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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102/103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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.
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 1-4, 8-9 and 11-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as anticipated by or, in the alternative, under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over TWM-628410U (“TW’410”).1
Note: The specification of the U.S. Publication, US-2022/0183192, is essentially same as that of the Peng publication, WO-2021/036249. Therefore, the US Publication is used as a translation for the WO-2021/036249 publication. The citations in the rejection below are taken from the U.S. Publication.
Claim 1: TW’410 teaches a cooling structure comprising a substrate, a first metal plating layer and a second metal plating layer, wherein the first and second metal plating layers are made of different materials and formed on the substrate by different processes (TW’410, abstract), wherein the first metal plating layer is formed a wetting process (TW’410, translation copy, page 3, last paragraph and page 4, 1st paragraph), and wherein the second metal plating layer being formed by a sputtering and having a thickness ranging from 1 to 5 mm (TW’410, translation copy, page 4, 4th-5th paragraphs), which is well within the claimed range of 0.1 to 5 mm.
With regards to the three block configuration of the second metal plating layer, Figures 6 and 7 of TW’410 represent a configuration wherein the metal plating layer 30 comprises of three blocks, two short rectangular blocks in the two ends and one long rectangular block in the midsection, and at least the midsection block has a longer length than either of the two ending blocks. Therefore, at least two adjacent ones of the at least three blocks (e.g. one ending block and the midsection block) have a distance therebetween that is not equal to a distance between another two adjacent ones of the at least three blocks (e.g. the other ending block and the midsection block). In the alternative, it would have been obvious as matter of choice to the POSITA from the arrangement as illustrated by TW’410 in figures 6 and 7 to arrange the blocks in such manner.
Claim 2: TW’410 teaches the substrate being at least one of a copper/copper alloy layer and an aluminum/aluminum alloy layer (TW’410, translation copy, page 2, 7th paragraph).
Claim 3: TW’410 teaches the first metal plating layer being at least one of a nickel/nickel alloy layer (TW’410, translation copy, page 2, 8th paragraph).
Claim 4: TW’410 teaches the second metal plating layer being a silver/silver alloy layer (TW’410, translation copy, page 2, 11h paragraph).
Claim 8: TW’410 teaches the cooling structure having a plurality of pin fins that are integrally formed on a surface of the substrate (TW’410, figures 1-7 numeral 11, and translation copy, page 3, penultimate paragraph).
Claim 9: TW’410 teaches the cooling structure wherein the substrate has a water inlet and a water outlet that are in fluid communication with each other (TW’410, translation copy, page 4, penultimate paragraph).
Claim 11: TW’410 teaches a cooling structure comprising a substrate, a first metal plating layer and a second metal plating layer, wherein the first and second metal plating layers are made of different materials and formed on the substrate by different processes (TW’410, abstract), wherein the first metal plating layer is formed a wetting process (TW’410, translation copy, page 3, last paragraph and page 4, 1st paragraph), and wherein the second metal plating layer being formed by a sputtering and having a thickness ranging from 1 to 5 mm (TW’410, translation copy, page 4, 4th-5th paragraphs), which is well within the claimed range of 0.1 to 5 mm.
Furthermore, TW’410 teaches the first metal plating layer is not covered by the second metal plating layer; that is, the first metal plating layer is formed on a non-shielded area (TW’410, translation copy, page 3, last paragraph and page 4, 1st paragraph; and Figures 1 and 3, numeral 20).
With regards to the three block configuration of the second metal plating layer, Figure 7 of TW’410 represents a configuration wherein the metal plating layer 30 comprises of three blocks, two short rectangular blocks in the two ends and one long rectangular block in the midsection, and at least the midsection block has a longer length than either of the two ending blocks. Therefore, at least two adjacent ones of the at least three blocks (i.e. one ending block and the midsection block) have a distance therebetween that is not equal to a distance between another two adjacent ones of the at least three blocks (i.e. the other ending block and the midsection block).
Claim 12: See claim 1 above, wherein the second metal plating layer is read as the claimed “at least one metal plating layer”.
Claims 1-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TWM’410 in view of PENG (US-2022/0183192).
Claim 1: TW’410 teaches a cooling structure comprising a substrate, a first metal plating layer and a second metal plating layer, wherein the first and second metal plating layers are made of different materials and formed on the substrate by different processes (TW’410, abstract), wherein the first metal plating layer is formed a wetting process (TW’410, translation copy, page 3, last paragraph and page 4, 1st paragraph), and wherein the second metal plating layer being formed by a sputtering and having a thickness ranging from 1 to 5 mm (TW’410, translation copy, page 4, 4th-5th paragraphs), which is well within the claimed range of 0.1 to 5 mm. While TW’410 does teach an embodiment where the metal plating layer 30 comprises of three blocks, two short rectangular blocks in the two ends and one long rectangular block in the midsection, and at least the midsection block has a longer length than either of the two ending blocks (TW’410, Figures 6 & 7, numeral 30). Therefore, it can be seen from figures 6 & 7 that at least two adjacent ones of the at least three blocks (i.e., one ending block and the midsection block) have a distance therebetween that is not equal to a distance between another two adjacent ones of the at least three blocks (i.e., the other ending block and the midsection block).
In the same field of endeavor which is cooling structure, Peng teaches a cooling structure, i.e. heat dissipating structure, wherein the intervals between blocks of the heat dissipating layer are unequal in order to “effectively dissipate heat” (Peng, para. 0008). In light of Peng’s teaching, it would have been obvious to arrange the second metal plating layer, which is a cooling layer, of TW’410 into blocks with unequal intervals between blocks in order to provide effective cooling.
Claim 2: TW’410 teaches the substrate being at least one of a copper/copper alloy layer and an aluminum/aluminum alloy layer (TW’410, translation copy, page 2, 7th paragraph).
Claim 3: TW’410 teaches the first metal plating layer being at least one of a nickel/nickel alloy layer (TW’410, translation copy, page 2, 8th paragraph).
Claim 4: TW’410 teaches the second metal plating layer being a silver/silver alloy layer (TW’410, translation copy, page 2, 11h paragraph).
Claims 5-7: Peng teaches arranging the heat dissipating layers such as the distance between the blocks decrease from the center to two sides (Peng, para. 0009), meaning the gaps are longer from the center and shorter towards the blocks at the ends. Therefore, it would have been obvious to adopt this arrangement design of Peng into the cooling structure of TW’410 in order to effect cooling uniformly as taught by Peng (para. 0009).
Claim 8: TW’410 teaches the cooling structure having a plurality of pin fins that are integrally formed on a surface of the substrate (TW’410, figures 1-7 numeral 11, and translation copy, page 3, penultimate paragraph).
Claim 9: TW’410 teaches the cooling structure wherein the substrate has a water inlet and a water outlet that are in fluid communication with each other (TW’410, translation copy, page 4, penultimate paragraph).
Claim 10: Peng teaches the cooling structure, i.e. heat dissipating structure, having multiple metal plating layers are formed in parallel with each other over one (first) metal plating layer on the substrate. See Peng, para 0010. In light of Peng’s teaching, it would have been obvious to adopt the design of Peng to arrange multiple metal plating layer over one metal plating layer in order to further improve the heat dissipating effect.
Claim 11: TW’410 teaches a cooling structure comprising a substrate, a first metal plating layer and a second metal plating layer, wherein the first and second metal plating layers are made of different materials and formed on the substrate by different processes (TW’410, abstract), wherein the first metal plating layer is formed a wetting process (TW’410, translation copy, page 3, last paragraph and page 4, 1st paragraph), and wherein the second metal plating layer being formed by a sputtering and having a thickness ranging from 1 to 5 mm (TW’410, translation copy, page 4, 4th-5th paragraphs), which is well within the claimed range of 0.1 to 5 mm.
Furthermore, TW’410 teaches the first metal plating layer is not covered by the second metal plating layer; that is, the first metal plating layer is formed on a non-shielded area (TW’410, translation copy, page 3, last paragraph and page 4, 1st paragraph; and Figures 1 and 3, numeral 20).
With regards to the three block configuration of the second metal plating layer, Figure 7 of TW’410 represents a configuration wherein the metal plating layer 30 comprises of three blocks, two short rectangular blocks in the two ends and one long rectangular block in the midsection, and at least the midsection block has a longer length than either of the two ending blocks. Therefore, at least two adjacent ones of the at least three blocks (i.e. one ending block and the midsection block) have a distance therebetween that is not equal to a distance between another two adjacent ones of the at least three blocks (i.e. the other ending block and the midsection block).
Claim 12: See claim 1 above, wherein the second metal plating layer is read as the claimed “at least one metal plating layer”.
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HOA (Holly) LE
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1788
/HOA (Holly) LE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1788
1 Translation Copy of TW’410 has been provided by Applicant.