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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Invention I in the reply filed on 12/29/2025 is acknowledged.
Claims 12-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 12/29/2025.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 07/31/2023 and 05/24/2024 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
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.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-5, 7, 9 and 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)/(a(2) as being anticipated by Nakatsu et al. (US 20150171263 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Nakatsu et al. teach a light emitting element comprising: a first semiconductor layer (9; Fig. 1, [0043]); an active layer (14; Fig. 1, [0043]) on the first semiconductor layer (9); a second semiconductor layer (16; Fig. 1, [0043]) on the active layer (14), the first semiconductor layer (9), the active layer (14), and the second semiconductor layer (16) being sequentially provided in a first direction (vertical direction); and an insulative film (27 of SiO2; Fig. 1, [0174]) around at least a portion of the first semiconductor layer (9), the active layer (14), and the second semiconductor layer (16), wherein the active layer (14) comprises a first barrier layer (14Az; Fig. 3, [0112]), a first well layer (14W8; Fig. 3, [0112]), and a second barrier layer (14A7; Fig. 3, [0112]), which are sequentially provided in the first direction (vertical direction in Figs. 1 and 3), and wherein the first well layer (14W8) comprises first holes (a part of the V pits 15 in 14W8; Figs. 1 and 3, [0111-0112]) penetrating the first well layer (14W8; 15 penetrates the whole active layer 14 including 14W8; see Figs. 1 and 3).
Regarding claim 2, Nakatsu et al. teach the light emitting element of claim 1, wherein the first well layer (14W8) comprises at least one of GaN, GaInP, AlGaInP, InGaN, or InGaAsP (InGaN; [0167]).
Regarding claim 4, Nakatsu et al. teach the light emitting element of claim 1, wherein the first holes (a part of the V pits 15 in 14W8) penetrate the first well layer (14W8; 15 penetrates the whole active layer 14 including 14W8; see Figs. 1 and 3) in the first direction (vertical direction; see Fig. 1), and are provided in a second direction (horizontal direction) intersecting the first direction (vertical direction; see Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 5, Nakatsu et al. teach the light emitting element of claim 4, wherein each of the first holes (a part of the V pits 15 in 14W8) has a width (horizontal width) that varies in the first direction (vertical direction; see Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 7, Nakatsu et al. teach the light emitting element of claim 4, wherein, when viewed in a plan view (top-down view in Fig. 1), the first well layer (14W8, the bottommost well layer in 14 in Fig. 1 as indicated by Fig. 3) comprises a first area (center area; see Fig. 1 below) adjacent to a center of the first well layer (14W8, the bottommost well layer in 14 in Fig. 1 as indicated by Fig. 3) and a second area (edge area; see Fig. 1 below) adjacent to an edge of the first well layer (14W8, the bottommost well layer in 14 in Fig. 1 as indicated by Fig. 3), and wherein the first holes (a part of the V pits 15 in 14W8) are in the second area (edge area; see Fig. 1 below).
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[AltContent: rect][AltContent: rect][AltContent: textbox (Center area)][AltContent: textbox (Edge area)][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow]
Fig. 1 of Nakatsu et al. showing the center area and the edge area of the 14W8, which is the bottommost well layer in the active layer 14 as shown in Fig. 3.
Regarding claim 9, Nakatsu et al. teach the light emitting element of claim 1, further comprising a second well layer (14W7; Fig. 3, [0112]) and a third barrier layer (14A6; Fig. 3, [0112]), sequentially provided in the first direction (vertical direction in Figs. 1 and 3) on the second barrier layer (14A7; see Figs. 1 and 3), wherein the second well layer (14W7) comprises second holes (a part of the V pits 15 in 14W7; Figs. 1 and 3, [0111-0112]) penetrating the second well layer (14W7; 15 penetrates the whole active layer 14 including 14W7; see Figs. 1 and 3) in the first direction (vertical direction in Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 11, Nakatsu et al. teach the light emitting element of claim 9, wherein a number of the first holes (the number of the horizontal width in nm of the V pits 15 at the top surface of 14W8) and a number of the second holes (the number of the horizontal width in nm of the V pits 15 at the top surface of 14W7) are different from each other (due to the fact that 15 is in V shape).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nakatsu et al. as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Ryu (US 20080093593 A1).
Regarding claim 3, Nakatsu et al. teach the light emitting element of claim 1, wherein the first well layer (14W8) comprises InxGa1-xN ([0167]).
Nakatsu et al. do not teach an indium composition X of the first well layer is 0.05 to 0.4
In the same field of endeavor of light emitting devices, Ryu teaches an indium composition X of the first well layer is 0.05 to 0.5 ([0017]) which overlaps the claimed range of 0.05 to 0.4, that establishes a prima facie of obviousness.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the inventions of Nakatsu et al. and Ryu, and to use the indium composition of the well layers as taught by Ryu, because Nakatsu et al. teach the well layers to be InGaN, but is silent about the indium composition ratio of the InGaN well layers ([0167]), while Ryu teaches a range of indium composition ratio which can be used in the well layers formed of InGaN ([0017] of Ryu).
Claim(s) 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nakatsu et al. as applied to claim 4 above, and further in view of Asada et al. (US 20230231079 A1).
Regarding claim 6, Nakatsu et al. teach the light emitting element of claim 4, wherein, when viewed in a plan view (top-down view in Fig. 1).
Nakatsu et al. do not teach each of the first holes has a shape that is symmetrical in the second direction.
In the same field of endeavor of light emitting device, Asada et al. teach each of the first holes (v pits 33; Fig. 2, [0032]) has a shape (circular, elliptical or hexagonal shape; [0032])) that is symmetrical (all the circular, elliptical and hexagonal shapes have at least one axis of symmetry) in the second direction (the horizontal direction in Fig. 2).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the inventions of Nakatsu et al. and Asada et al., and to have the first holes to have circular, elliptical or hexagonal shape in a plane view as taught by Asada et al. ([0032] of Asada et al.), because Nakatsu et al. teach the first holes (a part of the V pits 15 in 14W8; [0111-0112] of Nakatsu et al.) are formed by V pits ([0111-0112] of Nakatsu et al.) and Asada et al. teach that circular, elliptical or hexagonal shapes are the common shapes of the v-pit in a plan view ([0032] of Asada et al.).
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nakatsu et al. as applied to claim 9 above, and further in view of Yoo et al. (US 20230282766 A1).
Regarding claim 10, Nakatsu et al. teach the light emitting element of claim 9, wherein the first well layer (14W8) and the second well layer (14W7) comprise at least one of GaN, GaInP, AlGaInP, InGaN, or InGaAsP (InGaN; [0167]).
Nakatsu et al. do not teach wherein the first well layer and the second well layer have the same composition and have different composition ratios.
In the same field of endeavor of light emitting devices, Yoo et al. teach wherein the first well layer (the well layers in the first color portion 60b; Fig. 1, [0028, 0083]) and the second well layer (the well layers in the second color portion 60g; Fig. 1, [0028, 0083]) have the same composition (can both be InGaN; [0083]) and have different composition ratios (i.e. the amount of indium is adjusted to have different wavelength; [0087]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the inventions of Nakatsu et al. and Yoo et al., and to have the well layer having different composition ratios as taught by Yoo et al., because the wells having different composition ratios can create a monolithic di-chromic device that is capable of providing a module to be stably driven and configured to implement various colors as taught by Yoo et al. ([0006, 0083, 0087]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 8 is 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 following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art of record does not teach or suggest, singularly or in combination, at least the limitations of "wherein the second barrier layer fills spaces formed by the first holes and the first barrier layer" as recited in claim 8.
Conclusion
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/HSIN YI HSIEH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2899 2/3/2026