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 .
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, 4 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Lee et al. (2014/0225192).
Regarding claim 1, Lee (Fig. 1) discloses a semiconductor device, comprising: a substrate 10 having an active region 11 ([0020]); a gate strip 15 disposed on the substrate 10 within the active region 11, wherein the gate strip 15 extends along a first direction ([0020]); a source doped region 18 located in the active region 11 and adjacent to a first side of the gate strip 15 along the first direction; and a body doped region 132/13 located in the active region 11 and adjacent to the first side of the gate strip 15, wherein the body doped region 132 (P+ type) and the source doped region 18 (N+ type) have opposite conductivity types, wherein the body doped region 132 has a first length along a second direction that is different from the first direction, wherein the first length gradually changes along the first direction (Fig. 1 and [0020]).
Regarding claim 4, Lee (Fig. 1) discloses wherein the body doped region 132 is disposed adjacent to the source doped region 18 along the first direction.
Regarding claim 20, Lee (Fig. 1) discloses further comprising: a drain doped region 19 located in the active region 11 and adjacent to a second side of the gate strip 15 along the first direction, wherein the first side is opposite to the second side ([0020]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-3 and 5-19 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.
The prior art of record fails to disclose all the limitations recited in the above claims. Specifically, the prior art of record fails to disclose wherein the body doped region has a center portion located between two end portions along the first direction, wherein the body doped region is tapered from the center portion to the two end portions (claim 2); or wherein the body doped region or the source doped is tapered toward to the gate strip along the second direction (claims 5 and 15); or wherein the body doped region has a first width along the first direction, wherein the first width gradually changes along the second direction (claim 6); or wherein the source doped region has a second width along the first direction, wherein the second width gradually changes along the second direction (claim 16).
Claims 21-32 are allowed.
The following is an examiner's statement of reasons for allowance:
The prior art of record neither anticipates nor renders obvious all the limitations in the base claims 21 and 30. Specifically, the combination of a semiconductor device, comprising: a body doped region of the first conductivity type located in the active region and adjacent to the first side of the first gate strip, wherein the body doped region has least one edge close to the first side of the first gate strip, wherein an extended line of the edge of the body doped region meets the first side of the first gate strip, and wherein an angle between the extended line and the first side of the first gate strip is an acute angle (claim 21) or the combination of the semiconductor device, comprising: a body doped region of the first conductivity type disposed in the active region and adjacent to the first side of the gate strip, wherein ratios of widths of the body doped region to widths of the source doped region in cross-sectional views in the first direction are gradually increased along a direction away from the first gate strip (claim 30).
The dependent claims being further limiting and definite are also allowable.
Conclusion
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/THERESA T DOAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2814