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 .
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 11-13, and 19 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.
Claims 11-13 and 19 recite the limitations "the thin film layer" and “the trench” in claim 11. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 3-10, 15 and 18 are allowed.
Regarding claim 1 and dependents thereof, the prior art does not teach, “a thin film layer is further formed at a bottom of the trench; mutually bonding the second conducting material layer and the first conducting material layer; and etching at least the comb tooth region of the second conducting material layer, and stopping etching at the thin film layer using the thin film layer as an etching stop layer to form a movable comb tooth structure, wherein bottoms of comb teeth in the movable comb tooth structure are all fixed to the thin film layer; and removing the thin film layer, wherein a thickness of the thin film layer is only a half of a depth of the trench, wherein the thin film layer is only located in the trench, and a top surface of the thin film layer is not higher than that of the second conducting material layer.” US 9550668 (herein Xia) remains relevant as presented in Office Action filed 7/31/2025. However, Xia does not teach the claimed depth of trench. US 20200407217 (herein Blackmer) teaches it is known in the art to provide a ratio of a trench and dielectric layer 106/406 and to be 1:2 ([0039], see Fig. 5), it would not be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to use these ratios in Xia.
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Conclusion
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/WALTER L LINDSAY JR/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2852
/PHILIP T FADUL/Examiner, Art Unit 2852