DETAILED ACTION
This Office action responds to the patent application no. 18/397,079 filed on December 27, 2023.
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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The International Search Report and Written Opinion in Japanese and the 140-page book titled “Floating Body Cell – a Novel Capacitorless DRAM Cell” are crossed-out on the information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on May 31, 2024. Since the International Search Report and Written Opinion was provided in English on the information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on July 18, 2024, the Japanese version is not considered. The 140-page book is not legible and too long and is not considered.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because the number “9” designed for the second gate insulating layer between the second gate electrode 10 and the first pillar 3, is too blurry in FIG. 4AA. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a) because they fail to show “a second gate insulating layer … in contact with the upper surface and both sides surfaces continuous with the upper surface”; “a third gate insulating layer … covers the upper surface and both side surfaces of the second semiconductor pillar”; “a memory layer … covers the upper surface and both side surfaces of the third semiconductor pillar”; “the first impurity region is separate from an impurity layer of a bottom portion of a semiconductor pillar of another first memory element adjacent to the first semiconductor pillar”; and “When fin-type MOS transistors are formed on the upper side of the pillar-shaped P layers 25a, 25b, and 25c, the first to third gate insulating layers 32a to 32c and the second to fourth gate conductor layers 33a to 33c are formed on the upper surface in the vertical direction and both side surfaces of each of the pillar-shaped P layers 25a, 25b, and 25c in the vertical direction” as described in ¶ [0006], [0015], and [0073] of the specification. Any structural detail that is essential for a proper understanding of the disclosed invention should be shown in the drawing. MPEP § 608.02(d). Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the “in contact with the upper surface and bot side surfaces continuous with the upper surface”, “covers the upper surface and both side surfaces of the second conductor pillar which face each other”, “covers the upper surface and both side surfaces of the third conductor pillar which face each other”, and “a transistor … is of a fin type”; and “the first impurity region is continuous with a bottom portion of a semiconductor pillar of another first memory element adjacent to the first semiconductor pillar”; and “the first impurity region is separate from an impurity layer of a bottom portion of a semiconductor pillar of another first memory element adjacent to the first semiconductor pillar” must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claims 1, 8-10. No new matter should be entered. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
The terms “are discharged” and “by discharging” appeared in ¶ [0072] and [0073] is not clear about its meaning.
The “insulating layers 32a and 32b of SiO2 or the like are formed” to replace the poly-Si layer 29b and 29c, are described for FIGs. 5FA to 5FC. However, the same numbers 32a and 32b are being referred as the second and third gate insulating layers in subsequent figures 5GA to 5IC.
Appropriate correction is required.
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1, 2, 3, and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites the limitation “both side surfaces” in line 18. It is unclear how this limitation relates to other elements in the claim.
Claim 2 recites the limitation "the first insulator layer" in line 3. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 13 recites the limitations “the generated electron group” and “the generated positive hole group” in line 13. It is unclear how they are related to “the electron group” and “the positive hole group” in line 12 and “an electron group” and “a positive hole group” in line 8.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being incomplete for omitting essential structural cooperative relationships of elements, such omission amounting to a gap between the necessary structural connections. See MPEP § 2172.01. The omitted structural cooperative relationships are: Claim 3 recites the limitations “a first semiconductor layer”, “a second semiconductor layer”, and “a third semiconductor layer” in lines 3-5. It is unclear how these limitations relate to other elements in the claim.
Claim 6 is rejected on the basis that it contains an improper Markush grouping of alternatives. See In re Harnisch, 631 F.2d 716, 721-22 (CCPA 1980) and Ex parte Hozumi, 3 USPQ2d 1059, 1060 (Bd. Pat. App. & Int. 1984). A Markush grouping is proper if the alternatives defined by the Markush group (i.e., alternatives from which a selection is to be made in the context of a combination or process, or alternative chemical compounds as a whole) share a “single structural similarity” and a common use. A Markush grouping meets these requirements in two situations. First, a Markush grouping is proper if the alternatives are all members of the same recognized physical or chemical class or the same art-recognized class, and are disclosed in the specification or known in the art to be functionally equivalent and have a common use. Second, where a Markush grouping describes alternative chemical compounds, whether by words or chemical formulas, and the alternatives do not belong to a recognized class as set forth above, the members of the Markush grouping may be considered to share a “single structural similarity” and common use where the alternatives share both a substantial structural feature and a common use that flows from the substantial structural feature. See MPEP § 2117.
The Markush grouping of “a semiconductor, metal, an alloy, or another conductor, or an insulating layer” is improper because the alternatives defined by the Markush grouping do not share both a single structural similarity and a common use for the following reasons: This Markush grouping includes conductive material, semiconductive material, and insulating material and none of them sharing the same physical property.
To overcome this rejection, Applicant may set forth each alternative (or grouping of patentably indistinct alternatives) within an improper Markush grouping in a series of independent or dependent claims and/or present convincing arguments that the group members recited in the alternative within a single claim in fact share a single structural similarity as well as a common use.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 5, and 7-12 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.
Claim 1 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
Claims 2, 3, 6, and 13 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include 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:
Regarding Claim 1: The prior art of record neither anticipates nor renders obvious a semiconductor device, wherein a second gate insulating layer that is, in the vertical direction, in contact with an upper surfaces of the first semiconductor pillar above the first gate insulating layer, a second impurity region and a third impurity region provided at either end, in a horizontal direction, of part of the first semiconductor pillar that is not covered with the second gate insulating layer, a third gate insulating layer that covers, in the vertical direction, an upper surface of the second semiconductor pillar above the first material layer or that covers the upper surface and both side surfaces of the second semiconductor pillar which face each other, a fourth impurity region and a fifth impurity region provided at either end, in the horizontal direction, of part of the second semiconductor pillar that is not covered with the third gate insulating layer, a memory layer that covers, in the vertical direction, an upper surface of the third semiconductor pillar above the second material layer or that covers the upper surface and both side surfaces of the third semiconductor pillar that face each other, and a sixth impurity layer and a seventh impurity layer provided at either end, in the horizontal direction, of part of the third semiconductor pillar that is not covered with the signal charge storage layer. These features in combination with other elements in the claim are neither disclosed nor suggested by the prior art of record.
Claims 2-13 depend on Claim 1 so that they are allowable for the same reason.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Correspondence
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALICE W TANG whose telephone number is (571)272-7227. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday: 8:30 am to 5 pm..
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Wael Fahmy can be reached at (571)272-1705. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ALICE W TANG/Examiner, Art Unit 2814
/WAEL M FAHMY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2814