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 group I-II, claims 1-18, in ”Response to Election / Restriction Filed - 01/02/2026”, is acknowledged.
In view of the above, this office action considers claims 1-20 pending for prosecution, of which, non-elected claims 19-20 are withdrawn, and elected claims 1-18 are examined on their merits
Claim Objections
Claims 1 and 10 recite the limitation “heater" in line phrase “supply the voltage pulse to the heater”, and it appears as if Applicant’s representative meant to write “supply the voltage pulse to the heater –element”,.
Appropriate correction is required. For the prosecution on merit, examiner assumes the phrase as appeared i.e. supply the voltage pulse to the heater –element--.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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.
Claims 1-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Regarding Claims 1,10, each of the claim recites the limitation "to define a capacitance gap between the inner and outer electrodes” (claim 1 lines 11-12, and claim 10 lines12-13,respectively). There is insufficient antecedent basis for these “the inner and outer electrodes" in each of the claim. Appropriate clarification and/or correction are/is required. For the purpose of examination, the examiner shall interpret “ the inner and outer electrodes ” as “the [[inner]] –first-- and [[outer]] –second-- electrodes ”.
Regarding Claims 2-9 and 11-18, these are indefinite because of their dependency status from claims 1 and 10 respectively.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-18 are objected for to as having deficiencies as described in sections I and II, supra, but, but would be allowable if objection and rejection are resolved.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance, which paraphrases and summarizes the claimed invention without intending to be limiting, wherein the legally defined scope of the claimed invention is defined by the allowed claims themselves in view of the written description under 35 USC 112. . The statement is not intended to necessarily state all the reasons for allowance or all the details why claims are allowed and should not be written to specifically or impliedly state that all the reasons for allowance are set forth (MPEP 1302.14).
Claim 1 is distinguished over the closest prior arts, given in PTO-892, either singularly or in combination, fail to anticipate or render obvious the, in combination with all other limitations in the claim “A computational device , comprising: a phase-change material (PCM) variable microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) capacitor” as claimed and defined by applicant.
Claim 10 is distinguished over the closest prior arts, given in PTO-892, either singularly or in combination, fail to anticipate or render obvious the, in combination with all other limitations in the claim “A computational device, comprising: a plurality of phase-change material (PCM) variable microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) capacitors” as claimed and defined by applicant.
The most relevant prior art reference BEST; James et al., (US 20220020545 A1) hereinafter Best substantially discloses a structure that can be configured to a PCM based variable capacitor, though Best suggests, in [abstract], the structure for a phase change nano relay in which the volumetric expansion of the actuator is used to push a contact across an airgap to bring it into contact with a source/drain.
Nevertheless for the claims 1 and 10, Best teaches
A PCM variable MEMS comprising (Figs 5A, 8) :
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Best Figure 5A and Figure 8H
(i) a substrate (802; Fig 8A; [0027] labelled as silicon wafer; not labelled );
(ii) a first electrode (metallic contact; Fig 5A; [0024,0028] or 812 in Fig 8E) coupled to the substrate (802) and having a first electrode inner surface (bottom surface of 812/metallic contact) and a first electrode outer surface ( top surface of 812/metallic contact)), the first electrode inner surface spaced apart from the substrate to define a PCM cavity (comprising {air gap/818, place holder of PCM 810) between the first electrode inner surface and the substrate;
(iii) a second electrode (816 Fig 8G; labelled as source/drain in Fig 5A) coupled to the substrate and having a second electrode inner surface (bottom surface of 816/source drain) and a second electrode outer surface (top surface of 816/source drain), the second electrode inner surface spaced apart from the first electrode outer surface to define a capacitance gap (814; Fig 8 or air gap in Fig 5A) between the inner and outer electrodes;
(iv) a PCM (Phase change actuator; Fig 5A; or GeTe 810 in fig 8C; [0027]) disposed within the PCM cavity; and
(v) a heater element (heater; Fig 5A; or 804 in fig 8A; [0027]) disposed within the PCM cavity and coupled to receive a voltage pulse ([0021, 0024]), whereby a temperature of the PCM varies to thereby vary the capacitance gap (814; Fig 8 or air gap in Fig 5A); and
a power source (means for applying voltage source [0012,0021,0029]) coupled to the PCM variable MEMS and operable to (i) supply the voltage pulse to the heater (804)and (ii) a time-dependent voltage ([0017]) between the first electrode and the second electrode, to thereby implement a single multiply operation.
Another relevant prior art reference (US 10580473 B2 to Ge; Ning et al.,) discloses, [abstract, figures 2-3] a dot product (claimed computation device) includes applying a programming signal to a number of capacitive memory devices coupled at a number of junctions formed between a number of row lines and a number of column lines. The programming signal defines a number of values within a matrix. The method further includes applying a vector signal. The vector signal defines a number of vector values to be applied to the capacitive memory devices.
A third relevant prior art reference (US 20140376149 A1 to LAMOREY; Mark C ) discloses in paragraphs [0001,0013,0037] ) and in Figures (1, 9) a phase-change material (PCM) variable capacitor. However LAMOREY; Mark C could be relied for a phase-change material (PCM) variable microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) capacitor (as claimed) because of lack of PCM gap.
A fourth relevant prior art reference (US 20120286892 A1 to Gu; Qizheng et al. ) discloses in paragraphs [0021] ) and in Figures (1, 2) a tunable capacitors Notch filter comprising RF micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) capacitors. However, could not be relied for a phase-change material (PCM) capacitor (as claimed) because of lack of PCM components.
Starting from Ge; Ning et al., LAMOREY; Mark C and Gu; Qizheng et al, there is no motivation for the person skilled in the art to use Best for “a computational device, comprising: a single or plurality of phase-change material (PCM) variable microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) capacitors;” in the claimed way recited in claims 1 and 10.
Because no reference alone, nor is there any motivation to combine the details over the prior art to create such limitations in the independent claims, the claims 1 and 10 deemed patentable over the prior art.
Regarding Claims 2-9 and 11-18, these inherit the subject matter from claims 1 and 10 respectively.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOAZZAM HOSSAIN whose telephone number is (571)270-7960. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 8:30AM - 6:00 PM.
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/MOAZZAM HOSSAIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2898
March 2, 2026