Detailed Action
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 § 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.
Claim 9 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.
Specifically, “a cooler” is introduced a second time and it is unclear if the previously introduced cooler is recalled. It is assumed to be the same cooler.
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.
Claims 1- are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 20160276245 to Murai et al. (Murai).
Regarding Claim 1, Murai teaches in Fig. 11 at least, a semiconductor device comprising:
a heat dissipation surface (surface of 32 facing down on page) to which a cooler 40G is attached; and
a heat dissipation surface wire 49 bonded to at least one location in the heat dissipation surface, but does not explicitly teach that an amount of protrusion of the heat dissipation surface wire from the heat dissipation surface is 10 um or more and 200 um or less.
However, Murai does teach that the height of the wires directly affects the standoff [0094] and is therefore a result effective variable that may be optimized by the person of ordinary skill.
Regarding Claim 2, Murai teaches the semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein the heat dissipation surface wires are provided at one or more locations within a region overlapping with a semiconductor chip the semiconductor device includes [0094].
Regarding Claim 3, Murai teaches the semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein the heat dissipation surface wires are provided at one or more locations on each of both sides of a median line drawn in a longitudinal direction of the heat dissipation surface (see Fig. 11).
Regarding Claim 4, Murai teaches the semiconductor device according to claim 1, further comprising a TIM 64 being a thermal interface material provided on the heat dissipation surface.
Regarding Claim 7, Murai teaches the semiconductor device according to claim 4, wherein the TIM is a heat dissipation sheet having slits at locations corresponding to locations of the heat dissipation surface wires (see Fig. 11).
Regarding Claim 9, Murai teaches the semiconductor device according to claim 4, further comprising a cooler attached to the heat dissipation surface via the heat dissipation surface wires and the TIM (see Fig. 11).
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Murai as applied to claim 4 above, and further in view of U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 20240258190 to Hefai-Ahmed et al. (Refai).
Regarding Claim 5, Murai teaches the semiconductor device according to claim 4, but does not explicitly teach that the TIM is a PC-TIM being a phase change thermal interface material.
However, in analogous art, Refai teaches that a TIM may be a PCTIM [0030]. It would have been obvious to the person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of filing to include the teaching of Refai since Refai teaches that TIM and PCTIM are interchangeable (MPEP 2144.06-07).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6 and 8 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the cited prior art does not teach that a thickness of the PC-TIM is greater than an amount of protrusion of the heat dissipation surface wire from the heat dissipation surface or that a thickness of the heat dissipation sheet is greater than an amount of protrusion of the heat dissipation surface wire from the heat dissipation surface in context with the remainder of the superseding claims.
Conclusion
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/EVREN SEVEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2812
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