DETAILED ACTION
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-11 in the reply filed on November 10, 2025 is acknowledged.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The references cited within the IDS documents have been considered.
IDS document dates: March 4, 2024 and October 24, 2024.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because of informalities as follows:
37 CFR 1.84 (l) states, in part: “All drawings must be made by a process which will give them satisfactory reproduction characteristics. Every line, number, and letter must be durable, clean, black (except for color drawings), sufficiently dense and dark, and uniformly thick and well-defined. The weight of all lines and letters must be heavy enough to permit adequate reproduction. This requirement applies to all lines however fine, to shading, and to lines representing cut surfaces in sectional views.”
See e.g. figures 3A, 3B, and 7C.
37 CFR 1.84(p)(3) states, in part: “Numbers, letters, and reference characters… should not be placed in the drawing so as to interfere with its comprehension. Therefore, they should not cross or mingle with the lines. They should not be placed upon hatched or shaded surfaces. When necessary, such as indicating a surface or cross section, a reference character may be underlined and a blank space may be left in the hatching or shading where the character occurs so that it appears distinct.”
See e.g. figures 1B, 4A, and 5G.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
As to independent claim 1, lines 4-6 recite a donor molecule embedded in the substrate, the donor molecule comprises plurality of dopant dots, and that dopant dots comprise one or more dopant atoms. Therefore, the minimum donor molecule, as defined in the claim, has two or more atoms.
Lines 6-7 then state that the distance between dopant dots is 3-9 nm.
Additionally, the applicant’s specification and claims only indicate phosphine (PH3) as a source of the dopant, with phosphorous intended to be used as the ‘dopant atom’. However, the molecule of phosphine only has one phosphorus atom, and the hydrogen appears to be removed, leaving a single phosphorous atom. One atom is not a molecule, based on the standard well-known chemistry definition of the term. In addition, a spacing of 3-9 nanometers would be beyond the known distance of two atoms in a molecule, such that the spacing as claimed is apparently not describing a molecule. Due to these inconsistencies, it is unclear to the examiner as to what precisely is being claimed within claim 1, and claim 1 is thus rendered indefinite.
For purposes of examination, claim 1 will be interpreted as follows:
“A quantum processing element comprising:
a semiconductor substrate;
a dielectric material forming an interface with the semiconductor substrate; and
dopant atoms embedded in the semiconductor substrate, each dopant atom having a spacing from each other.”
Claims 2-10 are also rejected as being dependent upon claim 1 and thus inheriting all of the above deficiencies of claim 1.
As to independent claim 11, the claim recites limitations similar to those discussed above, in lines 4-8.
For purposes of examination, claim 11 will be interpreted as follows:
“A quantum processing system, comprising:
a semiconductor substrate;
a dielectric material forming an interface with the semiconductor substrate; and
dopant atoms embedded in the semiconductor substrate, each dopant atom having a spacing from each other.”
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.
Claims 1, 3, and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Clark et al. (WO 02/18266 A1, hereinafter referred to as ‘Clark’).
As to claim 1, Clark teaches a quantum processing element comprising:
a semiconductor substrate (silicon);
a dielectric material (passivated surface of the substrate) forming an interface with the semiconductor substrate; and
dopant atoms (phosphorous atoms) embedded in the semiconductor substrate, each dopant atom having a spacing from each other. See also figures 1-5 and accompanying text.
As to claim 3, Clark teaches the dopant atoms are phosphorus atoms. See e.g. figure 2 and abstract.
As to claim 11, Clark teaches a quantum processing system, comprising:
a semiconductor substrate (silicon);
a dielectric material (passivated surface of the substrate) forming an interface with the semiconductor substrate; and
dopant atoms (phosphorous atoms) embedded in the semiconductor substrate, each dopant atom having a spacing from each other. See also figures 1-5 and accompanying text.
Cited Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: see the attached form PTO-892 for pertinent cited art.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Scott B. Geyer (telephone: 571-272-1958). The examiner can normally be reached on Monday to Friday, 10AM - 4PM (ET). Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at: http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Christine S. Kim (telephone: 571-272-8458). The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only.
For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (in U.S.A. or Canada) or 571-272-1000.
/SCOTT B GEYER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2812