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 in the reply filed on 7/24/2025 is acknowledged.
Claims 9-18 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 7/24/2025.
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, 4, 6, 7, 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Shin (KR102535501B1).
Shin reads on the claimed invention as follows (refer to the Figs. 4-10):
Claim 1. A method for connecting an interposer (see Fig. 7), comprising:
aligning1 a first array of conductive rings (3a) on a flexible substrate (F1) of the interposer with ball pads (on which balls 2a are disposed, Figs. 4 and 5) of a ball grid array device (2);
coupling (see [0036], [0037] and Fig. 5) the first array of conductive rings to the ball pads of the ball grid array device;
aligning2 a second array of conductive rings (3b on F1, Fig. 8) on the flexible substrate (F1) of the interposer with connectors (1a) of a first printed circuit board (1) comprising an array of connectors (1a) for coupling to the ball grid array device; and
coupling the second array of conductive rings to the array of connectors of the first printed circuit board (see [0041]. [0042] and Figs. 8 and 9).
Claim 4. The method for connecting an interposer of claim 1, wherein the coupling the first array of conductive rings to the ball pads of the ball grid array device comprises coupling the first array of conductive rings to the ball pads of the ball grid array device using a soldering iron (see [0037]).
Claim 6. The method for connecting an interposer of claim 1, wherein a first pattern of the first array of conductive rings on the flexible substrate and a second pattern of the second array of conductive rings on the flexible substrate are substantially the same. Compare arrays of holes 3a and array of holes 3b on F1 in Fig. 7.
Claim 7. The method for connecting an interposer of claim 1, wherein each conductive ring in the first array of conductive rings and each conductive ring in the second array of conductive rings comprises:
a conductive material coated on walls formed by a hole through the flexible substrate, wherein the conductive material comprises a cylindrical hole and thereby forms the conductive ring at a surface of the flexible substrate. See [0011].
Claim 19. A method for connecting an interposer comprising a flexible substrate (F1) comprising first and second arrays of conductive rings (3a, 3b), the method comprising:
aligning (see footnote 2) the second array of conductive rings (3b) on the flexible substrate of the interposer with connectors (1a) of a first printed circuit board (1) comprising an array of connectors (1a; see Fig. 8) for coupling to a ball grid array device;
coupling (see [0041], [0042] and Fig. 8) the second array of conductive rings (3b) to the array of connectors of the first printed circuit board;
aligning (see footnote 1) the first array of conductive rings (3a) on the flexible substrate of the interposer with ball pads (pads on which solder balls 2a are formed; see Fig. 5) of a ball grid array device; and
coupling (see [0036], [0037] and Fig. 5) the first array of conductive rings to the ball pads of the ball grid array device.
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.
Claim(s) 2, 3, 20 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shin in view of Cluff (US5779488A).
Shin further discloses the claimed invention as follows (limitations not disclosed by Shin are crossed out)
Claim 2. The method for connecting an interposer of claim 1, further comprising:
removing, before aligning the first array of conductive rings in the flexible substrate with the ball pads on the ball grid array device,
removing, after removing the ball grid array device from the second printed circuit board and before aligning the first array of conductive rings in the flexible substrate with the ball pads on the ball grid array device, one or more of a plurality of solder balls (see [0012] and [0030])
Claim 3. The method for connecting an interposer of claim 2: wherein the removing
wherein the coupling the first array of conductive rings to the ball pads of the ball grid array device comprises coupling the first array of conductive rings to the ball pads of the ball grid array device without using a machine that generates evenly dispersed heat (see “soldering iron” in [0037]).
Claim 20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:
removing, before aligning the first array of conductive rings on the flexible substrate of the interposer with ball pads on
removing, after removing on the ball grid array device, one or more of a plurality of solder balls (see [0012] and [0030])
Claim 21. The method of claim 20:
wherein the removing
wherein the coupling the first array of conductive rings to the ball pads of the ball grid array device comprises coupling the first array of conductive rings to the ball pads of the ball grid array device without using a machine that generates evenly dispersed heat (see “soldering iron” in [0037]).
In Shin, a defective BGA device is replaced with a functional BGA device by means of the disclosed interposer. Therefore, the ball grid array device (2’) removed from the PCB is not the same ball grid array device (2) coupled to the PCB (1), and the Shin also does not disclose a first PCB being different from the second PCB. Rather, the BGA device 2 is mounted to the same PCB 1 from which the defective component 2’ was removed.
Cluff teaches (col. 1, lns. 19-29) that “[w]ith typical production boards that do not include conventional sockets, when failures occur during production and a certain electrical component is suspected of being a failed component, that component is removed and replaced with another component. The removed component is usually then soldered to another motherboard to determine if the failure relates to the motherboard or the particular component.”
In view of the combined teachings of Shin and Cluff, one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have found it obvious to remove a BGA device 2, suspected of being defective, from a second printed circuit board, and to use the technique taught by Shin to couple the BGA device to a first PCB by means of a flexible interposer, and to test the first printed circuit board together with the coupled BGA device to determine if the BGA device is defective.
Claim(s) 5 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shin in view of Uemura (US5722160A).
Shin further discloses the claimed subject matter as follows (limitations not disclosed by Shin are crossed out, below):
Claim 5. The method for connecting an interposer of claim 1:
wherein the coupling the first array of conductive rings to the ball pads of the ball grid array device further comprises:
applying solder
wherein the coupling the second array of conductive rings to the connectors of the printed circuit board further comprises:
applying solder
Claim 8. The method for connecting an interposer of claim 1:
wherein coupling the first array of conductive rings to the ball pads of the ball grid array device further comprises attaching the ball grid array device to the flexible substrate using a solder
wherein coupling the second array of conductive rings to the connectors of the printed circuit board further comprises attaching the flexible substrate to the printed circuit board using the solder
Shin mentions soldering, such as with a soldering iron, but does not give more specific details regarding how the soldering is implemented, and does specifically mention using paste.
When soldering a BGA device to a substrate having through-holes, it is known from Uemura to apply a solder paste to a through-hole pad 3 (see Figs. 1A-1D), such that when heating is effected, such as during a reflow process, the solder balls 7 of the BGA device melt together with the solder paste, effecting a good solder bond (see ln. 44 in col. 4 to ln. 44 in col. 5).
In view of the teachings of Uemura, one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have found it obvious to apply solder paste on the conductive ring 3a facing the balls of the BGA device, to facilitate soldering the balls 2a of BGA device 2 to the holes 3a of the first circuit board, with predictable results. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have found it obvious that, although Shin uses a soldering iron to perform the soldering, this would still be effective in performing reflow of the solder paste, one connection at a time. One of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have also found it obvious to apply solder paste on the conductive rings 3b facing the connectors 1a on the PCB, to facilitate the soldering thereof, in a similar manner as between balls 2a and conductive rings 3a, with predictable results.
Conclusion
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/LIVIUS R. CAZAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3729
1 See [0036] and [0037], and Fig. 5. Clearly, holes 3a were aligned with the corresponding pads on device 2.
2 See [0041], [0042], and Fig. 8. Clearly, holes 3b were aligned with the corresponding connectors 1a on PCB 1.