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 Invention I (claims 1-10) in the reply filed on 10/31/25 is acknowledged.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) was submitted on 9/19/24. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement has been considered by the examiner.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive as it is generic. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
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.
Claim 2 is 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.
Claim 2 recites the term “about”. The term "about" is a relative term which renders the claim indefinite; it is not defined by the claim, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. “About” is defined as "almost or nearly—used to indicate that a number, amount, time, etc., is not exact or certain” (see Merriam Webster online dictionary). The term “about” modifies a target, and implicitly requires boundaries at some maximum value above the target and at some minimum value below the target beyond which one is not “about” the target any more. Neither the claims, nor the specification, defines these boundaries. Thus, it is unclear whether one must be within some small percentage of deviation of the target (such as 0.01 %, 0.1 %, 1 %, 2 %, 5 %, 10 %, or some other percentage) or within a certain number of units of the target and specifically which of these possible values defines the boundaries. If one were to poll 100 people having ordinary skill in the art, there would be many different responses for the boundaries. Thus, determining whether one is infringing the limitation is subjective, rather than objective, and thus the claim is unclear. Therefore, the claim is rejected as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant, regards as the invention.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1 and 3-10 are allowed.
Claim 1 contains allowable subject matter because of the limitation of a fuse component disposed at the peripheral region of the substrate, wherein the fuse component has a poly silicon portion having a bottom tip pointing to the substrate, a dielectric film between the substrate and the poly silicon portion, and a conductive portion on the poly silicon portion.
The closest prior art is Nagai (U.S. 2019/0287899 A1) which discloses a semiconductor device, comprising: a substrate having an active region (16, Fig. 4) and a peripheral region (18, 20, Fig. 4) surrounding the active region ([0011]); a plurality of gate structures (66, Fig. 4) disposed in the active region of the substrate ([0017]); and a fuse component (70, Fig. 4) disposed at the peripheral region of the substrate ([0017]). However, Nagai does not disclose the fuse component has a poly silicon portion having a bottom tip pointing to the substrate, a dielectric film between the substrate and the poly silicon portion, and a conductive portion on the poly silicon portion and this feature is not otherwise taught or suggested in the prior art. Claims 3-10 depend on claim 1.
Claim 2 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
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/REEMA PATEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2812 11/14/2025