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, species D (Fig. 16) in the reply filed on 6/15/25 is acknowledged.
Claims 1-12, 15 are elected.
Claims 13, 14, 16-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected group/species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 6/15/25.
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.
Claim(s) 1-5, 10, 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Huang CN-112003581-A.
Note that the specification citation refers to the machine translation.
1. Huang discloses a bulk acoustic wave resonance structure (Fig. 5, etc.) comprising:
a substrate (1); and
a reflective structure (2), a first electrode layer (3), a piezoelectric layer (4), and a second electrode layer (5) stacked on the substrate in sequence, wherein the piezoelectric layer is provided with at least one annular groove (7; also see Fig. 9 item 74; [0056], [0057]), and the at least one annular groove is located in an active area (6) and close to an edge (62) of the active area.
2. Huang discloses an outer contour of the at least one annular groove comprises a closed shape, and the closed shape comprises a curve and two or more straight lines (Fig. 9; [0056], [0057]).
3. Huang discloses the at least one annular groove comprises a plurality of grooves (74; Fig. 7); the plurality of grooves are arranged in sequence in a first direction, and the first direction comprises a direction from the edge of the active area to middle of the active area (see Fig. 7).
4. Huang discloses a number of the plurality of grooves is three ([0054], [0056]; Figs. 8, 9, 11; cavity 7 can be multiples thus including three, e.g., 71-73).
5. Huang discloses opening depths of the plurality of grooves are smaller than a thickness of the piezoelectric layer (Fig. 5; cavity 7 is within piezoelectric layer 4, thus the depth is smaller than the thickness of the piezoelectric layer); and wherein the opening depths of the plurality of grooves are decreased progressively in the first direction, or increased progressively in the first direction or partially the same, or all the same ([0054]: length of cavities 7 may be the same or different; also Fig. 9 has cavity 7 as cavities 74, same label so reasonable duplicate of same depth).
10. Huang discloses each of the plurality of grooves comprises a plurality of sub-grooves (Fig. 11; [0061], item 76); the plurality of sub-grooves form an annular shape together (Fig. 11); and opening depths of the plurality of sub grooves are the same ([0054]; lengths of cavities may be the same).
11. Huang discloses cross-section of each of the plurality of sub-grooves is of a rectangular shape, a circular shape, or an oval shape (Figs. 5, 11, etc.).
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.
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang CN-112003581-A.
9. Huang discloses the invention as discussed above, and the opening depths of the plurality of grooves are the same ([0054]: length of cavities 7 may be the same; Fig. 5, 9); appear to show but does not explicitly disclose the opening depths of the plurality of grooves range from 1/2H to H, and H is the thickness of the piezoelectric layer. However, the depth is part of the design of the groove that the figure shows the depth covering most of the thickness of the piezoelectric layer to reduce energy leakage and avoidance of the formation of parasitic modes ([0051]); therefore, at the time of the filing, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have made the opening depths of the plurality of grooves range from 1/2H to H, and H is the thickness of the piezoelectric layer, due to the design of the groove for energy leakage and avoidance of the formation of parasitic modes as taught and show by Huang ([0051], Fig. 5).
Claim(s) 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huang CN-112003581-A in view of Burak US 9,577,603.
15. Huang discloses the invention as discussed above, but does not disclose the second electrode layer is provided with a frame having an annular there-dimensional structure, and the frame is located in the active area and close the edge of the active area.
Burak discloses a bulk acoustic wave resonator structure (Figs. 1A,B, etc.) comprising: a substrate (110); a reflective structure (115); a first electrode layer (120), a piezoelectric layer (130), a second electrode layer (140), a frame (150) having an annular three-dimensional structure (see Figs. 1A,B), and the frame is located in the active area (i.e., where items 120, 130, 140 overlap) and close to the edge of the active area (see Figs. 1A,B).
At the time of the filing, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have added the frame to the bulk acoustic resonance structure of Huang. The modification would have been obvious because the frame can be used to improve energy confinement and increase Q-factor as taught by Burak (Col. 1 lines 60-62, Col. 10 lines 35-48).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-8, 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
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/A.W/Examiner, Art Unit 2843
/ANDREA LINDGREN BALTZELL/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2843