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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in Korea on January 17, 2023.
Should applicant desire to obtain the benefit of foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d) prior to declaration of an interference, a certified English translation of the foreign application must be submitted in reply to this action. 37 CFR 41.154(b) and 41.202(e).
Failure to provide a certified translation may result in no benefit being accorded for the non-English application.
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, 3-5, 7-9, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Im et al. (US 2021/0320273 A1, hereinafter "Im"). Xu (Xu et al. J. Mater. Chem. C, 2016, 4, 7377) is provided as an evidentiary reference for claim 9.
In the pertinent art of organic light-emitting devices, Im discloses a blue light-emitting device with the following device structure characteristics:
a glass substrate
a first electrode composed of ITO (¶ [0481]);
m-MTDATA forming the hole injection layer followed by NPB forming the hole transport layer (¶ [0482]);
a host, including a first compound and a second compound, and a dopant co-deposited to form the emission layer (¶ [0483]);
BAlq deposited on the mission layer to form a hole blocking layer;
Alq3 and LiQ forming the electron transport layer (¶ [0484]);
LiF forming the electron injection layer (¶ [0485]);
Al deposited to form the second electrode.
Im discloses Example 3-4 that has the structure described above wherein the emission layer contains the compound C9, C10, and C12 as the first, second, and third compounds respectively, shown below (Table 4, ¶ [0493]).
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Compound C10 is a compound of instant Chemical Formula 1 wherein:
R1 is an unsubstituted C6 aryl group;
R2 is an unsubstituted C22 aryl group;
R3 and R4 are H;
L1 and L2 are single bond.
Compound C12 is a compound of instant Chemical Formula 3 wherein:
R11 is an unsubstituted C10 aryl;
R12 is an unsubstituted C12 heteroaryl group;
R13 and R14 are H;
L11 and L12 are single bond.
Therefore, the Example 3-4 of Im anticipates instant claim 1, 3, and 20. Regarding claim 3, the first host, C10, has a HOMO energy level of 5.79 eV, which is lower than the HOMO energy level of the second host, C12, which is 5.85 eV.
Regarding instant claim 4, and 5, the Example 3-4 of Im can be interpreted wherein compound C9 is the claimed first host having a structure of Chemical Formula 1 (Table 4, ¶ [0493]). compound C9 is also a compound of instant Chemical Formula 1 wherein:
R1 is an unsubstituted C10 aryl group;
R2 is a substituted C10 aryl group;
R3 and R4 are H;
L1 is single bond;
L2 is an unsubstituted C6 arylene group.
Regarding instant claims 4-5, the first host C9, and the second host, C12, in Example 3-4 of Lim anticipates the organic light-emitting device of instant claim 4 wherein (1) C9 is a compound of Chemical Formula 1 where R1 is an unsubstituted naphthalene and R2 is a substituted naphthalene and (2) C12 is a compound of Chemical Formula 3 where R11 is unsubstituted naphthalene and R12 is unsubstituted dibenzofuran.
Regarding instant claim 7, the second host compound, C12, is the same as compound BH2-1.
Regarding instant claim 8, the second host compound, C12, has a HOMO energy level between -5.8 eV and -5.9 eV at -5.85 eV. Note that instant claim 8 is interpreted as “or” wherein only one of the first host “or” the second host is within a HOMO energy level range.
Im teaches that NPB is used as a material in the hole transporting layers. Xu et al. teaches that the HOMO value of NPB is 5.7 eV (Xu et al. J. Mater. Chem. C, 2016, 4, 7377, Figure 1B). Xu is provided as an evidentiary reference for instant claim 9. As the HOMO value of compound 12 is 5.85 eV, the relationship between the HOMO energy levels in the device of Example 3-4 is about 0.15 eV or less as claimed in claim 9.
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.
Claims 2, 6, 10-19, and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Im et al. (US 2021/0320273 A1, hereinafter "Im") as applied to claims 1, 3-5, 7-9, and 20 as described above.
Im teaches Example 3-4 that has the structure, described above, wherein the emission layer contains the compound C9, C10, and C12 as the first, second, and third compounds respectively that reads on instant claims 1, 3-5, 7-9, and 20.
Im discloses that the ratio of the first host, C9, and the second host, C12, is a ratio of 10:5, which is “about 9:1 to about 7:3” (Table 4, pg 98). The ratio of 10:5 of Example 3-4 of Im represents a wt% of 66% which is interpreted to be “about 9:1 to about 7:3.” Im teaches that the weight ratio of the first host compound to the second host compound may be about 90:10 to about 10:90, which encompasses the stated range in instant claim 2 (¶ [0025]).
Im teaches the above but fails to teach the organic light-emitting device wherein the first host is at least one of the organic compounds of instant claim 6.
Regarding instant claim 6, Im teaches that the compound in the emission layer may be selected from embodiments including, but not limited to, compound H2, shown below (¶ [0202]).
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Im teaches that organic light-emitting devices containing a first, second, and third compounds according to Im have low driving voltages, high efficiencies, and long lifespans (¶ [0488], Table 2).
Im includes each element claimed, with the only difference between the claimed invention and Im being a lack of the aforementioned combination being explicitly stated. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the instant invention to select any known substituent from each of the finite lists of possible combinations to arrive at the compound H2 of Im which is a compound of the instant claim 6 since the combination of elements would have yielded the predictable results of low driving voltages, high efficiencies, and long lifespans, absent a showing of unexpected results commensurate in scope with the claimed invention. See Section 2143 of the MPEP, rationales (A) and (E). (¶ [0488], Table 2).
The resulting Modified Device I, wherein the emissive layer now contains compounds C9, C10, C12 and H2, reads on instant claim 6 because compound H2 is the same as instant compound BH1-1.
Regarding claims 10-11, Im teaches the Modified Device I that has the structure, described above, wherein the emissive layer comprises a first emitting part that is disposed between the first and second electrode and includes a first blue emitting material layer. Im fails to teach the organic light-emitting device wherein the emissive layer comprises a second emitting part and a third emitting part including a second blue emitting material layer as well as a first charge generation layer and a second charge generation layer.
Im teaches a full-color organic light-emitting device 20 of Fig. 3 that includes a first emission area, a second emission area, and a third emission area (¶ [409] - [412]) wherein:
The first emission layer may be located corresponding to the first emission area to emit first-color light, the second emission layer may be located corresponding to the second emission area to emit second-color light, and the third emission layer may be located corresponding to the third emission area to emit third-color light, each being formed on the hole transport layer (¶ [422]);
The organic light-emitting device contains a first pixel electrode and a second pixel electrode respectively located in the first emission are and the second emission area (¶ [0414])
The organic light-emitting device contains a counter electrode facing the first pixel electrode (¶ [0416])
The first color light may be red light, the second color light may be green light, and the third color light may be blue light, but embodiments of the disclosure are not limited thereto (¶ [428]), thus, the first color light may be blue light and the third color light may be a second blue light;
The emission auxiliary layer may be located between the second emission layer and the third emission layer (¶ [0418]).
Im teaches that the blue light-emitting device of Example 3-4 displays a lower driving voltage and a higher efficiency and lifespan compared to comparative examples (Table 4). Im teaches that the full-color organic light-emitting device may be included in various suitable apparatuses including a biometric authentication apparatus or a mobile personal computer (¶ [0443] – [0450]).
Im teaches a full-color organic light-emitting device containing an anode, a cathode, and an organic layer comprising multiple emitting parts wherein charge generation layers are disposed between the internal emitting parts as discussed above. Therefore, it would have been obvious to use the emitting part of the Modified Device I of Im in the multi-emitting unit device structure of Im as Im demonstrates this device structure was known prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention. The motivation for doing so would have been to obtain a device with a lower drive voltage and a high efficiency and lifetime suitable for electronic apparatuses such as a mobile personal computer, as taught by Im (Table 4, ¶ [0443] – [0450]).
When modified to be part of a multi-emitting unit OLED, the Modified Device I of Im reads on instant claims 10-11 wherein the emissive layer includes (1) a first emitting part disposed between the first electrode and the second electrode including a first blue emitting material layer; (2) a second emitting part disposed between the first emitting part and the second electrode; (3) a third emitting part disposed between the second emitting part and the second electrode and including a second blue emitting material layer; (4) a hole transport layer that reads on the first charge generation layer, (5) an auxiliary layer that reads on the second charge generation layer.
When modified to be part of a multi-emitting unit OLED, the Modified Device I of Im reads on organic light-emitting device of instant claims 12-19 and 21. Regarding claim 12, the first host and second host have a weight ratio of about 10:5 or 66%, as described above. Regarding claim 13, the first host, C10, has a HOMO energy level of 5.79 eV, which is lower than the second host, C12, which is 5.85 eV as described above. Regarding claim 16, compound H2 of Im is the same as instant compound BH1-1. Regarding claim 17, compound C12 of Im is the same as instant compound BH2-1. Regarding instant claim 18, the second host compound, C12, has a HOMO energy level between -5.8 eV and -5.9 eV at -5.85 eV as described above. Note that instant claim 18 is interpreted as “or” wherein only one of the first host “or” the second host is within a HOMO energy level range. Regarding claim 19, the energy bandgap between the HOMO energy of the hole transport layer containing NPB and the host C12 HOMO energy is about 0.15 eV or less because NPB has a HOMO energy of 5.7 eV as described above.
Conclusion
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/L.Q.N./Examiner, Art Unit 1786
/JENNIFER A BOYD/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 1786
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