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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
Claims 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being clearly anticipated by Kobayashi et al. (US 2021/0202431).
Regarding claim 1, Kobayashi discloses a laser reflow method (paragraph 18) comprising:
a preparation step (Figure 4 shows the setup of the semiconductor and bumps, i.e. the preparation step, before irradiation) of preparing a workpiece (Figure 4, 40) including a board (20) and semiconductor chips (30) that each have bumps (32) formed on one surface (Figure 4, lower surface of 30 in figure) thereof and are placed on the board with the bumps interposed therebetween (Figure 4); and
a laser beam irradiation step (paragraph 82 describes a stepwise laser beam irradiation) of irradiating the semiconductor chips with a laser beam (Figure 4, LB) from a side of another surface opposite to the one surface (Figure 4 shows the laser beam LB coming from the upper, opposite, opposite surface), thereby reflowing bumps (paragraph 41) formed within an irradiated area of the workpiece (Figure 6D and paragraph 78 describe reflowing the bumps in the irradiated areas M1-M6 of the workpiece),
wherein, in the laser beam irradiation step, the irradiation with the laser beam is carried out while an irradiation range of the laser beam is changed in stages (paragraph 82 describes the irradiation being performed in a stepwise fashion) from a region including an outer peripheral portion (Figure 6D, M1-M6) of the irradiated area toward a region including a central portion (Figure 6D, N1-N6) of the irradiated area (paragraph 78).
Regarding claim 2, Kobayashi discloses wherein, in the laser beam irradiation step, a power density of the laser beam is changed in association with the change of the irradiation range (paragraph 78 describes using a higher power density in the irradiation range including M1-M6 and a lower power density in the irradiation range including N1-N6).
Regarding claim 3, Kobayashi discloses wherein, in the laser beam irradiation step, the power density is set such that, with the irradiation range changed in stages (paragraph 82 describes the irradiation being performed in a stepwise fashion), the power density of the laser beam applied to a predetermined irradiation range (paragraph 78 describes the laser power density being set for bump areas N1-N6, i.e. predetermined irradiation range) is equal to or smaller than the power density of the laser beam applied to another irradiation range that is closer to the outer peripheral portion than the predetermined irradiation range (paragraph 78 describes using a higher power density in the irradiation range including M1-M6 in the outer peripheral portion and a lower power density in the irradiation range including N1-N6 in the inner portion).
Conclusion
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/KATHERYN A MALATEK/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3741