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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to application No. 18321203 filed on 05/22/2023.
Information Disclosure Statement
Acknowledgment is made of Applicant’s Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) form PTO-1449. These IDS has been considered.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of 15, 17, 20 (Group I and Species I) in the reply filed on 11/26/2025 is acknowledged.
Claims 17, 20 recite silicon-germanium superlattice which reads on species II and not on elected species I. Accordingly, claims 17 & 20 will be withdrawn from consideration. Withdrawn claims 16, 18, 19 read on species I and will be considered for examination.
Allowable subject matter
Claims 16, 18-19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim (independent claim 15), 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: The closest prior art known to the Examiner is listed on the PTO 892 forms of record.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Weeks et al. (US 2022/0005706).
With respect to dependent claim 16, 18-19, the cited prior art does not anticipate or make obvious, inter alia, the step of: “a first alloy layer, a first silicon atomic layer, a germanium layer, a second silicon atomic layer, a second alloy layer, a dielectric layer, and a metal electrode grown sequentially from bottom to top”.
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)(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.
Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Weeks et al. (US 2022/0005706).
Regarding Independent claim 15, Weeks et al. teach a semiconductor structure, comprising:
a substrate (Fig. 6, element 121, paragraph 0072); and
a germanium quantum well (Fig. 6, elements 125a’, 125b’, 125c’, paragraph 0072 discloses superlattices which are quantum wells and paragraph 0056 discloses the base material of the superlattice can be germanium) grown (The term “grown” is a product-by-process limitation. Even though product-by-process claims are limited by and defined by the process, determination of patentability is based on the product itself. The patentability of a product does not depend on its method of production. If the product in the product-by-process claim is the same as or obvious from a product of the prior art, the claim is unpatentable even though the prior product was made by a different process." In re Thorpe, 777 F.2d 695,698,227 USPQ 964, 966 (Fed. Cir. 1985) (citations omitted), MPEP §2113) on the substrate,
wherein a silicon atomic layer (Figs. 3 & 6, element 46 in superlattice 125b’, paragraph 0055-0056 disclose silicon monolayer) is inserted at an interface between a well (Fig. 6, element 46 in superlattice 125c’) and a barrier (Fig. 6, element 125a’, paragraph 0053 discloses the superlattice acts as a barrier) of the germanium quantum well,
wherein the silicon atomic layer comprises one or more monolayers (paragraph 0055-0056).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHAHED AHMED whose telephone number is (571)272-3477. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Steven Gauthier can be reached on 571-270-0373. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SHAHED AHMED/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2813