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 .
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 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.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of species i, fig. 4, claims 1-20, in the reply filed on 10/16/25 is acknowledged.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4, 9, 10, 16 and 20 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.
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) 1-3, 5-8, 11-15 and 17-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al., KR 101225451 B1 (see attached English machine translation) in view of Ogashiwa, US Publication No. 20160272488 A1 (from the IDS).
Kim teaches:
1. (see figs. 5-10) An interposer substrate (100) which is joined in an overlapping state to one or a plurality of members (160/162) to be joined having a connection part (162) at one or more places, and is electrically connected to the member (160) to be joined,
the interposer substrate (100) comprising a base material (102) having one or more connection regions (148) corresponding to the connection part (162) of the member to be joined, wherein
a plurality of through-holes (110/118) passing through the base material are formed in the connection region of the base material,
a segment (112, 114, 116 in fig. 6) serving as one unit for the connection is constituted by the plurality of through-holes (118) being formed adjacent to each other, with one or more of the segments (112, 114, 116) being formed in the connection region (e.g. 148 corresponding to 162 as shown in figs. 9-10),
a through electrode (134) passing through the through-hole, and a bump (144/148 in fig. 7) formed at least at one end of the through electrode and having a wider width, in a cross-sectional shape, than the through electrode are formed in each of the through-holes, and… See Kim at English machine translation pages 1-12, figs. 1-10.
Kim does not expressly teach:
the through electrode and the bump comprise a metal powder sintered body formed by sintering one or more kinds of metal powder selected from gold, silver and copper having a purity of 99.9% by mass or more and an average particle size of 0.005 μm to 2.0 μm.
In an analogous art, Ogashiwa teaches:
(see fig. 2) a through electrode (e.g. “through electrode” / “penetrating part”) and a bump (e.g. “convex bump part”) comprise a metal powder sintered body formed by sintering one or more kinds of metal powder selected from gold, silver and copper having a purity of 99.9% by mass or more and an average particle size of 0.005 μm to 2.0 μm. See Ogashiwa at Abstract.
Regarding claim 2:
Ogashiwa further teaches:
2. The interposer substrate according to claim 1, comprising (see fig. 2)
a metallized film (e.g. “metal film”) comprising a metal in a region where the base material (e.g. of substrate in fig. 2) and the bump contact, wherein
the metallized film comprises any one of gold, silver, copper, palladium, platinum and nickel having a purity of 99.9% by mass or more, and
a thickness of the metallized film is 10 nm or more and 1000 nm or less, para. [0018] – [0019].
Regarding claim 3:
Ogashiwa further teaches:
3. The interposer substrate according to claim 2, further comprising
a base film between the metallized film and the base material, wherein
the base film comprises any one of titanium, chromium, tungsten, a titanium-tungsten alloy, and nickel, and
a thickness of the base film is 10 nm or more and 1000 nm or less (e.g. See Table 1 at para. [0052]. See disclosure at bottom of Table 1: “Each having a Ti film (0.05 μm) formed as a underlying film on the substrate side.)
Regarding claim 5:
Ogashiwa further teaches:
5. The interposer substrate according to claim 1, wherein a cross-sectional area of the bump is 1.2 times or more and 9 times or less a cross-sectional area of the end of the through electrode, para. [0015].
Regarding claim 6:
Kim further teaches:
6. The interposer substrate according to claim 1, wherein one segment (112, 114, 116 in fig. 6) comprises two or more and 20 or less through electrodes (118); and a contour formed by an arrangement of the two or more and 20 or less through electrodes is circular, polygonal or a linear (e.g. linear and polygon in fig. 6)
Regarding claim 7:
Ogashiwa further teaches the through electrode and the bump comprising a metal powder sintered body comprise a porosity in fig. 5, para. [0009] – [0010].
Ogashiwa is silent the porosity is 35% or less.
However, Ogashiwa teaches the porosity is a result effective variable for reliable sealing.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to form the porosity is 35% or less, since where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art. In re Aller, 105 USPQ 233. See MPEP § 2144.05, Obviousness of Ranges and Optimization of Ranges. (See also MPEP § 716.02 for a discussion of criticality and unexpected results.)
Regarding claim 8:
Kim further teaches:
8. (see figs. 9-10) A method for producing a device (200, 300) comprising a process of electrically connecting the member (160/162) to be joined and the interposer substrate (100) by overlapping and joining one or a plurality of members (160/162) to be joined having one or more connection parts (162) and one or more interposer substrates (100), wherein the method comprising the steps of:
using the interposer substrate (100) defined in claim 1 as the interposer substrate;
stacking the interposer substrate (100) and the member (160/162) to be joined; … See Kim at pages 7-9.
Kim does not expressly teach:
pressurizing the interposer substrate and/or the member to be joined at 1 MPa or more and 50 MPa or less from one direction or two directions, and heating at 150° C. or more and 250° C. or less to electrically connect the interposer substrate and the member to be joined.
However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to perform “pressurizing the interposer substrate and/or the member to be joined at 1 MPa or more and 50 MPa or less from one direction or two directions, and heating at 150° C. or more and 250° C. or less to electrically connect the interposer substrate and the member to be joined” since Ogashiwa teaches applying pressure and heat to the through electrode to electrically connect to another substrate at para. [0033], [0036],
Regarding claims 2, 5 and 8:
In the case where the claimed ranges “overlap or lie inside ranges disclosed by the prior art” a prima facie case of obviousness exists. In re Wertheim, 541 F.2d 257, 191 USPQ 90 (CCPA 1976); In re Woodruff, 919 F.2d 1575, 16 USPQ2d 1934 (Fed. Cir. 1990). “[A] prior art reference that discloses a range encompassing a somewhat narrower claimed range is sufficient to establish a prima facie case of obviousness." In re Peterson, 315 F.3d 1325, 1330, 65 USPQ2d 1379, 1382-83 (Fed. Cir. 2003). See MPEP § 2144.05, Obviousness of Ranges
Referring to MPEP § 2144.05, “…the applicant must show that the particular range is critical, generally by showing that the claimed range achieves unexpected results over the prior art range.” (See also MPEP § 716.02 for a discussion of criticality and unexpected results.)
Regarding claims 11-13:
Kim and Ogashiwa teach the limitations as applied to claim 5 above.
Regarding claims 14-15 and 17:
Kim and Ogashiwa teach the limitations as applied to claim 6 above.
Regarding claims 18-19:
Kim and Ogashiwa teach the limitations as applied to claim 7 above.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Kim with the teachings of Ogashiwa because “…the through electrode according to the present invention has a sealing effect in addition to the function as an electrode. Accordingly, the through electrode is suitable for application to elements that require hermetic sealing during mounting…the substrate structure can be multilayered, and also the element trace length can be reduced. As a result, the element can effectively exert its electrical characteristics.” See Ogashiwa at para. [0037].
Conclusion
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/Michele Fan/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2818
13 January 2026