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 of Group 1, claims 1-13, in the reply filed on 1/7/2026 is acknowledged. Because applicant did not distinctly and specifically point out the supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election has been treated as an election without traverse (MPEP § 818.01(a)).
Claims 14-20 are withdrawn from consideration.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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) 1-3, 6-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US Patent Application Publication 20060246631 by Lutz et al.
Claim 1: Lutz discloses a method for manufacturing an encapsulated MEMS device, comprising: providing a cavity structure having an inner volume comprising a plurality of MEMS elements (00223-0255), which are relatively displaceable with respect to each other (see e.g. 0082 “anti-stiction layer comprises a coating on one, some or all of mechanical structures 16a-d of MEMS 10 to increase hydrophobicity and/or decrease friction and wear of moving MEMS structures”), and having an opening structure to the inner volume (Figure 3K and accompanying text, see e.g. 0081 related to antistiction channel); depositing a Self-Assembled Monolayer through the opening structure onto exposed surfaces within the inner volume of the cavity structure (0081 related to SAM introduction into chamber, see 0070 stating “an anti-stiction channel is formed in the encapsulation layer(s) and/or the substrate thereby providing "access" to the chamber containing some or all of the active members or electrodes of the mechanical structures of the MEMS.“) ; and closing the cavity structure by applying a layer structure on the opening structure for providing a hermetically closed cavity (Figure 3L and accompanying text, 0086).
Claim 2: Lutz discloses SAM by vapor deposition (0225).
Claim 3: Lutz discloses the SAM can include FOTS of FDTS (0255)
Claim 6-7: Lutz discloses sealing comprising depositing a layer by LPCVD, CVD, PECVD (0121) and discloses such can include a nitride, or oxide material or polysilicon (0121).
Claim 8: Lutz discloses a MEMS structure comprising providing a layer arrangement on a carrier substrate, wherein the layer arrangement has a first and a second membrane structure spaced apart from one another and a counter electrode structure arranged therebetween (see Figure 6A-6F, 6E illustrates carrier, 14, with membrane structure 36 and membrane structure 30a, with electrodes structure therebetween, 22) , wherein a sacrificial material is arranged in an intermediate region between the counter electrode structure and the first and second membrane structures (see sacrificial material 38), and wherein at least one of the first and second membrane structure has the opening structure to the intermediate region with the sacrificial material (See Figure 6D); and removing the sacrificial material from the intermediate region in order to obtain the cavity structure between the first and second membrane structure (see Figure 6E).
Claim 9: Lutz discloses a mechanical connection structure is mechanically coupled between the first and second membrane structure and is mechanically decoupled from the counter electrode structure in the cavity structure (Figure 6F and accompanying text, see also Figure 8B and accompanying text).
Claim 10: Lutz discloses etching to remove the sacrificial material (0095, etching would encompass the broadly drafted wet or vapor as claimed, see e.g. 0104 related to vapor etching).
Claim 11: Lutz discloses a plurality of distributed openings (0095, Figure 3D)
Claim 12: Lutz discloses the openings and such appears to meet the requirement of symmetrically distributed around a geometric midpoint of the membrane (see Figure 3D)
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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) 12-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lutz.
Lutz generally discloses a plurality of openings and while the reference fails to explicitly disclose the symmetrical or asymmetrical nature of the openings. Here, Lutz merely discloses a plurality of vents, passages and spacing them apart to permit etching and/or removal of the selected portions of the sacrificial layer (0095) and therefore the location and pattern of the vents would be a result effective variable, directly affecting the ability to remove/vent the sacrificial material upon etching and therefore it would have been obvious to have determined the optimum vent pattern/locations to provide the efficient removal/venting of the sacrificial material.
Claim(s) 4-5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lutz taken with US Patent Application Publication 20040033639 by Chinn et al. and US Patent Application 20080108163 by Chen et al.
Lutz discloses all that is taught above and discloses applying a antistiction coating to the MEMS device as a SAM coating; however, fails to disclose the plasma oxidizing surface treatment before deposition and a remote plasma after deposition of the SAM as claimed. However, Chinn, also in the art of MEMS devices and deposition of an antistiction SAM coating (abstract, 0018) and discloses treating the surfaces of the MEMS with a oxidizing plasma prior to SAM formation to permit proper surface structure and bonding of the SAM to the surface via the OH bonds generated (0018) and therefore taking the references collectively it would have been obvious to have included the oxygen plasma as claimed to surface reactivity so as to adhere the SAM.
Lutz with Chinn fails to discloses the remote plasma process after the SAM deposition to removing the plasma. However, Chen, also in the art of forming a MEM device with a cavity and depositing an anti stiction layer onto the device, such as FOTS and FDTS as taught by Lutz (0010) and discloses coating MEMS devices that are in the cavity that move relative to each other (0013) and discloses after applying the SAM, selectively removing the SAM from the portion of the external surface using a plasma prior to sealing (0017, 0023, 0028) and therefore taking the references collectively and all that is known to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to have include the plasma removal as taught by Chen, after SAM and prior to sealing as such is taught by Chen as a known to be performed to remove SAM prior to sealing the cavity in MEMS process.
As for the requirement of remote plasma, Chinn discloses the plasma processing can either be remote or direct and therefore selecting from the known plasma processing techniques would have been obvious as predictable (0054). A predictable use of prior art elements according to their established functions to achieve a predictable result is prima facie obvious. See KSR Int’l Inc. v. Teleflex Inc., 127 S Ct. 1727, 1741, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1396 (2007).
Claim 5: Chinn discloses the OH groups of the surface react with the SAM to bond the SAM to the MEMS structure (0018) and thus reasonably reads on the covalent bond as claimed. Here, additionally, the prior art discloses the same process steps and materials that the prior art discloses as resulting in covalent bonding and therefore while the prior art merely discloses bonding and does not explicitly describe this as covalent bond, as the prior art discloses all that is required by the applicant to achieve covalent bond (oxidizing plasma and SAMs), the prior art will necessarily result in the claimed bonding unless the applicant is using specific SAMS or surface chemistry that is neither claimed nor disclosed as being required to achieve the covalent bonding.
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lutz taken with Chinn.
While the examiner maintains the position as set forth above related to the removal of sacrificial material, the examiner cites here Chinn, also in the art of MEMS structures and discloses removing the sacrificial layers via wet etching (0007) and therefore taking the references collectively and all that is known to one of ordinary skill in the art, using a known technique to remove sacrificial material, including wet etching, would have been obvious as predictable as Lutz discloses removal of sacrificial material via etching.
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lutz taken with Chen.
While examiner maintains the obviousness of the claims as set forth above, the examiner cites here Chen, also including an opening to form a cavity and discloses the opening is asymmetrical relative to the geometric midpoint of the membrane (see opening 30 at Figure 1). Therefore, as noted it would have been obvious to include openings as desired to provide access to the internal cavity as suggested by Chen.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVID P TUROCY whose telephone number is (571)272-2940. The examiner can normally be reached Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
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/DAVID P TUROCY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1718