inorganic insulating material and has a thickness of more than 10 nm and less than 50 nm” is not disclosed in the specification.
Specification describes a range of tens of nm and hundreds of nm in:
[0097] In the embodiment, for the interior of the polarization module 09, the encapsulation film 06 and the linear polarization layer 03 can be combined by naturally attaching or adding the interlayer dielectric layer, because the interlayer dielectric layer is generally made of inorganic insulating material, and the film thickness is between tens of nm and hundreds of nm, which is much less than the thickness of the bonding adhesive layer 01; therefore, the thickness of the polarization module 09 can be reduced, and the flexibility and ultra-thinness of the polarization module 09 can be realized.
But does not disclose “a thickness of more than 10 nm and less than 50 nm”. Appropriate correction is needed.
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) 1,3-5, 9,11-12 and 15-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hack (KR 20180034282 A) in view of KR (KR 20030089447 A)
Regarding claim 1, Hack teaches a display device (at least Fig.3a-3b), comprising: a display panel (312-313); a polarization module located on a light-emitting side of the display panel, wherein the polarization module 317A comprises a phase retardation layer 317B and a linear polarization layer arranged in sequence along a direction away from the display panel; and a touch panel 315, wherein the display panel is used as a substrate of the polarization module, ( - -or the touch panel located between the display panel and the polarization module is used as the substrate of the polarization module - -), wherein the polarization module further comprises an encapsulation film 318 located on a side of the linear polarization layer away from the phase retardation layer.
See in Hack:
the encapsulation 311,314, the backplane 312, and the OLED pixel 313, the second stack may include a polarizer 317). ≪ / RTI > Polarizer 317 may be a circular polarizer, which is formed by linear polarizer 317A and quarter-wave phase retarder 317B. The second stack may also include a color filter. The touch panel 315 is formed on one of the first stack and the second stack. The touch panel 315 is disposed close to the middle of the two stacks, i.e., close to the neutral plane. Generally, the touch panel 315 is disposed within 10 [micro] m of the neutral plane of the flexible OLED display module 301. Prior to laminating the first and second stacks together, the stack is thoroughly dried to remove all traces of moisture from the polarizer 317.
Hack does not teach: an interlayer dielectric layer is arranged between the phase retardation layer and the linear polarization layer, and the interlayer dielectric layer is made of inorganic insulating material and has a thickness of more than 10 nm and less than 50 nm and wherein an interlayer dielectric layer is arranged between the encapsulation film and the linear polarization layer, and the interlayer dielectric layer is made of inorganic insulating material and has a thickness of more than 10 nm and less than 50 nm.
However, inorganic interlayer insulating layers with the claimed thicknesses are well known in the art, used in between various display device layers, serving as insulators, adhesives, as passivation/planarization layers or for extra strength.
KR discloses an interlayer insulating layer that is inorganic and has the thickness as claimed, wherein KR discloses: Furthermore, an interlayer insulating film 22 made of a silicon nitride film having a thickness of 20 to 50 nm is laminated on the interlayer insulating film 21 by using a sputtering method using an RF power source and it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date the application was filed, to use an interlayer thickness between any of the layers in the display device, from the teachings of KR, in the device of Hack in order to achieve additional insulation as well as adhesion.
Regarding claim 9, Hack in view of KR discloses a method for manufacturing a display device, comprising: preparing a display panel; and forming a polarization module on the display panel, wherein the polarization module comprises a phase retardation layer and a linear polarization layer arranged in sequence along a direction away from the display panel, or forming the polarization module on a touch panel on a light-emitting side of the display panel, wherein the polarization module comprises a phase retardation layer and a linear polarization layer arranged in sequence along a direction away from the touch panel, wherein forming the polarization module comprises forming the phase retardation layer, forming an interlayer dielectric layer on the phase retardation layer, and forming the linear polarization layer on the interlayer dielectric layer, and wherein the interlayer dielectric layer is made of inorganic insulating material and has a thickness of more than 10 nm and less than 50 nm, wherein forming the polarization module further comprises forming an interlayer dielectric layer on a side of the linear polarization layer away from the phase retardation layer, and forming an encapsulation film on the interlayer dielectric layer, and wherein the interlayer dielectric layer between the linear polarization layer and the phase retardation layer is made of inorganic insulating material and has a thickness of more than 10 nm and less than 50 nm (see rejection of claim 1 above, as the same scope of the claims are the same).
Regarding claim 3, Hack in view of KR discloses a display device, wherein the display panel is used as the substrate of the polarization module, the phase retardation layer is in direct contact with the display panel, or an interlayer dielectric layer is arranged between the phase retardation layer and the display panel; or a bonding adhesive layer is arranged between the phase retardation layer and the display panel (see in Hack: The first stack and the second stack may be stacked together using an optical transparent adhesive (OCA). For visual clarity, FIGS. 3A and 3B show a laminate layer 316. FIG. Other lamination methods can be used, such as pressure sensitive adhesives, epoxies or any other suitable lamination technique known in the art; note: use of adhesives to bond various layers in a display device is a well-known technique in the art).
Regarding claim 4, Hack in view of KR discloses a display device, wherein the display panel is used as the substrate of the polarization module, and the touch panel 16 located is at a side of the polarization module away from the display panel (see in Hack: The touch panel 315 may be disposed in one of the first and second stacks).
Regarding claim 5, Hack in view of KR discloses a display device wherein the touch panel 315 is used as the substrate of the polarization module 317, the phase retardation layer is in direct contact with the touch panel or an interlayer dielectric layer (laminate layer 316 that can be considered/modified as interlayer insulating layer from teachings of KR) is arranged between the phase retardation layer and the touch panel; or a bonding adhesive layer is arranged between the phase retardation layer and the touch panel.
Regarding claim 11 , Hack in view of KR discloses a display device (Fig.3a,3b in Hack) teaches a method for manufacturing a display device, wherein forming a polarization module on the display panel comprises: forming the phase retardation layer on the display panel directly or forming an interlayer dielectric layer on the display panel, and forming the phase retardation layer on the interlayer dielectric layer or forming a bonding adhesive layer (316 wherein any laminate will have adhesive properties in Hack) on the display panel, and forming the phase retardation layer 317B on the bonding adhesive layer.
Regarding claim 12, Hack in view of KR teaches a method for manufacturing a display device, forming a polarization module on the touch panel comprises: forming the phase retardation layer on the touch panel directly or forming an interlayer dielectric layer on the touch panel, and forming the phase retardation layer on the interlayer dielectric layer; or forming a bonding adhesive layer (316 laminate in KR) on the touch panel 315, and forming the phase retardation layer on the bonding adhesive layer.
Regarding claim 15, Hack in view of KR teaches a method for manufacturing a display device, wherein the phase retardation layer and the linear polarization layer are made of liquid crystal material (see in Hack: The lyotropic liquid crystal can be used as a source of birefringence and linear polarizer 317A).
Regarding claim 16, Hack in view of KR teaches a method for manufacturing a display device, wherein the phase retardation layer and the linear polarization layer are made of liquid crystal material (see in Hack: The lyotropic liquid crystal can be used as a source of birefringence and linear polarizer 317A).
Regarding claim 17, Hack in view of KR teaches a method for manufacturing a display device, wherein the interlayer dielectric layer (from teachings of KR, see rejection in claim 1 above) is made of inorganic insulating material.
Regarding claim 18, Hack in view of KR teaches a method for manufacturing a display device, wherein the phase retardation layer, the interlayer dielectric layer, and the linear polarization layer are prepared by coating process (Hack: Other suitable deposition methods include spin coating and other solution-based processes).
Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hack in view of KR and further in view of Miyagaki (US 20050111072 A1, cited previously)
Regarding claim 19, Hack in view of KR teaches the invention set forth in claims 3 and 7 respectively but does not teach wherein the interlayer dielectric layer arranged between the phase retardation layer and the display panel, the thickness of the interlayer dielectric layer is not more than 500 nm.
Miyagaki teaches an interlayer 2034 between the phase retardation layer (203, phase difference member) and the display panel 204 with thickness of 50 nm to 100 .mu.m, and more preferably, from 50 nm to 40 .mu.m ([0236]) and the similar thickness value can be applied to the case wherein the interlayer dielectric layer is arranged in other locations, such as in between the encapsulation film and the linear polarization layer , and it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date the application was filed, to use an interlayer thickness between any of the layers in the display device, from the teachings of Miyagaki, in the device of Hack in view of KR in order to achieve easy manufacturing with an optimized thickness.
Other art
The below prior art teach the thicknesses of the interlayer insulating layers as claimed.
US 20020021377 A1
[0106] As the insulating film, a first interlayer insulating film and a second interlayer insulating film (both not shown) are formed. As the first interlayer insulating film, an inorganic film such as silicon oxide or silicon oxynitride is used. A film thickness of the first interlayer insulating film is set to be 10 nm to 400 nm.
JP 2020136505 A
The groove portion T1 is formed at a position facing the low resistance region 13B of the semiconductor film 13, and the groove portion T2 is formed at a position facing the metal film 16. The groove portions T1 and T2 are preferably formed so as to leave a thin interlayer insulating film 17A on the bottom surface. For example, an interlayer insulating film 17A having a thickness of several nm is left on the bottom surfaces of the grooves T1 and T2.
WO 2006075525 A1
Then, a second interlayer insulating film 2544 including a silicon nitride film containing hydrogen and oxygen is formed, for example, in 10 nm thick
KR 20020044565 A
Further, when constituting an interlayer insulating film of an inorganic oxide, preferred inorganic oxides are silicon oxide (SiO .sub.2 or SiO .sub.x), aluminum oxide (A1 .sub.2 O .sub.3 or AlO .sub.x) titanium oxide (TiO .sub.2), yttrium oxide (Y .sub.2 O .sub.3 or YO .sub.x ), germanium oxide (GeO .sub.2 or GeO .sub.x ), zinc oxide (ZnO), magnesium oxide (MgO or MgO .sub.x ), calcium oxide (CaO), boric acid (B .sub.2 O .sub.3 ) , Barium oxide (BaO), lead oxide (PbO), zirconia (ZrO .sub.2 ), sodium oxide (Na .sub.2 O), lithium oxide (Li .sub.2 O) and potassium oxide (K .sub.2 O). In the formula representing the inorganic oxide, x is 1 to 3 and varies depending on the application.
The thickness of the interlayer insulating film is preferably from 10 nm to 1 nm, though it depends on the accuracy of the display, the degree of irregularity of the fluorescent medium or the color filter to be combined with the organic EL device.
JP 2002134757 A
The thickness of the first interlayer insulating film is 10 nm to 400 nm.
Spark plug
Response to Arguments
The arguments filed by the Applicant on 7/20/26 is acknowledged, however it is moot in light of new grounds of rejection for the amended claims.
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.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Fatima Farokhrooz whose telephone number is (571)-272-6043. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday- Friday, 9 am - 5 pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner’s Supervisor, James Greece can be reached on (571) 272-3711.
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/Fatima N Farokhrooz/
Examiner, Art Unit 2875
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