DETAILED ACTION
This Office action responds to the Amendment file on January 2, 2026, responding to the Office action mailed on October 1, 2025, has been entered. The present Office action is made with all the suggested amendments being fully considered.
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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the claims filed on January 2, 2026 have been considered, but are moot in view of the new grounds of rejections.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the “the first backside signal line and the second backside signal line bypass the plurality of gates along the x-axis” and “the first backside signal line, the second backside signal line, the third backside signal line, and the fourth backside signal line bypass the plurality of the gates along the x-axis” must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim 1 or 7. No new matter should be entered.
When “bypass” is accompanied by other features, such as backside signal lines located at cell boundary and two of the backside signal lines segmented by an empty space between them, in the same claim, are introducing new matter not being described in the Specification nor being shown in the Drawings. FIG. 41 depicts the pair (230A/230C or 230B/230D) of backside signal lines being segmented by G1 or G2 at the cell boundaries, but does NOT depict these backside signal lines bypass the gates 175. FIG. 54 depicts the backside signal lines 430A, 430B, and 430C bypass the nanodevices and the backside power rails 425A and 425B and the backside signal line 430B barely bypass the gate 375 on the right, but the backside signa lines 430A and 430C do NOT bypass the gates 375.
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 the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
The independent Claim 1 recites “the first backside signal line and the second backside signal line bypass the plurality of gates along the x-axis” in last two lines. The independent Claim 7 recites “the first backside signal line, the second backside signal line, the third backside signal line, and the fourth backside signal line bypass the plurality of the gates along the x-axis”.
When “bypass” is accompanied by other features, such as backside signal lines located at cell boundary and two of the backside signal lines segmented by an empty space between them, in the same claim, are introducing new matter not being described in the Specification nor being shown in the Drawings. FIG. 41 depicts the pair (230A/230C or 230B/230D) of backside signal lines being segmented by G1 or G2 at the cell boundaries, but does NOT depict these backside signal lines bypass the gates 175. FIG. 54 depicts the backside signal lines 430A, 430B, and 430C bypass the nanodevices and the backside power rails 425A and 425B and the backside signal line 430B barely bypass the gate 375 on the right, but the backside signa lines 430A and 430C do NOT bypass the gates 375.
Claims 2-6 and 8-14 depend on Claim 1 or 7 and inherit the deficiencies identified for Claim 1 or 7; they also are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 15-20 are allowed.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
Regarding Claim 15: The prior art of record neither anticipates nor renders obvious a semiconductor device comprising a first backside signal line, a second backside signal line, and a third backside signal line extending perpendicular to the x-axis along a y-axis through the first nanodevice and the second nanodevice, wherein the first backside signal line, the second signal line, and the third backside signal line overlap the first BPR and the second BPR along the y-axis, a skip via connected to a frontside of the first backside signal line, and a source/drain contact including a via (VBPS), wherein the VBPS extends downwards to connect to a frontside of the skip via. These features in combination with other elements in the claim are neither disclosed nor suggested by the prior art of record.
Claims 16-20 depend on Claim 15 so they are allowable for the same reason.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
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.
Correspondence
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALICE W TANG whose telephone number is (571)272-7227. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday: 8:30 am to 5 pm..
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, Wael Fahmy can be reached at (571)272-1705. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ALICE W TANG/Examiner, Art Unit 2814
/WAEL M FAHMY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2814
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