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, see page 6 from “Applicant Arguments/Remarks Made in an Amendment”, filed 11/13/2025, with respect to the 35 U.S.C. 112(a) rejection of claim 13 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Applicants change in dependency of claim 13 of claim 12 to claim 11 solves the enablement issue of having both a continuous and multiple discrete inner shoulder/s. The rejection of claim 13 regarding 35 U.S.C. 112(a) has been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 6-7 from “Applicant Arguments/Remarks Made in an Amendment”, filed 11/13/2025, with respect to the 35 U.S.C. 102/103 rejections of claims 14-20 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Applicant has canceled claims 14-20 making the previously rejected claims no longer part of the application and as such any rejections for claims 14-20 have been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1-8 and 10-12 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. This new ground of rejection is necessitated by amendment to the claims. Previous rejections by Tsai and Glenn have been withdrawn.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-8, and 10-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by United States Patent Application Publication by Lin et al. (US 20110024892 A1; Lin).
Regarding claim 1, Lin discloses a chip package (5) comprising:
a package substrate (10);
an integrated circuit (IC) die (20) disposed on a top side of the package substrate (Fig. 1, where we will consider that direction of the die from the top of the substrate to be that the die is on top of the substrate);
a lid assembly (61) disposed over the IC die (Fig. 1, where lid 61 is disposed over die 20), the lid assembly comprising:
a top plate having an outer shoulder (The protrusion that extends from the sides of the lid 61) and a lower surface (64) facing the IC die; and
a retainer (70) having a lower surface secured to the top side of the package substrate (Para. 19, Retainer 70 is mounted to the substrate by adhesive 75) and an inner shoulder extending over and capturing the outer shoulder above the package substrate, the inner shoulder configured to limit upward movement of the top plate (Para. 18, and Fig. 1, where the shoulder from the lid is attached to the inner shoulder of the retainer, in such a way to at least limit upward movement of the lid).
wherein expansion of the retainer is decoupled from expansion of the top plate (Fig. 1, As the retainer is outside and around the top plate, the expansion of either will not be coupled to the other); and
thermal interface material (50) contacting the lower surface of the top plate and the IC die (Para. 14, “Providing a thermal interface material 50 as an interface between the die 20 and the heat spreader 60”).
Regarding claim 2, Lin discloses the chip package of claim 1, and further wherein the inner shoulder circumscribes the outer shoulder (Fig. 1, where the inner shoulder is over/outside of the outer shoulder. Fig.2, where the retainer 70 is shown to fully go around [circumscribe] the outer shoulder).
Regarding claim 3, Lin discloses the chip package of claim 2, wherein a gap exists between a bottom surface of the inner shoulder and a top surface of the outer shoulder (Fig. 1, where at least a visible gap is present).
Regarding claim 4, Lin discloses the chip package of claim 2, wherein a gap exists between the outer shoulder and the retainer (Fig. 1, where at least a visible gap is present).
Regarding claim 5, Lin discloses the chip package of claim 2, wherein a gap exists between the inner shoulder and the top plate (Fig. 1, where at least a visible gap is present).
Regarding claim 6, Lin discloses the chip package of claim 1, wherein the top plate comprises a plurality of sidewalls (Fig. 2, The lid 61, is rectangular and as such, has a plurality of sidewalls).
Regarding claim 7, Lin discloses the chip package of claim 6, wherein the outer shoulder extends outward from each of the plurality of sidewalls of the top plate (Fig. 1, where the outer shoulder protrudes from the top plate, and Fig. 2, where it shows that each of the sides has the same protrusion of the outer shoulder).
Regarding claim 8, Lin discloses the chip package of claim 7, wherein the outer shoulder comprises a continuous outer shoulder around the plurality of sidewalls (Fig. 2, where the outer shoulder appears to be continuous).
Regarding claim 10, Lin discloses the chip package of claim 1, wherein the retainer comprises a plurality of sidewalls circumscribing the IC die (Fig. 2, where the retainer 70, is in a rectangular shape that has a sidewall on each side where all sidewalls together circumscribe the IC die).
Regarding claim 11, Lin discloses the chip package of claim 10, wherein the inner shoulder extends inward from each of the plurality of sidewalls of the retainer (Fig. 1, showing the inner shoulder extends from the sidewall, Fig. 2, Showing this behavior is persistent for each sidewall).
Regarding claim 12, Lin discloses the chip package of claim 11, wherein the inner shoulder comprises a continuous inner shoulder around the plurality of sidewalls (Fig. 2, where the inner shoulder appears to be continuous).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9 and 13 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.
Claims 21-29 allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding new claims 21-29. Previous action indicated claim 9 as containing allowable subject matter but as be objected to because of its dependency on rejected claims. Applicant has submitted new independent claim 21 which includes the limitations of claim 9 and claims 1, 6, and 7 which claim 9 depends from. As a result examiner finds that claim 21 and its dependent claims 22-29 are allowable.
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 DANIEL J HIBBERT whose telephone number is (703)756-1562. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8am-5pm EST.
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/DANIEL J HIBBERT/Examiner, Art Unit 2899
/ZANDRA V SMITH/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2899
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