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 election without traverse of Group I, claims 1 and 10-20 in the reply filed on 9/12/2025 is acknowledged.
Claims 2-9 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 9/12/2025.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because of the following:
Figures 1 and 2 needs to be labeled as --PRIOR ART-- since these drawings are disclosed as “conventional” in Paragraphs [0027]-[0028].
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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 12, 13 and 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 12, lines 2-3, note that the recitation of “other suitable metals” causes the claim to be indefinite, since it is unclear as to what “other” suitable metals would be encompassed by the claim (i.e. the metes and bounds of the claim are indefinite). Similar issue occurs in claim 13, line 2, in regards to the recitation of “other suitable metals”, and claim 19, lines 2 and 4, in regards to the recitation of “and other suitable metals” and “and many more suitable metal”. Correction is required. For the propose of examination, for claims 12, 13 and 19, the examiner will interpret that any metal that capable of being used in a film bulk acoustic wave device will meet the claim “suitable metals”.
Claim Interpretation
Note that the rejections below groups the apparatus claim with corresponding method claims, since the method claims are generic forming steps in which the apparatus structure would anticipate such steps.
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, 10-15 and 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Nishihara et al. (US2018/0175275 A1).
In regards to claims 1 and 14, Nishihara et al. teaches in Fig. 1C a film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR), comprising:
A substrate (10);
A dielectric material layer (30) formed on a surface of the substrate away from the substrate;
A bottom electrode (12) formed on a surface of the dielectric material layer away from the substrate;
A piezoelectric material layer (14) formed on the substrate;
An intermediate metal layer (16a) formed on a surface of the piezoelectric material layer away from the substrate;
A mass load layer (26) formed on a surface of the intermediate metal layer away from the substrate; and
A top electrode (16b) formed on a surface of the mass load layer away from the substrate;
Wherein the intermediate metal layer (16a) is necessarily configured to protect the piezoelectric material layer (14) from being affected in operations of forming the mass load layer (26) on the surface of the intermediate metal layer away from the substrate (i.e. the mere presence of the intermediate metal layer 26 being located above a region of the piezoelectric material layer will protect the piezoelectric material layer when the mass load layer is being formed), and forming the top electrode (16b) on the mass load layer (26).
In regards to claim 15, based on Paragraph [0030] and Fig. 1C, the intermediate metal layer (16a) has a thickness of 250 nm which is located between the recited range of 5nm to 1000nm.
In regards to claim 17, based on Paragraph [0030] and Fig. 1C, wherein a total thickness (300 nm) comprises a thickness of the intermediate metal layer (250 nm) and a thickness of the top electrode (50 nm), the total thickness is adjusted according a frequency range of the FBAR resonator (i.e. the thickness of each of the metal electrode will necessarily adjust a frequency range response of the FBAR resonator), and the top electrode has a thickness of 100 nm to 1000 nm (300 nm being in a range between 100 nm and 1000 nm).
In regards to claims 10, 11 and 18, based on Paragraphs [0030]-[0031] and Fig. 1C, the substrate (10) is made from silicon and the piezoelectric material layer is made from aluminum nitride (AlN).
In regards to claims 12, 13 and 19, based on the 35 USC interpretation above, based on Paragraph [0030] and Fig. 1C, the intermediate metal layer (16a) is made from ruthenium (suitable metal used in FBAR), and the top electrode (16b) is made from chromium (suitable metal used in FBAR).
In regards to claim 20, Nishihara et al. teaches in Figs. 11, 12A and 12B, a ladder filter (40) comprising a first FBAR group (S1-S4) and a second FBAR group (P1-P3), wherein the first FBAR group is a combination of at least two FBARs (S1-S4) formed on a same substrate and connected in series with a predetermined circuit, the second FBAR group (P1-P3) is a combination of at least two FBARs connected in parallel with another predetermined circuit;
Based on Paragraph [0073] each of the at least two FBARs in the first FBAR group and the at least two FBARs in the second FBAR group comprises the resonator structure shown in related Fig. 1C which comprises:
A substrate (10);
A dielectric material layer (30) formed on a surface of the substrate away from the substrate;
A bottom electrode (12) formed on a surface of the dielectric material layer away from the substrate;
A piezoelectric material layer (14) formed on the substrate;
An intermediate metal layer (16a) formed on a surface of the piezoelectric material layer away from the substrate;
A mass load layer (26) formed on a surface of the intermediate metal layer away from the substrate; and
A top electrode (16b) formed on a surface of the mass load layer away from the substrate;
Wherein the intermediate metal layer (16a) is necessarily configured to protect the piezoelectric material layer (14) from being affected in operations of forming the mass load layer (26) on the surface of the intermediate metal layer away from the substrate (i.e. the mere presence of the intermediate metal layer 26 being located above a region of the piezoelectric material layer will protect the piezoelectric material layer when the mass load layer is being formed), and forming the top electrode (16b) on the mass load layer (26).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 16 is 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Burak et al. (US2015/0280100 A1) teaches in Fig. 11A a bulk acoustic wave resonator comprising a top electrode comprising three metal layers.
Burak et al. (US2022/0123718 A1) teaches in Fig. 1A a bulk acoustic wave resonator comprising a top reflector (115) comprising a plurality of metal layers.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JORGE L SALAZAR JR whose telephone number is (571)-272-9326. The examiner can normally be reached between 9am - 6pm Monday-Friday.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Andrea Lindgren Baltzell can be reached on 571-272-5918. 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). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/JORGE L SALAZAR JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2843