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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to application No. 18379107 filed on 10/11/2023.
Information Disclosure Statement
Acknowledgment is made of Applicant’s Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) form PTO-1449. These IDS has been considered.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 9-12 in the reply filed on 2/13/2026 is acknowledged.
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 of this title, 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.
Claims 9-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sun et al. (CN 112880821 A) in view of Piedra et al. (US 2022/0093779).
Regarding Independent claim 9, Sun et al. teach a nitride semiconductor comprising:
a substrate (Fig. 8A, specification discloses substrate 810);
a buffer layer (Fig. 8A, specification discloses buffer layer 820) having a three-dimensional (3D) structure (Fig. 8A discloses the 3D structure) on the substrate; and
a nitride semiconductor layer (Fig. 8A, specification discloses AlGaN layer 830) on the buffer layer.
Sun et al. does not explicitly disclose a buffer layer that is a thin film.
Piedra et al. teach a nitride device comprising a buffer layer that is a thin film (paragraph 0058 discloses GaN buffer film formed as a thin film).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the invention to modify the teachings of Sun et al. according to the teachings of Piedra et al. with the motivation to improve electrical conductivity and provide high efficiency and cost effectiveness.
Regarding claim 10, Sun et al. teach wherein the buffer layer comprises a nanovoid (Fig. 8A, specification discloses nanovoid 840).
Regarding claim 11, Sun et al. teach wherein the nitride semiconductor layer is free of cracks (Fig. 8A, the structure of Sun is analogous to the claimed structure of the instant application, accordingly element 830 would be free of cracks).
Regarding claim 12, Sun et al. teach wherein the nitride semiconductor thin film is prepared using the method of claim 1 (the method of claim 1 has the same limitations as claim 9).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHAHED AHMED whose telephone number is (571)272-3477. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
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/SHAHED AHMED/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2813
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