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 Objection
Claim 16 is objected 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 an examiner's statement of reasons for allowance:
For claim 16, the prior art of record neither shows nor suggests the limitation of “ ”wherein each of the first side wall and the fourth side wall of the first light-emitting unit comprises a straight line segment and a curved line segment, wherein the curved line segment of the first side wall is connected to the curved line segment of the fourth side wall, and the connected two curved line segments form a fillet; and the protrusion on the first side wall of the first light-emitting unit is not overlapped with the second straight line , the protrusion on the fourth side wall of the first light-emitting unit is not overlapped with the first straight line, the protrusion on the second side wall of the first light-emitting unit is on the second straight line, and the protrusion on the third side wall of the first light-emitting unit is on the first straight line; or the protrusion on the first side wall of the first light-emitting unit is on the second straight line, the protrusion on the fourth side wall of the first light-emitting unit is on the first straight line, the protrusion on the second side wall of the first light-emitting unit is not overlapped with the second straight line, and the protrusion on the third side wall of the first light-emitting unit is not overlapped with the first straight line”. The limitations above are drawn to Applicant’s Fig.13 as shown below, that are also indicated by arrows:
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As seen in Applicant’s drawing above, the limitations of:
“the protrusion on the first side wall of the first light-emitting unit is not overlapped with the second straight line, the protrusion on the fourth side wall of the first light-emitting unit is not overlapped with the first straight line”
“the protrusion on the second side wall of the first light-emitting unit is not overlapped with the second straight line, and the protrusion on the third side wall of the first light-emitting unit is not overlapped with the first straight line”, refers to the 4 protrusions 40 on the four sides. Since they are not aligned and the two opposing protrusions that are not directly facing each other, as the opposing protrusions are misaligned, and therefore the limitations refer to this misaligned feature, results in “and the protrusion on the first side wall of the first light-emitting unit is not overlapped with the second straight line, the protrusion on the fourth side wall of the first light-emitting unit is not overlapped with the first straight line”
AND “the protrusion on the second side wall of the first light-emitting unit is not overlapped with the second straight line, and the protrusion on the third side wall of the first light-emitting unit is not overlapped with the first straight line”,
pertain to the opposing protrusions and the lines joining them, shown by arrows in Applicant’s Drawing above.
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.
Claims 1-5,10-11,21 and 27-28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cai (CN 113130616 A)
Regarding claim 1, Cai teaches a display panel (Title), comprising: a backplane (110), a light-emitting functional layer (light emitting device, 120), and a light-extraction layer, the light-emitting functional layer (120) and the light-extraction layer (130,140) being successively disposed on a bearing surface of the backplane (10); wherein the light-emitting functional layer (120) comprises a plurality of light-emitting units (red, green and blue in Cai, also see: In the current display panel, mainly comprising a light emitting layer and a light emitting layer, the light emitting layer comprises a plurality of organic light emitting devices AND disclosure of pixel) arranged in arrays; and the light-extraction layer comprises a first sub-layer (130) and a second sub-layer (140), wherein the first sub-layer and the second sub-layer are successively stacked on the light- emitting functional layer, a refractive index of the first sub-layer is less than a refractive index of the second sub-layer (see in Cai: the refractive index of the second optical structure layer 140 is greater than the refractive index of the first optical structure layer 130), a plurality of grooves are defined in the first sub-layer (130), each of the plurality of grooves (130) is opposite to one of the plurality of light-emitting units (120), a portion of the second sub-layer (140) is within the plurality of grooves (grooves of 130), and a boundary length of the groove (within 130) is greater than a boundary length of a light-emitting region of the corresponding one of the light-emitting units (from the arrows in the drawing below):
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Cai teaches a back plane, but does not explicitly disclosure a driver backplane. However, Cai discloses in multiple locations that the light emitting device is an OLED and it is well known in the art to use TFT type driver backplanes below the light emitting functional layer, 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 the backplane as a driver for the functional light emitting layer, in order to operate the light emitting device.
Regarding claim 28, Cai teaches a method for manufacturing a display panel, comprising: providing a driver backplane; forming a light-emitting functional layer on a bearing surface of the driver backplane, wherein the light-emitting functional layer comprises a plurality of light-emitting units arranged in arrays (red, green and blue in Cai, also see: In the current display panel, mainly comprising a light emitting layer and a light emitting layer, the light emitting layer comprises a plurality of organic light emitting devices AND disclosure of pixel); and forming a light-extraction layer on the light-emitting functional layer, the light-extraction layer comprising a first sub-layer and a second sub-layer, wherein the first sub-layer and the second sub- layer are successively stacked on the light-emitting functional layer, a refractive index of the first sub-layer is less than a refractive index of the second sub-layer, a plurality of grooves are defined in the first sub-layer, each of the plurality of grooves is opposite to one of the plurality of light- emitting units ( red green and blue in Cai), a portion of the second sub-layer is within the plurality of grooves, and a boundary length of the groove is greater than a boundary length of a light-emitting region of the corresponding one of the light-emitting units (see rejection in claim 1 above, as the scope of the claims are the same).
Regarding claim 2, Cai teaches a display panel, wherein at least a portion of an outer profile of an orthographic projection of the groove on the bearing surface is within an orthographic projection of the corresponding light-emitting unit on the bearing surface (from the drawing and rejection of claim 1 above).
Regarding claim 3, Cai teaches a display panel, wherein a protrusion (the inclined non-vertical portion of the groove walls of 130) (see arrow in Drawing below):
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is formed on a side wall of at least one of the plurality of grooves (within 130), wherein the protrusion protrudes along a direction toward a center of the groove, and at least a portion of an outer profile of an orthographic projection of the protrusion on the bearing surface is within the orthographic projection of the light-emitting unit on the bearing surface.
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Regarding claim 4, Cai teaches a display panel, wherein an orthographic projection of the light- emitting unit on the bearing surface is within an outer profile of an orthographic projection of the groove on the bearing surface (from the arrows shown in the Drawing in rejection of claim 1 above).
Regarding claim 5, Cai teaches a display panel, wherein a protrusion is formed on a side wall of at least one of the plurality of grooves, the protrusion protruding along a direction toward a center of the groove (see the arrow in rejection of claim 3 above).
Regarding claim 10, Cai teaches a display panel, wherein a plurality of the protrusions are provided, and the plurality of the protrusions are spaced apart around a geometric center of the groove (from the teachings of Cai, wherein plurality of light emitting devices are used and use of red, green, blue pixels in Cai).
Regarding claim 11, Cai teaches a display panel, wherein the groove 130 has a plurality of side walls successively connected end to end, at most one of the protrusions is formed on each of the side walls of the groove (from the teachings of Cai, wherein plurality of light emitting devices are used and use of red, green, blue pixels in Cai).
Regarding claim 21, Cai teaches a display panel, wherein the groove 130 has a first opening and a second opening:
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wherein the first opening is disposed in a side surface, proximal to the driver backplane, of the first sub-layer, and the second opening is disposed in a side surface, distal from the driver backplane, of the first sub-layer, and an orthographic projection of the first opening on the bearing surface is within an orthographic projection of the second opening on the bearing surface.
Regarding claim 27, Cai teaches a display panel, further comprising: a touch control layer (170; see in Cai: the display panel 100 further comprises a touch layer 170) and a package layer (160 in Fig.1, see in Cai: the display panel 100 further comprises a packaging layer 160), wherein the package layer and the touch control layer are successively stacked between the light-emitting functional layer 120 and the light- extraction layer 130 and 140, and the first sub-layer and the second sub-layer are successively stacked on the touch control layer 170.
Claims 6 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cai (CN 113130616 A) and further in view of Zhou (CN 110729282 B)
Regarding claim 6, Cai teaches the invention set forth in claim 6 above, but is silent regarding a maximum length of the protrusion ranges from 1 -3 microns, and a maximum width of the protrusion ranges from 1-5 microns.
However, Zhou teaches protrusions (in elements 6 in Fig.1) and their various dimensions in about the same range wherein Zhou discloses:
Preferably, each of the cavity of the curved reflector is inverted round table-shaped structure whose side wall is a quarter elliptical shape; the diameter difference between the round top and the round bottom is 2.5 ~ 4 μ m, the lower part of the circular diameter of the cavity is greater than the length of the diagonal of the Micro-LED chip; the lower surface of the cavity is lower than the Micro-LED chip 1 ~ 1.5 μ m, the elliptical inner wall of the cavity is deposited with DBR reflecting layer with thickness of 320 ~ 640nm.
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 the range as claimed, by routine experimentation, since where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the “optimum range” involves only routine skill in the art in order to achieve the desired reflectivity and image quality (see in Zhou:
the light emitted from the side wall is reflected by the reflecting layer and then emitted from the top of the chip in the direction close to the vertical direction; the invention improves the light output of the Micro-LED chip and reduces the colour difference of the full-colour Micro-LED; combined with the bent reflector; the light generated crosstalk can be reflected to the top of the chip, further ensuring the image display quality, so as to reduce the phenomenon of crosstalk between pixels in the full-color Micro-LED display chip. The invention can greatly reduce the variance and reduce the crosstalk, obviously improve the image quality of the Micro-LED full color display).
Regarding claim 7, Cai in view of Zhou teaches the display panel, wherein a shape of a section, parallel to the bearing surface, of the protrusion comprises an arc (from Fig.1 of Zhou).
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cai (CN 113130616 A) and further in view of Tan (CN 202871787 U)
Regarding claim 8, Cai teaches the invention set forth in claim 3 above, but is silent regarding an outer wall surface of the protrusion is a conical surface, and a large-sized end of the protrusion is proximal to the light- emitting unit.
However, it is well known in the art to use conical shaped reflector profiles used in conjunction with light emitting elements. Tan teaches a conical shaped reflector in conjunction with light emitting elements (see element 9 in Fig.1 in Tan: the reflecting cup in structure can be inverted cone structure or inverted trapezoid table structure AND [4] (0032) This utility model in reflecting cup is inverted cone table structure or an inverted trapezoidal table structure, compared with the existing white light LED lamp, which can reduce the use quantity of the fluorescent powder, but the lighting brightness of the lamp is increased) 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 outer profile shape of the protrusion as disclosed in Tan, in the device of Cai, in order to optimize the brightness.
Claims 12-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cai (CN 113130616 A) in view of Cai2 (CN 113161504 A, US 20220344622 A1 relied upon in the rejection, herein after Cai2)
Regarding claim 12, Cai teaches the invention set forth in claim 11 above, but is silent regarding the configuration of the groove.
Cai2 teaches a display panel (shape of grooves in Fig.3 and 4 and Fig.9), wherein the plurality of light-emitting units (230) comprise a first light-emitting unit, the groove (320) corresponding to the first light-emitting unit comprises a first side wall, a third side wall, a second side wall, and a fourth side wall that are successively connected (4 sides; [0082]- [0083]),
and one of the protrusions is formed on each of the side walls of the groove; wherein a line connecting a geometrical center of the protrusion of the first side wall to a geometrical center of the protrusion of the second side wall is a first connection line (a line drawn from left to right in Fig.8), the first connection line being intersected with an extension line of a side edge, proximal to the first light-emitting unit, of the third side wall or an extension line of a side edge, proximal to the first light-emitting unit, of the fourth side wall; or a line connecting a geometrical center of the protrusion of the third side wall to a geometrical center of the protrusion of the fourth side wall (304) is a second connection line (drawing a vertical line in Fig.8),
the second connection line being intersected with an extension line of a side edge, proximal to the first light-emitting unit, of the first side wall or an extension line of a side edge, proximal to the first light-emitting unit, of the second side wall 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 shape as disclosed in Cai2, in the device of Cai, in order to optimize the luminous efficiency ([0003] in Cai2).
Regarding claim 13, Cai in view of Cai2 teaches a display panel, wherein each of the first side wall, the second side wall, the third side wall, and the fourth side wall (side walls in Fig.8 of Cai2) comprises a straight line segment; wherein at least one side edge of the first side wall, the second side wall, the third side wall, and the fourth side wall further comprises a curved line segment, the curved line segment (the curved corners are taught by the curved corners of 310 in Fig.3 of Cai2) being connected to an end of the straight line segment of the side edge on which the curved line segment is disposed; and the protrusions on the first side wall, the second side wall, the third side wall, and the fourth side wall are respectively disposed at midpoints of the corresponding straight line segments.
Regarding claim 14, Cai in view of Cai2, wherein the plurality of light-emitting units are arranged in a matrix in a first direction and a second direction, wherein the first connection line is intersected with both the first direction and the second direction, and/or the second connection line is intersected with both the first direction and the second direction (from the combined teachings of Cai in view of Cai2 and from the diagonal arrangement shown in Fig.4 and 5 of Cai, wherein the lines drawn in the 4 sides, result in intersection as claimed, because Cai shows diagonal arrangement of the grooves, as shown in Drawing below:
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).
Regarding claim 15, Cai in view of Cai2, wherein the plurality of light-emitting units further comprise a second light-emitting unit and a third light-emitting unit, each of the second light-emitting unit and the third light-emitting unit comprising four successively connected side walls and protrusions respectively disposed on the side walls; wherein the opposite two protrusions on the second light-emitting unit are arranged along a first straight line or a second straight line, and the opposite two protrusions on the third light-emitting unit are arranged along the first straight line or the second straight line, the first straight line being parallel to the first direction and the second straight line being parallel to the second direction (from the combined teachings of Cai in view of Cai2 and from the x-y aligned arrangement shown in Fig.17 of Cai2, as shown below:)
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Claim 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cai (CN 113130616 A) in view of Ge (CN 113328055 B)
Regarding claim 18, Cai teaches the invention set forth in claim 1 above, but does not teach a recessed portion is defined in a side wall of the groove; wherein the recessed portion is recessed along a direction away from a geometrical center of the groove, and the recessed portion is disposed at least in a side surface, proximal to the light-emitting functional layer, of the first sub-layer; and at least a portion of an orthographic projection of the recessed portion on the bearing surface is outside an orthographic projection of the corresponding light-emitting unit on the bearing surface.
Ge teaches a display panel (Fig.13 and 15) wherein a recessed portion f1 is defined in a side wall of the groove; wherein the recessed portion is recessed along a direction away from a geometrical center of the groove (groove formed by walls 241), and the recessed portion is disposed at least in a side surface, proximal to the light-emitting functional layer (232), of the first sub-layer (241); and at least a portion of an orthographic projection of the recessed portion (f1) on the bearing surface is outside an orthographic projection of the corresponding light-emitting unit (232) on the bearing surface 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 the shape as disclosed in Ge, in the device of Cai, in order to improve the light extraction efficiency (Abstract of Ge).
Claim 29 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cai (CN 113130616 A) and further in view of Lee (US 20210193968 A1)
Regarding claim 29, Cai teaches a display device, comprising: a display panel; and the display panel comprises: a driver backplane, a light-emitting functional layer, and a light- extraction layer, the light-emitting functional layer and the light-extraction layer being successively disposed on a bearing surface of the driver backplane; wherein the light-emitting functional layer comprises a plurality of light-emitting units arranged in arrays; and the light-extraction layer comprises a first sub-layer and a second sub-layer, wherein the first sub-layer and the second sub-layer are successively stacked on the light-emitting functional layer, a refractive index of the first sub-layer is less than a refractive index of the second sub- layer, a plurality of grooves are defined in the first sub-layer, each of the plurality of grooves is opposite to one of the plurality of light-emitting units, a portion of the second sub-layer is within the plurality of grooves, and a boundary length of the groove is greater than a boundary length of a light-emitting region of the corresponding one of the light-emitting units (see rejection in claim 1 above).
Cai does not explicitly teach: a power supply component wherein the power supply component is electrically connected to the display panel.
However, the display panel can function only with a power supply.
Lee explicitly teaches this feature in: [0038], [0039] and [0047] 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 the power supply as disclosed in Lee, in the device of Cai in order to operate the display device.
Other art
US 20240074275 A1
US 20240049551 A1
CN 115472659 A
CN 114023898 A discloses:
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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, Steven Paik can be reached on (571) 272-2404.The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
/Fatima N Farokhrooz/
Examiner, Art Unit 2875