DETAILED ACTION
Notice to Applicant
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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.
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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.
Claims 1-5, 7-11, 14-15, and 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Lee et al. US 2022/0076881.
As per claims 1-5, 7-11, 14-15, and 17-20, Lee et al. discloses in Figs. 1-2 a coil component (e.g. coil component 1000) comprising:
as per claim 1, a body (e.g. body 100); a first coil (e.g. coil portion 300) embedded in the body and disposed to surround around a first core axis (e.g. vertical axis of core 110) extending in a first direction (e.g. T direction); a second coil (e.g. coil portion 400) embedded in the body and disposed to surround around a second core axis (e.g. vertical axis of core 120) parallel to the first core axis (The vertical axis’ of core 110 and 120 are both in the T direction and are parallel to one another.), and disposed outside of the first coil in a second direction (e.g. L direction) perpendicular to the first direction (The coil portion 400 is disposed outside of the coil portion 300 in the L direction which is perpendicular to the T direction.); and a non-magnetic body (e.g. support substrate 200; As stated in Paragraph 57, substrate 200 is formed of FR-4 which is inherently non-magnetic, as well-known in the art.) embedded in the body and disposed on the first coil and the second coil (The substrate 200 is disposed on a bottom surface of the coil portions 300 and 400 to provide support thereto.);
as per claim 2, wherein the first coil includes a first conductor (e.g. first upper coil portion 310) and a second conductor (e.g. first lower coil portion 320) arranged in the first direction with respect to a reference plane perpendicular to the first direction (The coil portions 310 and 320 are arranged in the T direction with respect to a plane within the W direction as shown in Fig. 1.);
as per claim 3, wherein the non-magnetic body is disposed along the reference plane perpendicular to the first direction between the first conductor and the second conductor (The substrate 200 is disposed along the W direction plane between the portions 310 and 320.);
as per claim 4, wherein the second coil includes a third conductor (e.g. first upper coil portion 410) and a fourth conductor (e.g. first lower coil portion 420) arranged in the first direction with respect to the reference plane perpendicular to the first direction (The coil portions 410 and 420 are arranged in the T direction with respect to the plane within the W direction as shown in Fig. 1.);
as per claim 5, wherein the non-magnetic body includes: a middle portion interposed between the first conductor and the second conductor and between the third conductor and the fourth conductor (Substrate 200 includes a “middle portion” that is disposed between the portions 310/320 and portions 410/420.); and an outer circumferential portion connected to the middle portion and disposed to an outer circumference of each of the first coil and the second coil (The substrate 200 includes “an outer circumferential portion” that is disposed at an outer circumference of the coils 300 and 400 and is connected to the “middle portion”.);
as per claim 7, wherein the body includes: a first core portion (e.g. core 110) positioned inside the first coil; and a second core portion (e.g. core 120) positioned inside the second coil, and the non-magnetic body further includes an inner circumferential portion disposed to overlap each of the first core portion and the second core portion in the first direction (The substrate 200 includes “an inner circumferential portion” which is disposed directly between the portions 300 and 400 and thus overlaps the portions in the T direction.);
as per claim 8, wherein the non-magnetic body extends outward from an external circumferential surface of the first coil and the second coil (A portion of substrate 200 extends outward from an outer circumferential surface of the coils 300 and 400.);
as per claim 9, wherein the non-magnetic body extends to at least one side surface (e.g. side surface including external terminals 510 and 610) of the body;
as per claim 10, wherein the non-magnetic body includes a through hole positioned at an edge of the non-magnetic body and penetrating a portion of the non-magnetic body in the first direction (Paragraphs 62-63; A via passes through substrate 200 at a left edge thereof and penetrates the substrate in the T direction.);
as per claim 11, wherein the through hole includes a plurality of through holes (Paragraphs 62-63, a via connecting portions 310 and 320 and another via connecting portions 410 and 420.), each of which is filled by a portion of the body (Paragraph 55; The vias are filled with a composite sheet of the body.);
as per claim 14, wherein the non-magnetic body is a plate shape that extends in a direction (e.g. W direction) perpendicular to the first direction;
as per claim 15, wherein the first coil and the second coil are disposed to be spaced apart from each other along the second direction (Abstract; The coil portions 300 and 400 are spaced apart from one another in the L direction.);
as per claim 17, wherein the coil component is a thin film type inductor (Paragraph 65; The coil portions 300 and 400 are thin film type coils.);
as per claim 18, wherein the coil component is a multilayer type inductor (Each of the coil portions 300 and 400 are disposed on multiple layers, thus are necessarily “multilayer type inductors”.);
as per claim 19, wherein the first coil and the second coil are a wire-wound type coil (Each of the coil portions 300 and 400 are wire coils which are wound around a corresponding core.); and
as per claim 20, a first external electrode (e.g. external electrode 510) and a second external electrode (e.g. external electrode 520) each disposed on an outer surface of the body and electrically connected to an end of the first coil; and a third external electrode (e.g. external electrode 610) and a fourth external electrode (e.g. external electrode 620) each disposed on an outer surface of the body and are electrically connected to an end of the second coil.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6, 12-13, and 16 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RAKESH PATEL whose telephone number is (571)272-0961. The examiner can normally be reached 9AM-5PM EST M-F.
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/RAKESH B PATEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2843
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