DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to Amendment filed May 26, 2026.
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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 “plurality of lattice planes of Al atoms” of the intermediate layer recited on line 9 of the new claim 21 must be shown or the feature canceled from the claim, because there is only one lattice plane of Al atoms for the intermediate region since (i) even though Applicants used the numeral 15 to indicate an intermediate region, an actual intermediate region should be the middle rectangular region illustrated below, and (ii) therefore, Applicants did not originally disclose or show the “plurality of lattice planes of Al atoms” of the intermediate layer recited on line 9 of the new claim 21. No new matter should be entered.
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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 1-16 and 21 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 claims contain 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 inventors, at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
(1) Regarding claim 1, Applicants did not originally disclose “a boundary between the first layer and the intermediate region comprises a third lattice plane of Al atoms along the first plane” recited on lines 13-14, because (a) Applicants did not use the term “boundary” or “interface” in the original disclosure, and (b) a boundary between the first layer and the intermediate region should be formed along the horizontal line illustrated below, where there are no Al atoms or N atoms. Claims 2-16 depend on claim 1, and therefore, claims 2-16 also fail to comply with the written description requirement.
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(2) Regarding claim 21, Applicants did not originally disclose the “plurality of lattice planes of Al atoms” of the intermediate layer recited on line 9, because (a) as discussed above under Drawings objection, this limitation appears to be based on the mislabeled drawing of Fig. 2, where Applicants used the numeral 15 for the intermediate region, while an actual intermediate region should be the middle rectangular region illustrated below, (b) as can be seen in Fig. 2 of current application, the second bottommost Al plane is at the shared level between the region 15 and the region 10c, but the second bottommost Al plane cannot be a part of both the intermediate region and the first layer, (c) if the limitation cited above is correct, then Applicants should have originally disclosed that their intermediate region begins with a lattice plane of Al atoms, then nitrogen atoms are deposited followed by deposition of another lattice plane of Al atoms, which is not what one of ordinary skill would understand since the AlN intermediate region/layer shown in Fig. 2 of current application should have a bilayer structure rather than a 1.5 bilayer or three-atomic layer structure, (d) furthermore, the bonding between the Al atoms of the bottommost Al atomic plane and the N atoms of the bottommost N atomic plane are not complete with some dangling bonds 15a, while the bonding between the N atoms of the bottommost N atomic plane and Al atoms of the second bottommost Al atomic plane in Fig. 2 of current application are fully bonded, which clearly indicates that the Al atoms of the second bottommost Al atomic plane are not a part of the intermediate region/layer, and
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(e) therefore, the limitation cited above based on the mislabeled drawing of Fig. 2 of current application fails to comply with the written description requirement.
(3) Further regarding claim 21, Applicants did not originally disclose “a third lattice plane spacing is a distance in the first direction between one of the plurality of lattice planes of Al atoms to another one of the plurality of lattice planes of Al atoms” recited on lines 11-13, because (a) as discussed above, the intermediate region/layer has only one lattice plane of Al atoms, and (b) therefore, Applicants did not originally disclose the claimed third lattice plane spacing since the claimed third lattice plane spacing requires two or more lattice planes of Al atoms in the intermediate region/layer.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
(1) Regarding claim 1, it is not clear how “the intermediate region physically contacts the substrate and the first layer” as recited on line 8, and then “a boundary between the first layer and the intermediate region comprises a third lattice plane of Al atoms along the first plane” as recited on lines 13-14, because (a) these two limitations are contradictory to each other since, when the intermediate region physically contacts both the substrate and the first layer, there should not be any layer, region or plane constituted of atoms disposed between the intermediate region and the first layer, not to mention between the substrate and the intermediate region, (b) in other words, as currently claimed, the limitation cited on lines 13-14 suggests that the third lattice plane of Al atoms, which has a non-zero thickness since Al atoms constituting the third lattice plane are not zero-dimensional points, would be disposed between the intermediate region and the first layer, preventing any physical contact between the intermediate region and the first layer, and (c) however, Applicants claim that there is “a boundary between the first layer and the intermediate region” comprising “a third lattice plane of Al atoms along the first plane”.
(2) Further regarding claim 1, it is not clear what “a third lattice plane of Al atoms” in the limitation “a boundary between the first layer and the intermediate region comprises a third lattice plane of Al atoms along the first plane” recited on lines 13-14 suggests, because as discussed above, when the intermediate region physically contacts the substrate and the first layer as recited on line 8, there cannot be any lattice plane of Al atoms constituting the claimed “boundary” disposed between the first layer and intermediate region.
Claims 2-16 depend on claim 1, and therefore, claims 2-16 are also indefinite.
Response to Arguments
Applicants’ arguments with respect to claim 1 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Fenwick et al. (US 9,617,656)
Applicants' amendment necessitated the new grounds of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicants are 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 JAY C KIM whose telephone number is (571) 270-1620. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM EST.
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, Joshua Benitez can be reached at (571) 270-1435. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JAY C KIM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2815
/J. K./Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2815 June 24, 2026
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