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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 5/25/2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 1-2 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 1 recites “the focused spots” in line 33 and line 37. For clarity of the claim, it should be recited as “the plurality of focused spots” since it is the second recitation of the claim.
Claim 2 recites “a monocrystalline silicon substrate” in line 1. For clarity of the claim, it should be recited as “the monocrystalline silicon substrate” since it is previously recited in claim 1, line 1.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claims 1-2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Donofrio et al. US 20200316724.
Regarding claim 1, Donofrio discloses: A method of manufacturing a monocrystalline silicon substrate from a workpiece (Fig 11A: 70) of monocrystalline silicon (Par 3: material made from silicon) that has been fabricated such that a particular crystal plane included in crystal planes {100} is exposed on face and reverse sides thereof, comprising:
a peel-off layer forming step (Fig 10A/B and 11A-D shows lasers being used to form damaged areas in the substrate 70/62) of forming peel-off layers including a plurality of modified portions (71, 72, 73) and cracks (71, 72, 73 define damage patterns in the substrate 70/62) developed respectively from the modified portions, respectively in a plurality of regions (There are 5 regions of the 71, 72, 73 patterns) included in the workpiece; and,
after the peel-off layer forming step, a separating step (Fig 37A-37D shows the separation of a substrate (242) of separating the substrate from the workpiece along the peel-off layers acting as separation initiating points (Fig 37D: substrate 240 is fractured along the laser damage are 243),
wherein each of the regions extends along a first direction, the first direction represents a direction oriented parallel to the particular crystal plane and forming an angle of 5° or less with a particular crystal orientation included in crystal orientations <100> (Par 30: the crystalline material comprises a hexagonal crystal structure; and each line of the first plurality of substantially parallel lines, each line of the second plurality of substantially parallel lines, each line of the third plurality of substantially parallel lines deviates from perpendicular to a <1120> direction of the hexagonal crystal structure by an angle within a range of from about 1 degree to about 5 degrees while being substantially parallel to a surface of the substrate.),
adjacent ones of the regions are spaced from each other by a predetermined center-to-center distance in a second direction, the second direction represents a direction oriented parallel to the particular crystal plane and perpendicularly to the first direction, the predetermined center-to-center distance ranges from 100 µm to 1 mm (Par 220: Fig 11A: This arrangement creates multiple three-line groups 74 that are separated from each other three-line group by a 250 micron gap, with adjacent lines within each three-line group being separated from each other by a gap of 125 microns. Therefore, Fig 11A would disclose the center to center distances of the regions to be within the range of 100 microns to 1 millimeter (1000 microns); see below), and
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the peel-off layer forming step is performed by alternately repeating a laser beam applying step of relatively moving, along the first direction, the workpiece and a plurality of focused spots formed from respective laser beams having a wavelength transmittable through monocrystalline silicon and arrayed along the second direction, while the focused spots are being positioned in at least two of the regions at a predetermined depth in the workpiece from the face side thereof (Fig 7: 196: Laser is focused to make subsurface damage and goes along a direction 42 that has focused areas such as in fig 11A. The light wave is pulsed as a frequency and wavelength to target below the surface of the material), and
an indexing feed step of changing positions in which the focused spots are formed from respective positions in the at least two of the regions to positions in at least other two of the regions that are different from the at least two of the regions (Par 197-198: The laser moves along the paths between each spot of the regions and does 2-5 passes).
Regarding claim 2, Donofrio discloses:
wherein a distance between adjacent ones of pairs of the focused spots formed in each of the at least two of the regions is smaller than the predetermined center-to-center distance (Par 220: Fig 11A: This arrangement creates multiple three-line groups 74 that are separated from each other three-line group by a 250 micron gap, with adjacent lines within each three-line group being separated from each other by a gap of 125 microns; Therefore 125 microns is smaller than 250 microns).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Andrew J Marien whose telephone number is (469)295-9159. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00 am- 6:00 pm CST, Monday through Friday.
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/Andrew J Marien/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3745