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 .
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.
Claim(s) 1-4, 6, and 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sasaki (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2023/80375278).
Regarding claim 1, Sasaki discloses a heat spreader with vapor chambers, comprising:
a first cover plate (see annotated fig 2 below) being close to a heat source (100);
a second cover plate (see annotated fig 2 below) being arranged to be opposite to the first cover plate and fit with the first cover plate to form an enclosed inner cavity; and
a capillary structure (20) arranged in the enclosed inner cavity;
wherein the heat spreader with vapor chambers has a first direction (H) directing from the first cover plate to the second cover plate and a second direction (W) perpendicular to the first direction;
wherein the first cover plate includes a first top wall extending perpendicular to the first direction and a first lateral wall extending from the first top wall towards the second cover plate along the first direction (see annotated fig 2 below), the second cover plate includes a second top wall extending perpendicular to the first direction and a second lateral wall extending from the second top wall towards the first cover plate along the first direction, the first top wall, the first lateral wall, the second top wall and the second lateral wall fit with each other to form the enclosed inner cavity (see annotated fig 2 below), and the enclosed inner cavity is filled with cooling medium; and
wherein the capillary structure is spaced from the first lateral wall and the second lateral wall to form vapor channel (fig 2).
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Regarding claim 2, Sasaki further disclose wherein the capillary structure (20) is arranged to contact with the first top wall and the second top wall along the first direction (H, see annotated fig 2 above).
Regarding claim 3, Sasaki further disclose wherein a distance between the capillary structure (20) and the first lateral wall and a distance between the capillary structure and the second lateral wall increase along the first direction (H, see annotated fig 2 above).
Regarding claim 4, Sasaki further disclose wherein the capillary structure (20) has a plurality of cubic through-hole structures, and a diameter of one respective cubic through-hole structure ranges from 80um to 300um (¶0056).
Regarding claim 6, Sasaki further disclose wherein the capillary structure (20) is made of high-porosity foam copper (¶0056).
Regarding claim 7, Sasaki further disclose wherein the first cover plate and the second cover plate are made copper (¶0055).
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Oda et al. (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2021/0392781, “Oda”).
Regarding claim 8, Sasaki further disclose a method for manufacturing the heat spreader with vapor chambers according to claim 1, comprising:
a cover plate obtaining operation, including manufacturing the first cover (10) plate and the second cover plate by etching (¶0093);
a capillary structure (30) obtaining operation, including forming the capillary structure on a side of the first top wall of the first cover plate facing towards the second cover plate;
a cover plate fixing operation, including arranging the second cover plate on the first cover plate and fixing the first cover plate and the second cover plate to form the enclosed inner cavity and to obtain an intermediate component (31);
a stress removal operation, including performing high-temperature treatment on the intermediate component to remove stress (¶0154); and
a cooling medium filling operation, including vacuumizing the enclosed inner cavity and injecting the cooling medium (¶0154).
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.
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sasaki as applied to claim 4 above, and further in view of Kato et al (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2019/0381568, “Kato”).
Regarding claim 5, Sasaki discloses all previous claim limitations. However, Sasaki does not explicitly disclose wherein porosity of the capillary structure ranges from 90% to 97%. Kato, however, discloses a capillary structure for heat pipe which a has a porosity of 94% (see table 2, example 9). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention for Sasaki to provide the porosity of Kato in order to optimize the fluid flow.
Conclusion
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/HARRY E ARANT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3763