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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I (claims 1-9) in the reply filed on September 5, 2025 is acknowledged.
Claims 10-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-2 and 7-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matsumoto et al. (JP 2020181869 A, citations made hereinafter to the attached English machine translation) in view of Katsnelson et al. (US 8154957) and Chen et al. ("Highly Secure Physically Unclonable Cryptographic Primitives Based on Interfacial Magnetic Anisotropy." Nano Lett., 18, 7211-7216 (2018). DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b03338), cited by Applicant in the Information Disclosure Statement filed on 1/16/2023.
Regarding claim 1, Matsumoto teaches, in Fig. 16, a magnetic memory device based on perpendicular exchange bias, the magnetic memory device comprising: a non-magnetic layer (Pt); a ferromagnetic layer (CoFe) bonded on the non-magnetic layer; and an anti-ferromagnetic layer (PtMn) bonded on the ferromagnetic layer ([0081]) ([0021], bonded because the structure is laminated).
Matsumoto does not explicitly teach that a magnetization direction of the ferromagnetic layer is randomly distributed.
In a similar field of endeavor, Katsnelson teaches that a magnetization direction of the ferromagnetic layer (14, Fig. 1B) is randomly distributed (col. 16, lines 20-31; “ac current with an amplitude reducing to zero” is considered “conventional demagnetization,” which can be used on the device of Fig. 1B, and it is known in the art that when demagnetized, the ferromagnetic layer will have a randomly distributed magnetization direction).
However, Katsnelson does not provide motivation for making the magnetization direction of the ferromagnetic layer randomly distributed, which is a feature not common in the field of magnetic devices.
In a similar field of endeavor, Chen teaches the motivation that a magnetic memory device with a ferromagnetic layer having randomly distributed magnetization direction can be used as a magnetic analogue physically unclonable function (PUF) (Abstract).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the magnetic memory device of Matsumoto with the random magnetization direction of Katsnelson, because Chen teaches the motivation of using random magnetization direction to make a magnetic analogue physically unclonable function (PUF) (Chen, Abstract).
Regarding claim 2, Matsumoto in view of Katsnelson and Chen teaches the limitations of claim 1. Katsnelson further teaches that the ferromagnetic layer (14, Fig. 1B) is demagnetized (col. 16, lines 20-31).
Regarding claim 7, Matsumoto in view of Katsnelson and Chen teaches the limitations of claim 1. Matsumoto further teaches that the ferromagnetic layer comprises CoFeB or a CoFe alloy ([0081], CoFe).
Regarding claim 8, Matsumoto in view of Katsnelson and Chen teaches the limitations of claim 1. Matsumoto further teaches that the non-magnetic layer comprises Pt or Ta ([0081], Pt).
Regarding claim 9, Matsumoto in view of Katsnelson and Chen teaches the limitations of claim 1. Matsumoto further teaches that the anti-ferromagnetic layer comprises IrMn or PtMn ([0081], PtMn).
Claims 3-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Matsumoto et al. (JP 2020181869 A, citations made hereinafter to the attached English machine translation) in view of Katsnelson et al. (US 8154957) and Chen et al. ("Highly Secure Physically Unclonable Cryptographic Primitives Based on Interfacial Magnetic Anisotropy." Nano Lett., 18, 7211-7216 (2018). DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b03338), cited by Applicant in the Information Disclosure Statement filed on 1/16/2023, and further in view of Yan et al. (US 11922986).
Regarding claim 3, Matsumoto in view of Katsnelson and Chen teaches the limitations of claim 2. Matsumoto in view of Katsnelson and Chen does not explicitly teach that the ferromagnetic layer has perpendicular anisotropy.
In a similar field of endeavor, Yan teaches that the ferromagnetic layer has perpendicular anisotropy (col. 2, lines 45-55), because “[t]he effective control of the in-plane exchange bias effect and out-of-plane exchange bias effect at the same time in a single magnetic heterojunction can not only significantly expand the freedom of novel spintronic device design but also promote the research and development of three-dimensional multifunctional spintronic devices” (col. 1, lines 55-62).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the magnetic memory device of Matsumoto in view of Katsnelson and Chen with the perpendicular anisotropy of Yan, because the effective control of the in-plane exchange bias effect and out-of-plane exchange bias effect at the same time in a single magnetic heterojunction can not only significantly expand the freedom of novel spintronic device design but also promote the research and development of three-dimensional multifunctional spintronic devices (col. 1, lines 55-62).
Regarding claim 4, Matsumoto in view of Katsnelson, Chen, and Yan teaches the limitations of claim 3. Matsumoto further teaches that the ferromagnetic layer comprises CoFeB or a CoFe alloy ([0081], CoFe).
Regarding claim 5, Matsumoto in view of Katsnelson, Chen, and Yan teaches the limitations of claim 4. Matsumoto further teaches that the non-magnetic layer comprises Pt or Ta ([0081], Pt).
Regarding claim 6, Matsumoto in view of Katsnelson, Chen, and Yan teaches the limitations of claim 5. Matsumoto further teaches that the anti-ferromagnetic layer comprises IrMn or PtMn ([0081], PtMn).
Conclusion
The prior art of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure:
Rinaldi et al. ("Blocking Temperature Engineering in Exchange-Biased CoFeB/IrMn Bilayer." IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, 54(4), 1-7 (2018). DOI: 10.1109/TMAG.2017.2787623) teaches, in Fig. 1, a structure similar to claim 1 and, for claim 2, demagnetization of the ferromagnetic layer greater than T = 393 K.
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/ERIKA H SON/Examiner, Art Unit 2893
/YARA B GREEN/ Supervisor Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2893