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 Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed 3/10/26, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1under anticipation have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection under obviousness is made in view of Han. Applicant argues that Deuk does not address the bend at the edge regions as a desired structural feature. In respond, it is argued that the mask plate of Deuk is flexible and can be shaped to be flat at the center and bent at the edge as desired to conform with the shape of a substrate. Han as discussed below teaches that it is desired and known in the art to bent the mask at the edge region to conform with the shape of substrate.
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, 12--21, 24-25 and 28 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Deuk ((KR20190058055(A)) in view of Han (20060150910).
Regarding claim 1, 13, 18 and 19: Deuk teaches a deposition mask comprising:
metal plate (see fig. 1; 2 and the related description sections, §47) including iron and nickel(“Referring to FIG. 1, the metal plate 10 according to the embodiment may include a metal material. For example, the metal plate 10 may include nickel (Ni). In detail, the metal plate 10 may include iron (Fe) and nickel (Ni).”),
mask comprises first surface and second surface opposite to each other,
through holes with small surface hole on first surface and larger surface hole on second surface (see fig. 6 and the related description sections, §117; “FIG. 5 is a view showing an organic material deposition apparatus including the deposition mask 100 according to the embodiment. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the deposition mask 100 according to the embodiment in which the deposition mask 100 is stretched to be mounted on the mask frame 200 Fig. 7 is a view showing a plurality of deposition patterns formed on the substrate 300 through a plurality of through holes of the deposition mask 100.”), wherein the through holes are located in the center region. A deposition region and non-deposition region is defined (see fig. 7 and the related description sections; §137).
the metal plate is manufactured by rolling and subsequently half-etched in order to reduce the thickness of the plate (see example 1 and the related description sections, §82, The metal plate 10 may be manufactured by a cold rolling method. For example, the metal sheet 10 may be formed through melting, forging, hot rolling, normalizing, primary cold rolling, primary annealing, secondary cold rolling, and secondary annealing, Or less. Alternatively, the metal sheet 10 may have a thickness of less than about 30 microns after the process through an additional thickness reduction process. In detail, the step of preparing the metal plate 10 may further include a step of reducing the thickness according to the thickness of the metal plate 10 as a target. The thickness reducing step may be a step of reducing the thickness by rolling and / or etching the metal plate 10. The plate has implicitly areas of compressive and tensile stress due to the rolling process.
Different areas necessarily exhibit lower and higher values of compressive and tensile stress on opposing surface areas. Since the same process is applied as mentioned in the application, the subject matter of claim 1 is anticipated by the disclosure of Deuk.
Deuk discloses an etched surface applying a process as described in the application. The application does not detail any special process conditions to achieve certain roughness values. As such the roughness of the etched surface is as such lower than the unetched surface.
The mask plate of Deuk is flexible and can be shaped to be flat at the center and bent at the edge as desired to conform with the shape of a substrate.
Han teaches a mask wherein the mask (Figs. 1, 2, [0053-0054]) is flexible and bents towards the central region of a substrate. The mask can be made flat at the central region and it can be made bend at the edge regions which is an obvious option to avoid out-of-plane deformation.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to shape metal mask as disclosed by Han to make the mask to contact the substrate initially at the central region as an obvious option for attaching the mask to the substrate in order to avoid formation of warpage particularly at the central region where the deposition holes are arranged.
Regarding claim 12, 24: Deuk discloses the through holes are in the central region (Fig. 6).
Regarding claims 14-17, 20-21 and 28: Deuk discloses an etched surface applying a process as described in the application. The application does not detail any special process conditions to achieve certain roughness values. As such the roughness of the etched surface is lower than the unetched surface and as a result the texture in the etched surface is diminished while the inherent texture in the unetched surface is maintained.
Regarding claim 25: Deuk’s mask has a thickness of 30 miron or less (section under Description-of-Embodiments: the metal plate 10 may have a thickness of about 30 micron or less through an additional thickness reduction process.).
Claim(s) 22 and 23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Deuk ((KR20190058055(A)) in view of Han (20060150910) and further in view of Paik (WO 2019050198 A2).
Deuck and Han do not explicitly disclose the surface roughness characteristics (Rz, Ra values) of the metal plate in the longitudinal and width directions.
Paik teaches a mask prepared from a metal plate having the characteristics as cited in the claims 22 and 23 (abstract, Figs 15-23 and the related description sections, and claims). Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to use the metal plate as disclosed by Paik as the starting metal plate for preparing the mask of Deuk in view of Han as an obvious and known suitable material for preparing a mask plate.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Chikao (JP 2014 148740 that is cited on 1449 dated 7-23-24) discloses a deposition mask comprising:
metal plate (see §12) including iron and nickel.
mask comprises first surface and second surface opposite to each other
through holes with small surface hole on first surface and larger surface hole on second surface (see fig. 4-6; §34), wherein the through holes are located in the center region. A deposition region and non-deposition region is defined (see fig. 1; §31)
the metal plate is manufactured by rolling and subsequently half-etched in order to reduce the thickness of the plate (see §§51-55, fig. 7-9). The plate has implicitly areas of compressive and tensile stress due to the rolling process.
Different areas necessarily exhibit lower and higher values of compressive and tensile stress on opposing surface areas. Since the same process is applied as mentioned in the application, the subject matter of claim 1 is anticipated by the disclosure of Chikao. Chikao discloses an etched surface applying a process as described in the application. The instant application does not detail any special process conditions to achieve certain roughness values. As such the roughness of the etched surface is as such lower than the unetched surface
Nishikawa (20030180474) discloses a mask wherein a coarsening processing has been performed on the surface of shadow mask facing the glass substrate. This suppresses the damage on the substrate surface by the shadow mask during the evaporation processing (abstract).
Del Monte (3897324) discloses an arrangement to minimize the deposition of materials in portions of a microcircuit structure beyond those intended to be deposited upon through openings in a mask, a special mask holding arrangement is used (abstract).
IKENAGA (20190323117) discloses a deposition mask includes a first surface facing to the deposition target substrate, and a second surface opposite to the first surface. The deposition mask includes: an effective area in which a plurality of through holes are formed and a longitudinal direction in which one or more of the effective areas are arranged along the longitudinal direction. At least in a central area of the longitudinal direction, the deposition mask is warped to be convex on the first surface in a cross section orthogonal to the longitudinal direction (abstract, Fig. 4).
Hatakeyama (20070184195) discloses an arrangement where the mask and substrate surfaces are bent towards each other during the process of contacting the mask to the substrate (Fig. 1A).
BROSINSKI (US 20120100644 A1) disclose a deposition mask with a bent structure that conform with the shape of the substrate (Figs. 3, 5, 9).
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.
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/PARVIZ HASSANZADEH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1716
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