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 claims 1-14 in the reply filed on 1/27/2026 is acknowledged.
Claims 15-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected inventive group, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 1/27/2026.
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 10-13 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.
Claim 10 recites the limitation "the lateral protrusions" in line 5. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. It is noted that “the lateral protrusions” is given antecedent basis in claim 3; an amendment to change the dependency of claim 10 to depend from claim 3 would also correct the antecedent basis deficiency.
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 and 2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Cui et al (U.S. Pub #2021/0366808).
With respect to claim 1, Cui teaches a semiconductor structure, comprising:
an alternating stack of insulating layers (Fig. 15, 132 and 232) and electrically conductive layers (Fig. 15, 146 and 246; and Paragraph 82);
memory openings vertically extending through the alternating stack;
memory opening fill structures (Fig. 15, 58 and Paragraph 86) located in the memory openings and comprising a respective vertical stack of memory elements and a respective vertical semiconductor channel (Paragraph 87);
a vertical stack of dielectric material plates (Fig. 15, 242’ and Paragraph 92) located at levels of a subset of the electrically conductive layers;
a dielectric barrier structure (Fig. 15, 176 and Paragraph 87) vertically extending through the alternating stack and laterally separating the dielectric material plates from the electrically conductive layers; and
a first vertically-extending conductive via portion (Fig. 15, 86A and Paragraph 96) that is in electrical contact with a first electrically conductive layer of the electrically conductive layers (Fig. 15, 146), and that vertically extends through each of the dielectric material plates that overlie the first electrically conductive layer.
With respect to claim 2, Cui teaches that the dielectric barrier structure comprises a meandering dielectric isolation structure (top view in Figs. 12B, 176) contacting the alternating stack and laterally extending generally along a first horizontal direction (Fig. 12B, hd1; see Fig. 1A for hd1 and hd2 axes) with lateral meandering along a second horizontal direction (Fig. 12B, hd2) different from the first horizontal direction.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-9 and 14 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BENJAMIN P SANDVIK whose telephone number is (571)272-8446. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 10-6.
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/BENJAMIN P SANDVIK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2812