DETAILED ACTION
This Office action responds to the patent application no. 18/260,989 filed on July 11, 2023.
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 . In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for a 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.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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 1-9 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being clearly anticipated by Takahashi (US 9,159,763).
Regarding Claims 1-9 and 11:
Takahashi (see FIGs. 1, 2, 7, 8, and 13) teaches an electronic equipment 200 comprising: a solid-state imaging device 1; and an optical system (210, 211) that forms an image of image light from a subject on the solid-state imaging device, wherein the a solid-state imaging device 1 comprising: a first semiconductor substrate 12 including a first semiconductor layer 13 provided with a plurality of photoelectric conversion units PD that performs photoelectric conversion, and a first wiring layer 17 provided on a surface side opposite to a light incident surface of the first semiconductor layer; a second semiconductor substrate 28 including a second semiconductor layer 29 provided with a charge holding unit 31 that holds signal charge generated in the photoelectric conversion unit and a second wiring layer 36 provided on one surface side of the second semiconductor layer, and overlapped with and bonded to the first semiconductor substrate such that the second wiring layer is positioned between the first wiring layer and the second semiconductor layer; and a light shielding layer (56, M1’, M2’, M3’, M1, M2) provided in at least one of the first wiring layer or the second wiring layer at a position facing the charge holding unit in a thickness direction and the light shielding layer includes a metal film M1’ closest to the second semiconductor layer in a thickness direction of the second wiring layer among a plurality of layers of metal films (M1’, M2’, M3’) provided in the second wiring layer and at positions facing the charge holding unit in the thickness direction and the light shielding layer is at least one connection pad out of a first connection pad M2 provided in the first wiring layer and a second connection pad M3’ provided in the second wiring layer and bonded to the first connection pad
Takahashi (see col.7/ll.2-5, col.8/ll.55-33, col. 9/l.62-col.10/l.6, col.12/ll.40-47, col.17/ll.26-29, col.17/ll.52-10) teaches “the impurity region 31 serves as both the drain of the second transfer transistor Tr2 and the source of the reset transistor Tr3, and is used as the floating diffusion region to which the signal charges are read out”, “the first connection electrode 56 serves as the light shielding film”, “the activated layer 18b of the first substrate 80 is pressure-bonded to the activated layer 37b of the second substrate 81 …integrated and electrically connected to each other”, and “the solid-state imaging device may be formed on a chip or in a module … or an optical system packaged in a single unit”, “the optical lens 210 focuses the image light (incident light) from a subject on the imaging area of the solid-state imaging device 1”.
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 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takahashi (US 9,159,763) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Maruyama (EP 3 425 900).
Regarding Claim 10:
Takahashi does not explicitly teach the first semiconductor layer includes a first semiconductor material, and the second semiconductor layer includes a second semiconductor material having a quantum efficiency, which indicates a probability that photons are converted into electrons, lower than that of the first semiconductor material.
Maruyama (see ¶ [0045]-[0046] and FIGs. 3, 5, and 7-12) teaches the semiconductor substrate 12 formed of single crystal silicon “a light incident side of the semiconductor substrate 12, an N-type semiconductor thin film 41 that forms photoelectric conversion unit 21 … InGaP, InAlP, InGaAs, InAlAs and a chemical semiconductor of the chalcopyrite structure are used … a high light absorption coefficient and a high sensitivity over a wide wavelength range … in additional to … amorphous silicon (Si), germanium (Ge), a quantum dot …”.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinarily skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to modify the teaching of Takahashi to further include the teaching of Maruyama to use different semiconductor material for photoelectric conversion unit PD and the first substrate 80 to suppress dark current and picture quality degradation.
Claims 12-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Takahashi (US 9,159,763) and in view of Maruyama (EP 3 425 900).
Regarding Claims 12-20:
Takahashi teaches an electronic equipment comprising an optical system and a solid-state imaging device of the instant invention, but does not explicitly teach a first semiconductor layer including a first region including a first semiconductor material and a second region including a second semiconductor material of which a quantum efficiency indicating a probability that photons are converted into electrons is lower than that of the first semiconductor material and the first semiconductor material is germanium, silicon germanium, gallium arsenide, indium gallium arsenide, or copper indium gallium selenium, and the second semiconductor material is silicon.
Maruyama (see ¶ [0045]-[0046] and FIGs. 3, 5, and 7-12) teaches the semiconductor substrate 12 formed of single crystal silicon “a light incident side of the semiconductor substrate 12, an N-type semiconductor thin film 41 that forms photoelectric conversion unit 21 … InGaP, InAlP, InGaAs, InAlAs and a chemical semiconductor of the chalcopyrite structure are used … a high light absorption coefficient and a high sensitivity over a wide wavelength range … in additional to … amorphous silicon (Si), germanium (Ge), a quantum dot …”.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinarily skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to modify the teaching of Takahashi to further include the teaching of Maruyama to use different semiconductor material for photoelectric conversion unit PD and the first substrate 80 to suppress dark current and picture quality degradation.
Correspondence
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALICE W TANG whose telephone number is (571)272-7227. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday: 8:30 am to 5 pm..
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Wael Fahmy can be reached at (571)272-1705. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ALICE W TANG/Examiner, Art Unit 2814
/WAEL M FAHMY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2814