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 .
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.
Priority
3. Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application TAIWAN 112124822 07/03/2023 filed on 08/21/23.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS), filed on 07/28/23 has been considered. Please refer to Applicant's copy of the 1449 submitted herewith.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 2-10 in the reply filed on 04/22/26 is acknowledged.
Claims 1-10 are pending, claim 1 has been withdrawn in an amendment filed on 04/22/26. Claims 2-10 are examined in this Office action.
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.
Claims 2-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Panda (A. S. Panda et. al., Controlled orientation of silicon-containing diblock copolymer thin films by substrate functionalization under vacuum, Macromolecules, 2023, 56, 841−849).
Regarding claims 2, 4-6, Panda discloses a method for controlling orientation of block copolymer thin film by decompression effect, comprising: providing a block copolymer thin film, wherein the block copolymer thin film comprises a first block such as polystyrene and a second block such as polydimethylsiloxane; and performing a decompression step, wherein the block copolymer thin film is placed at a low pressure environment such as 10-4 Pa, fall into claim 2 range of lower than 10⁵ Pa or claim 6 range of 100 Pa to 10-4 Pa, so as to control an orientation of the block copolymer thin film, wherein such pressure implicitly teaches reduce a surface tension difference between the first block and the second block (page 845-847, experimental).
Regarding claim 3, Panda discloses a wherein a surface tension of the first block is greater than a surface tension of the second block (page 842, para 3).
Regarding claim 7, Panda discloses the thermal annealing at temperature does not disclose wherein in the decompression step, further comprises the block copolymer thin film placed at a heating temperature for thermal annealing, and the heating temperature is 270°C (Figure 6, page 847, para 1) , fall into claimed 250°C to 350°C
Regarding claims 8-10, Panda discloses the block copolymer thin film forms a plurality of perpendicularly oriented cylindrical structures after the decompression step, wherein the perpendicularly oriented cylindrical structures are ordered arrangement (Figure 6, page 847).
Claims 2-5, 8-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Wadley (M. Wadley et. al., Solvent dependence of the morphology of spin-coated thin films of polydimethylsiloxane-rich polystyrene-block-polydimethylsiloxane copolymers, Macromolecules, 2012, 45, 5538−5545).
Regarding claims 2, 4-5, Wadley discloses a method for controlling orientation of block copolymer thin film by decompression effect, comprising: providing a block copolymer thin film, wherein the block copolymer thin film comprises a first block such as polystyrene and a second block such as polydimethylsiloxane; and performing a decompression step, wherein the block copolymer thin film is placed at a low pressure environment such as 128 mmHg, fall into claim 2 range of lower than 10⁵ Pa, so as to control an orientation of the block copolymer thin film, wherein such pressure implicitly teaches reduce a surface tension difference between the first block and the second block (page 5540-5542, Figure 4).
Regarding claim 3, Wadley discloses a wherein a surface tension of the first block is greater than a surface tension of the second block (page 5542, para 2).
Regarding claims 8-10, Wadley discloses the block copolymer thin film forms a plurality of perpendicularly oriented cylindrical structures after the decompression step, wherein the perpendicularly oriented cylindrical structures are ordered arrangement (page 5543).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KUMAR R BHUSHAN whose telephone number is (313)446-4807. The examiner can normally be reached 9.00 AM to 5.50 PM (EST).
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/KUMAR R BHUSHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1766
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