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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) based upon provisional application PRO 63/440,300 filed on 01/20/2023.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election without traverse of “Species A (Claims 1-10)” in the reply filed on 04/22/2026, is acknowledged.
Claims 11-27 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
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 and 8-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over US 9,889,521 B2; Song et al.; 02/2018; (“521”) in view of US 11,302,667 B2; Jindo et al.; 04/2022; (“667”).
Regarding Claim 1. 521 teaches in Fig. 4 about a method of operating a wire bonding machine, the method comprising the steps of:
(a) attempting to bond (step 410) a free air ball (item 110) to a first bonding location (bond pad item 30) using a wire bonding tool (items 14,16 and corresponding tool armature);
(b) detecting that the free air ball was not properly bonded to the first bonding location in step (a) (step 440, case A, detection of ball lift wherein air ball was not properly bonded in step 410);
(c) bonding the free air ball to a second bonding location (step 450, case A, the free air ball could be bonded to a second location depending on the length of wire pulled out of the capillary prior to the ball detachment from the bond pad item 30).
521 does not teach about a method of operating a wire bonding machine, the method comprising the steps of:
(d) raising the wire bonding tool, with a wire engaged with the wire bonding tool continuous with the bonded free air ball, to a position above the bonded free air ball;
(e) weakening a neck portion of a wire above the free air ball after step (d); and
(f) separating the bonded free air ball from the wire after step (e) such that a wire tail extends below a tip of a wire bonding tool.
667 teaches in Figs. 3 and 5F about a method of operating a wire bonding machine, the method comprising the steps of:
(d) raising the wire bonding tool (Fig. 3B, wire bonding tool raising), with a wire engaged with the wire bonding tool continuous with the bonded free air ball, to a position above the bonded free air ball (Fig. 3B, “after the second bonding is ended, as illustrated in FIG. 3B, the capillary 6 is raised to the feed height”, Col. 9, Ln. 2-4; wherein, the wire remains attached to the second bonding pad);
(e) weakening a neck portion of a wire above the free air ball after step (d) (“FIG. 5F, the wire 40 bonded to the lead 47 in the second bonding is cut off”, Col. 11, 25-26); and
(f) separating the bonded free air ball from the wire after step (e) such that a wire tail extends below a tip of a wire bonding tool (Fig. 5F, after separating wire from the second bonding pad, the wire tail extends below the tip of the wire bonding tool item 6).
Thus, it would have been obvious to try by one of ordinary skill in the art, at the time the
invention was made, to consider utilizing the raising, weakening, and separating steps of 667 to provide the bonding tool with a wire tail that extends below the tip of the bonding tool in 527 in order “to verify the conductive state between the wire and the lead, to thereby detect whether or not the wire is protruded by a predetermined length from the leading end of the capillary 6” as taught by 667 in Col. 11, Ln. 52-55 and Fig. 5F.
Regarding Claim 8. 667 teaches in Fig. 2 about a method of operating a wire bonding machine, further comprising the steps of bonding the wire tail to a third bonding location, raising the wire bonding tool above the bonded wire tail with a wire supply still continuous with the bonded wire tail, and separating the wire supply from the bonded wire tail to form another wire tail below the wire bonding tool (this is a repetition of steps a-f described in claim 1, this cyclic process is continued by step “S16” after a wire tail protrusion state has been verified in step “S9”).
Regarding Claim 9. 667 teaches in Fig. 2 about a method of operating a wire bonding machine, further comprising the steps of bonding the wire tail to a third bonding location to form a first bond of a wire loop, extending a length of wire to a fourth bonding location, bonding a portion of the length of wire to the fourth bonding location to form a second bond of the wire loop, raising the wire bonding tool above the second bond with a wire supply still continuous with the second bond, and separating the wire supply from the second bond to form another wire tail below the wire bonding tool (this is a repetition of steps a-f described in claim 1, this cyclic process is continued by step “S16” after a wire tail protrusion state has been verified in step “S9”).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-7 and 10 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, since the prior art does not teach or suggest the claimed limitations.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JORGE ANDRES LOPEZ whose telephone number is (571)272-5763. The examiner can normally be reached M-F (8:30am to 5:00pm).
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Fernando Toledo can be reached on 571-272-1867. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/FERNANDO L TOLEDO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2897
/JORGE ANDRES LOPEZ/Examiner, Art Unit 2897
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