Attorney’s Docket Number: 7017.373
Filing Date: 02/13/2023
Claimed Priority Date: 04/07/2022 (TW 111113338)
Applicants: Wu et al
Examiner: Aneesa Baig
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 .
Response to Arguments
The Response filed on 09/19/2025, responding to the Office action mailed on 07/08/2025, has been entered. Applicant arguments regarding rejections under 35 U.S.C. §102 and 35 U.S.C. §103 are found to be persuasive. Accordingly, new rejections are presented below, and pending in this application are claims 1-12.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the 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.
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.
Claims 1,8,11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kwon (US20200266164, Hereinafter Kwon) in view of Pendse (US 20140145340 A1, Hereinafter Pendse).
Regarding claim 1, Kwon (e.g., Fig 5A-5E, 6A and 6B [0015]-[0045]) shows most aspects of a chip-on-film package (e.g., Fig 5E) comprising:
a chip (102) including a body, a plurality of bond pads (e.g., conductive pad 104), a protective layer (e.g., passivation pattern 106) and a plurality of composite bumps (e.g., Fig 6B), the plurality of bond pads are arranged on the body (Fig 6B), a surface of the body is covered by the protective layer, the protective layer includes a plurality of openings, each of the plurality of openings is configured to expose one of the plurality of bond pads (Fig 5E shows openings which place the bond pads), each of the plurality of composite bumps includes a first raising strip (e.g., 120a), a under bump metallization (UBM) layer (e.g., 152a and 154a) and a bonding layer (e.g., 156a), the first raising strip is located on the protective layer and covered by the UBM layer, the UBM layer of each of the plurality of composite bumps is electrically connected to one of the plurality of bond pads (See Fig 5E), covered by the bonding layer and includes a first rib located on the first raising strip (e.g., first rib of 25 on the stop portion of bump), the bonding layer includes a first bonding rib located on the first rib along a first direction parallel to the surface of the body (e.g., Fig 6B shows the wiring pattern on the first raising strip and on the surface of the body).
While Kwon shows a structure of a complaint bumps and bond pads, it does not show the following :
a substrate including a plurality of leads; and
the first bonding rib of the bonding layer of each of the plurality of composite bumps is configured to be inserted into one of the plurality of leads to allow each of the plurality of leads to include a first restricted rib located above each of the plurality of bond pads
Pendse (e.g., Figs 3A, 3B [0014]-[0015] [0017]- [0028]and []), on the other hand and in a related field of complaint bump bonding, shows a substrate (32) including leads (First members each include leads comprised of metal [0021]) and a second member including complaint bumps (34) that are configured to be inserted into the leads of the first substrate). This bonding method allows to mechanically interlock the first and second surfaces through plastic deformation to allow for a robust connection between the metal surfaces.
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to have the complaint composite bump to be inserted inside a lead structure, as taught by Pendse, to form a robust connection with low failure rates.
Regarding Claim 8, Kwon (e.g., Fig 5E) shows, the UBM layers (152a and 154a ) and the bonding layer (156a ) are covering the gap between the bond pads and the first raising strip, and the height of the layer on the first raising strip are is greater than the height on the layers on the surface of the bond pad (104).
Regarding Claim 11, Kwon (e.g., Fig 6B) sows the first raising strips to be connected in the first direction.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-7, 9-10,12 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The additional references cited disclose devices with composite bumps.
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/ANEESA RIAZ BAIG/
Examiner, Art Unit 2814
/WAEL M FAHMY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2814