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 response to the election restriction dated 1/28/26 is acknowledged and the arguments regarding the unity of invention analysis is found to be persuasive. Therefore claims 1-13,15, 17, 20 and 25 -28 have been hereby examined.
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
before the effective filing date.
Claims 1-11,15, 17, 20 and 25 -28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jia (WO 2021217526-A1) in view of Jinbo (US-20170271421-A1)
Regarding claim 1, Jia teaches a display substrate (at least Fig.1c), comprising: a base substrate 101, at least comprising a first display region (see two regions 20 and 50 in Fig.1a and Jia’s disclosure of: As shown in FIG. 4b, in addition to the passive matrix organic light emitting display area 20, the manufactured organic light emitting display substrate also includes an active matrix organic light emitting display area 50); a plurality of sub-pixels (from pixel defining layer 107) located in the first display region of the base substrate, wherein each sub-pixel in at least part of the plurality of sub-pixels comprises a light-emitting element, the light-emitting element comprises a light-emitting functional layer 105 and a first electrode 104 and a second electrode 106 located at both sides of the light-emitting functional layer along a direction perpendicular to the base substrate, the first electrode is located between the light-emitting functional layer and the base substrate,
an insulating layer 102, located on the base substrate, wherein the display substrate further comprises a shielding portion 1042 (see in Jia: plurality of shielding portions (1042)) located at a side of the insulating layer away from the base substrate, and an orthographic projection of the shielding portion on the base substrate overlaps with an orthographic projection of the insulating layer on the base substrate (Abstract of Jia); the insulating layer comprises a plurality of grooves (partition groove 103),
the groove and the shielding portion are at least partially located between adjacent sub-pixels 104; and an orthographic projection of the shielding portion overlaps with an orthographic projection of a part, which forms an edge of the groove,
of a surface of the insulating layer away from the base substrate on the base substrate, and ( - -the shielding portion protrudes into the opening of the groove to form a protrusion - -) or,
a slope angle between at least part of a side surface of the shielding portion and a plane parallel to the surface of the insulating layer away from the base substrate is a first slope angle,
a slope angle between at least part of a side surface of the groove and the plane parallel to the surface of the insulating layer away from the base substrate is a second slope angle,
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a material of the insulating layer (organic for 1021 and 1022) is different from a material of the shielding portion (see in Jia: Since the anode layer 104 is an inorganic material and is quite different from the material of the organic layer 102), and in the direction perpendicular to the base substrate, a thickness of at least a part of the insulating layer overlapping in projection on the base substrate with the shielding portion is greater than a thickness of the shielding portion; at least one film layer (105) among the plurality of film layers of the light-emitting functional layer is disconnected at the groove.
Jia does not teach and the light-emitting functional layer comprises a plurality of film layers.
Jinbo teaches: [0222] The light-emitting element may be a single element including one EL layer or a tandem element in which a plurality of EL layers are stacked with a charge generation layer therebetween and it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use additional layers within the light emitting layer, as disclosed in Jinbo, in the device of Jia, in order to achieve efficient light generation from the pixel light emitting layers.
Regarding claim 2, Jia in view of Jinbo teaches a display substrate, wherein, in the sub-pixel, the light- emitting functional layer comprises a first light-emitting layer, a charge generation layer and a second light-emitting layer which are stacked, the charge generation layer is located between the first light-emitting layer and the second light-emitting layer, and the charge generation layer is disconnected at least part of an edge of the shielding portion (from [0222] in Jinbo).
Regarding claim 3, Jia in view of Jinbo teaches a display substrate, wherein the second electrode (106 in Jia) is disconnected at least part of the edge of the shielding portion (1041 in Jia).
Regarding claim 4, Jia in view of Jinbo teaches a display substrate, wherein the insulating layer (102 in Jia) is located between the first electrode 9104 in Jia) and the base substrate (101 in Jia).
Regarding claim 5, Jia in view of Jinbo teaches a display substrate, wherein the insulating layer comprises an organic layer (see in Jia: the organic layer 102 includes a first organic layer 1021 and a second organic layer 1022 respectively serving as flat layers).
Regarding claim 6, Jia in view of Jinbo teaches a display substrate, wherein, the groove is located in the organic layer, and a ratio of a depth of the groove to a thickness of a planar part of the organic layer is in a range of 0.1-1 (from the groove and its proportion within the organic layer in Jia).
Regarding claim 7, Jia in view of Jinbo teaches a display substrate, wherein the first electrode 104 comprises at least one film layer, and the shielding portion is arranged in the same layer as the at least one film layer of the first electrode (see first electrode 104 and disclosure in Jia: the shielding portion 1042 includes two shielding strips 1042a, 1042b located on both banks of the groove 1020 and spaced apart in Fig.1c).
Regarding claim 8, Jia in view of Jinbo teaches a display substrate, further comprising: a pixel defining pattern 107 ( in Jia), located at a side of the insulating layer away from the base substrate, wherein the pixel defining pattern at least located in the first display region comprises a plurality of first openings, one sub-pixel corresponds to at least one first opening, and the light- emitting element 105 (in Jia) of the sub-pixel is at least partially located in the first opening corresponding to the sub-pixel, and the first opening is configured to expose the first electrode 104 (in Jia), wherein the pixel defining pattern further comprises a plurality of second openings, and the second opening exposes at least part of the groove (see drawing below in Jia (where black layers are the pixel defining portions in Jia):
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Regarding claim 9, Jia in view of Jinbo teaches a display substrate, wherein the insulating layer (when elements 107 and 102 are considered as the insulating layer in Jia) comprises a pixel defining pattern 107, at least the pixel defining pattern located in the first display region comprises a plurality of first openings (wherein 105 and 106 are disposed), one sub-pixel corresponds to at least one first opening, and the light-emitting element of the sub-pixel is at least partially located in the first opening corresponding to the sub-pixel, and the first opening is configured to expose the first electrode 104 (in Jia).
Regarding claim 10, Jia in view of Jinbo teaches a display substrate, wherein the groove comprises a second opening penetrating a pixel defining portion of the pixel defining pattern (see Drawing below from Jia) in the direction perpendicular to the base substrate; or, ( - -a ratio of a depth of the groove to a thickness of a planar part of the pixel defining portion of the pixel defining pattern is greater than or equal to 0.2 and less than 1 - -).
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Regarding claim 11, Jia in view of Jinbo teaches a display substrate, wherein the shielding portion is located at a side of the pixel defining portion of the pixel defining pattern away from the base substrate (wherein spacer element 006 in Jia is considered as a shielding portion. Further light blocking layer 52 in Jinbo is also considered as a shielding portion as claimed fulfilling limitations on claims 9 and 1, on which claim 11 is dependent).
Regarding claim 15, Jia in view of Jinbo teaches a display substrate, wherein, wherein a plurality of shielding portions is arranged between adjacent sub-pixels along an arrangement direction of the two adjacent sub-pixels, one groove is arranged between two adjacent shielding portions among the plurality of shielding portions arranged between adjacent sub-pixels, and the two adjacent shielding portions located at both sides of edges of the groove protrude into the groove (from the multiple grooves between pixels in at least Fig.1c in Jia).
Regarding claim 17, Jia in view of Jinbo teaches the invention set forth in claim 1, but does not explicitly teach a data line, located between the insulating layer and the base substrate; and a power line, located between the insulating layer and the base substrate, wherein at least part of the power line is arranged in the same layer as the data line, wherein the groove overlaps with at least one of the data line and the power line in the direction perpendicular to the base substrate.
However, Jia in view of Jinbo teaches conductive lines such as data metal layer 001 that is beneath the groove and overlapping the groove (see in Jia) and it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use data and power lines, from the teachings of Jia, in the device of Jia in view of Jinbo, in order to connect to the light emitting section and drive the device.
Regarding claim 20, Jia in view of Jinbo teaches a display substrate teaches a display substrate, further comprising: an encapsulation layer (141 and 181-183 in Fig.12 of Jinbo), located at a side of the light-emitting element away from the base substrate, wherein the encapsulation layer comprises a first encapsulation layer 141, a second encapsulation layer 183 and a third encapsulation layer 182 which are stacked, the first encapsulation layer is located between the second encapsulation layer and the base substrate, and at least part of the first encapsulation layer are located in the groove (12 of Jinbo). Although Jia in view of Jinbo does not teach and at least part of the second encapsulation layer are located in the groove, however, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use an additional second encapsulation layer in the groove in order to provide additional protection.
Regarding claim 25, Jia in view of Jinbo teaches a display substrate, wherein the base substrate further comprises a second display region, and the first display region surrounds at least part of the second display region (see elements 20 and 50 in Figures 1 and 6 in Jia).
Regarding claim 26, Jia in view of Jinbo teaches a display device, comprising the display substrate (Abstract of Jia).
Regarding claim 27, Jia teaches a manufacturing method of a display substrate, comprising: forming a plurality of sub-pixels (regions between pixel defining layers 005) on a base substrate 101, wherein forming the plurality of sub- pixels comprises sequentially forming a first electrode104 , a light-emitting functional layer 105 and a second electrode 106 which are stacked in a direction perpendicular to the base substrate; forming an insulating layer (1022 and 1021) on the base substrate; forming a shielding portion material layer 1042 on the insulating layer,
and patterning the shielding portion material layer to form a plurality of shielding portions (from the teachings of Jia: the overall pattern layer of the anode layer 104, wherein the anode and the shielding portions are formed in the same plane), wherein the shielding portion is located between adjacent sub-pixels,
and at least two shielding portions are arranged between adjacent sub-pixels 105 along an arrangement direction of the adjacent sub-pixels;
etching the insulating layer to form a groove (see in Jia: The pattern of the organic layer 102 is generally formed by dry etching using a mask patterning process), wherein an opening edge of the groove extends outward relative to edges, close to each other, of two adjacent shielding portions, so that the shielding portion comprises a protrusion protruding into the groove 103 in the arrangement direction; or, a slope angle between at least part of a side surface of the shielding portion and a plane parallel to the surface of the insulating layer away from the base substrate is a first slope angle, a slope angle between at least part of a side surface of the groove and the plane parallel to the surface of the insulating layer away from the base substrate is a second slope angle, and at least one of the first slope angle and the second slope angle is greater than 60 degrees;
wherein a material of the insulating layer is different from a material of the shielding portion (see in Jia: Since the anode layer 104 is an inorganic material and is quite different from the material of the organic layer 102), and in the direction perpendicular to the base substrate, a thickness of at least a part of the insulating layer overlapping in projection with the shielding portion on the base substrate is greater than a thickness of the shielding portion; the light-emitting functional layer is formed after the groove is formed (also see rejection in claim 1 above).
Jia does not teach: the light-emitting functional layer comprises a plurality of film layers, and at least one film layer among the plurality of film layers is disconnected at the groove.
Jinbo teaches: [0222] The light-emitting element may be a single element including one EL layer or a tandem element in which a plurality of EL layers are stacked with a charge generation layer therebetween and it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use additional layers, as disclosed in Jinbo, in the device of Jia, in order to achieve efficient light generation from the pixel light emitting layers.
Regarding claim 28, Jia in view of Jinbo teaches a manufacturing method, wherein forming the first electrode 104 (Jia) comprises: forming an electrode layer on the insulating layer 102 and patterning the electrode layer (claim 5 of Jia) to form the first electrode after the insulating layer is formed and before the groove is formed or
the insulating layer comprises a pixel defining pattern 107 , and forming the first electrode comprises: before the pixel defining pattern is formed, forming an electrode layer on the base substrate and patterning the electrode layer to form the first electrode forming the pixel defining pattern comprises: forming a pixel defining film on the first electrode (In step S3, a pixel defining layer 107 and a spacer layer 108 are sequentially formed on the side of the anode layer 104 away from the substrate 101); and patterning the pixel defining film to form a first opening exposing the first electrode and the groove, wherein the first opening is configured to define a light-emitting region of the sub-pixel.
Claims 12 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jia in view of Jinbo, and further in view of Luo (US 20210036066 A1) and Chen (CN 112071889 A)
Regarding claim 12, Jia in view of Jinbo teaches a display substrate, wherein the plurality of sub-pixels comprises a plurality of first color sub-pixels, a plurality of second color sub-pixels and a plurality of third color sub-pixels ([0072],[0090],[0119] in Jinbo), but does not teach the plurality of first color sub-pixels and the plurality of third color sub-pixels are alternately arranged along a first direction and a second direction parallel to the base substrate to form a plurality of first pixel rows and a plurality of first pixel columns, the plurality of second color sub- pixels are arrayed along the first direction and the second direction to form a plurality of second pixel rows and a plurality of second pixel columns, the plurality of first pixel rows and the plurality of second pixel rows are alternately arranged along the second direction and shifted from each other in the first direction, and the plurality of first pixel columns and the plurality of second pixel columns are alternately arranged along the first direction and shifted from each other in the second direction.
However, Luo teaches diagonal arrangement of the pixels of different colors ([0036]-[0038] and [0050] and Fig.1,4a,4b,6-8; Note: the diagonal arrangement of the color pixels in Applicant’s Fig. is relied upon the rejection ) and therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use arrangement of the color pixels that are shifted in Luo, such that: the plurality of first color sub-pixels and the plurality of third color sub-pixels are alternately arranged along a first direction and a second direction parallel to the base substrate to form a plurality of first pixel rows and a plurality of first pixel columns, the plurality of second color sub- pixels are arrayed along the first direction and the second direction to form a plurality of second pixel rows and a plurality of second pixel columns, the plurality of first pixel rows and the plurality of second pixel rows are alternately arranged along the second direction and shifted from each other in the first direction, and the plurality of first pixel columns and the plurality of second pixel columns are alternately arranged along the first direction and shifted from each other in the second direction (also see in Luo:
yetR is a diagonal length of the first subpixel, yetB is a diagonal length of the second subpixel, and yetG is a diagonal length of the third subpixel; ymtR is a diagonal length of the organic material layer corresponding to the first subpixel, ymtB is a diagonal length of the organic material layer corresponding to the second subpixel, and ymtG is a diagonal length of the organic material layer corresponding to the third subpixel
and
rbR1 is a spacing between the organic material layers corresponding to two first subpixels adjacent in a row direction, rbR2 is a spacing between the organic material layers corresponding to two first subpixels adjacent in a diagonal direction of the virtual square, rbB1 is a spacing between the organic material layers corresponding to two second subpixels adjacent in the row direction, rbB2 is a spacing between the organic material layers corresponding to two second subpixels adjacent in the diagonal direction of the virtual square, rbG1 is a spacing between the organic material layers corresponding to two third subpixels adjacent in the row direction, and rbG2 is a spacing between the organic material layers corresponding to two third subpixels adjacent in the diagonal direction of the virtual square;
and
claim 1 of Luo); by routine experimentation or simulation, in the device of Jia in view of Jinbo in order to achieve a better display effect ([0049] in Luo).
Further Jia in view of Jinbo and Luo does not teach:
the groove comprises an annular groove, and the annular groove surrounds one first color sub-pixel, one second color sub-pixel or one third color sub-pixel.
Chen teaches an annular shaped groove (112 in Fig.1, and see in Chen: for example, the first isolation groove is a closed annular structure surrounding the first sub-pixel; anode/pixel is 13); and it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to use the annular groove as disclosed in Chen, for the shape of the groove in Jia in view of Jinbo and Luo such that the annular groove surrounds one first color sub-pixel, one second color sub-pixel or one third color sub-pixel, in order to avoid crosstalk (see in Chen: the first isolation groove can effectively block the electronic transverse transmission path of the evaporation layer or increase the transmission resistance, so as to avoid generating bad crosstalk between the devices on the array substrate, which can make up the problem in the existing technology, effectively reduce the production cost, improve the product yield and production efficiency, and has wide application prospect).
Regarding claim 13, Jia in view of Jinbo, Luo and Chen teaches the display substrate, wherein at least part of the annular groove comprises at least one notch (see in Jia: and the area of the hard mask corresponding to the notch of the partition groove is a hollow area), and the orthographic projection of the shielding portion on the base substrate is located at both sides of an orthographic projection of the groove on the base substrate along a direction perpendicular to an extending direction of the orthographic projection of the groove (from the teachings of groove in Jia).
Other art
KR 20160117728 A- US 20160293687 A1
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Fatima Farokhrooz whose telephone number is (571)-272-6043. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday- Friday, 9 am - 5 pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner’s Supervisor, James Greece can be reached on (571) 272-3711.
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/Fatima N Farokhrooz/
Examiner, Art Unit 2875