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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements filed 6/7/24 and 6/15/26 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Hirata, Taiwanese Patent Publication TW201705258A.
In Reference to Claim 1:
Hirata discloses A manufacturing method (See, Paragraphs [0020-0056]) of a substrate (27) by which the substrate is manufactured from an ingot (11) composed of a single-crystal material, the manufacturing method comprising: a separation layer forming step (9) of forming separation layers including modified parts and cracks (23) that extend from the modified parts inside the ingot by executing irradiation with a laser beam with such a wavelength as to be transmitted through the single-crystal material from a side of a front surface (11a See, Figure 3-6); and a splitting-off step of splitting (Step 10) off the substrate from the ingot with use of the separation layers as a point of origin, wherein, in the separation layer forming step, the separation layers are formed by relatively moving the ingot and a plurality of focal points along a second direction parallel to each of the front surface and a specific crystal plane of the single-crystal material in a state in which the laser beam is split in such a manner that the plurality of focal points (P) that line up along a first direction that is non-parallel to the front surface and is parallel (second direction X) to the specific crystal plane are formed.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. CN11986986 discloses a method of manufacturing a wafer from an ingot.
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/DANIEL S COLLINS/Examiner, Art Unit 3745
/NATHANIEL E WIEHE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3745
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