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 16 and 18-19 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. A broad range or limitation together with a narrow range or limitation that falls within the broad range or limitation (in the same claim) may be considered indefinite if the resulting claim does not clearly set forth the metes and bounds of the patent protection desired. See MPEP § 2173.05(c). In the present instance, claim 16 recites the broad recitation ", and the claim also recites that the functional sub-layers comprise a light emitting prime layer and a hole blocking layer, which is the narrower statement of the range/limitation. Similar ambiguities are found in claims 18 and 19. The claims are considered indefinite because there is a question or doubt as to whether the feature introduced by such narrower language is (a) merely exemplary of the remainder of the claim, and therefore not required, or (b) a required feature of the claims.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-3, 5-11, 13, 16, 18, 21-22 and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kim et al., Sci. Adv. 8, eabq1641 (2022).
Regarding claim 1, Kim et al. discloses an OLED having a structure of anode/HIL/HTL/EML/ETL/cathode (Fig. 5A) wherein the EML comprises two host compounds, SiCzCz and SiTrzCz2 (65:35%), that form an exciplex, a sensitizer (13 wt%) that is a phosphorescent platinum compound abbreviated as PtON-TBBI, and an emitter (0.4-1.0 wt%) that is a thermally activated delayed fluorescent organoboron compound. The device emits blue light with a central peak at 450-480 nm (Fig. 5B). The two host materials have a triplet energy of about 2.92-3.07 eV (see Table S5). PtON-TBBI has an emission spectrum where the phosphorescence starts at about 440 nm (Fig. S14). This translates to a triplet energy of about 2.8 eV. The emitter has a triplet energy of about 2.55 eV (see Table S1). Thus, claims 1-2, 7, 10 and 13 are anticipated. The features of claims 3, 5, 6, 8 and 9 are disclosed in Fig. S14, Fig. S11, Fig. S10, Fig. S17, and Fig. 5B, respectively. The features of claim 11 are disclosed in Table S5, wherein the T1 peak at 2.57 eV translates to a wavelength of about 482 nm. The prior art device also has a thin layer of SiCzCz (same material as one of the host compounds) between the HTL and the EML, and a thin layer of 2SiTrzPh (same material as the matrix in the ETL) between the EML and the ETL (Fig. 5A). 2SiTrzPh has an estimated triplet energy of about 3.3 eV (as estimated from the phosphorescence spectrum presented in Fig. 1A in Choi et al., Adv. Optical Mater. 2019, 7, 1901374). Claim 16 is therefore anticipated. Claim 18 is anticipated because the prior art device does have at least one of the claimed sub-layers. Claims 21-22 are met by the combination of SiCzCz (p-type carbazole derivative) and SiTrzCz2 (n-type triazine derivative). The features of claim 24 are disclosed in Table S5.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim 30 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al., Sci. Adv. 8, eabq1641 (2022).
The device of claim 1 is disclosed by Kim et al. as explained above. While Kim et al. does not provide an example of the applications of the device, the well-established use of OLED’s in displays such as computer monitors, TV sets and smartphones would have made it obvious for a POSITA to use the device disclosed by Kim et al. to fabricate the displays without expecting any difficulty or an unfavorable outcome.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 19, 23 and 27 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The features of claims 19, 23 and 27 are not disclosed by Kim et al., which represents the closest prior art of record. Regarding claim 19, Kim et al fails to disclose a tandem OLED comprising a p-type doped HTL. On claim 23, the prior art host material SiTrzCz2 can be viewed as a bipolar host compound because it has both a hole-transporting carbazole group and an electron-transporting triazine group. But it is unclear if it has the ratio defined in the claim. Claim 27 is neither taught nor rendered obvious by Kim et al.
Other Prior Art of Record
The claimed device is also disclosed by US 6,310,360 B1 to Forrest et al., US 2023/0069900 A1 to Maruyama et al., and KR 10-2015-0085661 A.
Contact Information
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/VU A NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1762
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