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 § 103
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.
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 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2019/0355638 (Tsutsumi) in view of EP 4242268 (Sukegawa).
Tsutsumi discloses a curable resin composition having an excellent dielectric property for encapsulating semiconductor devices comprising:
a maleimide compound having a dimer acid backbone (meets Applicant’s maleimide compound (A));
an inorganic particulate filler such as silica and/or alumina (meets Applicant’s silica and/or alumina particles (D)); and
a curing accelerator/polymerization initiator (meets Applicant’s reaction initiator (B)) (e.g., abstract, [0007] [0022-0049], examples, claims).
Tsutsumi sets forth various working examples of cured products comprising a bismaleimide compound (A-1 or A-2), spherical silica (B-1), polymerization initiator (C) and optionally an epoxy resin (D-1 or D-2).
In essence, Tsutsumi differs from claims 1 and 4 in not expressly disclosing the further inclusion of the presently claimed high-relative permittivity inorganic filler (C). In this regard, Sukegawa (e.g., abstract, [0023], [0125]) discloses including an inorganic filler containing calcium titanate (meets Applicant’s high-relative permittivity inorganic filler (C)) into similar-such curable resin compositions comprising an epoxy resin and/or bismaleimide and silica or alumina particles provides a cured product having a high dielectric constant and a low dielectric loss tangent useful for the encapsulation of semiconductors. Thus, it would have been within the purview of one having ordinary skill in the art to further include a calcium titanate filler into Tsutsumi’s compositions for its expected benefit of providing a cured product having a high dielectric constant and a low dielectric loss tangent.
As to claim 2, Tsutsumi exemplified maleimide (A-1) [0077] has the formula
PNG
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144
600
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Greyscale
(meets Applicant’s formula (1) wherein m is 3 and l is 3).
As to claim 3, Tsutsumi’s exemplified maleimide (A-1) contains the presently claimed tetravalent group A having the structural formula
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48
75
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Greyscale
.
As to claim 5, Sukegawa discloses incorporating, relative to the entire composition, from 15 to 70% by volume of calcium titanate [0122] and 40 to 90% by volume total filler [0142], said volume percentages reasonably meeting the presently claimed mass percentages.
As to claim 6, Tsutsumi expressly discloses the polymerization initiator PERCUMYL D [0081].
As to claim 7, Tsutsumi exemplifies a crushed resin composition [0088] (i.e., granules).
As to claim 8, Tsutsumi’s resin composition is useful for encapsulating semiconductor devices inclusive of packaging [0003].
As to claims 9 and 10, Tsutsumi discloses cured products of the resin composition for semiconductor encapsulation [0009].
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Ana L Woodward whose telephone number is (571)272-1082. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-5pm.
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/ANA L. WOODWARD/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1765
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