DETAILED ACTION
Response to Amendment
Notice to Applicant
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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.
In the amendment dated 7/9/2026, the following has occurred: Claims 1, 7, 8, and 20 have been amended. Claim 18 has been canceled. Claim 21 has been added.
Claims 1-17 and 19-21 are pending.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
Claims 1, 5, 6, and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Cho US 2013/0043557.
As per claims 1, 5, 6, and 12, Cho discloses in Figs. 5-6 an electronic component (e.g. transformer 100) comprising:
as per claim 1, a semiconductor substrate (Paragraph 26, substrate 40 which is formed of doped silicon) having a side including a main surface (e.g. surface 50 on a top side of substrate 40) and containing a semiconductor material (Paragraph 26, silicon); and a coil (Paragraph 32, transformer 100 includes coils 110 and 120) positioned entirely on or above the main surface side and made of a conductive material (Paragraph 33; The transformer 100 is entirely within the interconnect structure 60 which is positioned entirely above the surface 50 and is inherently made of a conductive material, as well-known in the art.), wherein the semiconductor substrate includes a low-resistance portion having a lower electrical resistance than a semiconductor made of the semiconductor material (Paragraph 26; Substrate 40 is formed of a doped semiconductor material (i.e. silicon). It is inherent that the doped material (i.e. “low resistance portion”) within the silicon (i.e. “semiconductor material”) has a lower electrical resistance than the silicon, as well-known in the art. For example, see pertinent art section below for an example of a teaching Choi et al. (of record) which exemplarily teaches that the higher the doping concentration of a silicon substrate, the more the resistance thereof decreases.), and the coil is electrically connected to the low-resistance portion (The coils 110 and 120 of transformer 100 are electrically connected to the dopant within the substrate 40 by virtue of the segments being disposed thereon, as well-known in the art.), and an axial direction of the coil is parallel to the main surface (Paragraph 41; Transformer 100 has vertically wound coils 110 and 120, thus the coils are wound about an axis in a horizontal axial direction which is parallel to the surface 50 of the substrate 40.);
as per claim 5, a first external terminal (related Fig. 10, inside shielding conductive member labeled as 530) that is electrically connected to the coil and disposed along a plane parallel to the main surface (The inside shielding conductive member labeled as 530 is electrically connected to the coils of the transformer by virtue of capacitive coupling, as well-known in the art. The conductive member 530 is disposed along a top horizontal plane that is parallel to the surface 50 of substate 40.);
as per claim 6, wherein the first external terminal is inside an outer edge of the main surface when viewed in a direction perpendicular to the main surface (The conductive member 530 is disposed inside a left edge of the surface 50 when viewing in a vertical direction.); and
as per claim 12, wherein the semiconductor substrate is entirely configured by the low-resistance portion (The substrate 40 is doped fully by the dopant by virtue of being a doped semiconductor substrate.).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cho US 2013/0043557.
As per claim 17, Cho discloses a method of manufacturing the electronic component of claim 1, comprising: forming the low-resistance portion in the semiconductor substrate; and forming the coil, but does not disclose forming the coil after forming the low-resistance portion.
However, when manufacturing the transformer of Cho, there are only two possibilities in the order in which the transformer and the low-resistance portion are formed. The transformer can either be formed before the low-resistance portion or after the low-resistance portion, as well-known in the art. Before the effective filing date, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of manufacture to have formed the coils within the transformer of Cho either after or before the low-resistance portion, such as for example after the low-resistance portion, as being an obvious design consideration based on yielding expected results as known in the art.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4, 7-11, 13-16, and 19-21 are 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.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 6-8 of Applicant’s Remarks, filed 7/9/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1, 5, 6, and 12 under 35 USC 102(a)(1) have been fully considered and are persuasive (The reference of record Ahn et al. does not disclose the newly added limitation “the coil being positioned entirely on or above the main surface side”). Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of a newly cited reference Cho US 2013/0043557 as explained above. Applicant’s amendment necessitated a new ground of rejection, thus this action has been made final necessitated by amendment.
Pertinent Art
The following reference is an example of an exemplary teaching for an assertion made by the Examiner above: Choi et al. US 2006/0246660 (of record) exemplarily teaches in Fig. 1a and Paragraph 49 a silicon substrate 101, and that the higher the doping concentration of the silicon substrate, the more the resistance thereof decreases. Thus, the dopant necessarily has a lower resistance than the silicon by virtue of the resistance decreasing when adding the dopant thereof.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RAKESH PATEL whose telephone number is (571)272-0961. The examiner can normally be reached 9AM-5PM EST M-F.
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/RAKESH B PATEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2843
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