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 .
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Song (jp 2007176790) in view of Zhu et al (2020/02272255).
The Song reference teaches a seed substrate for nitride crystal growth, note entire translation. There is a base substrate, fig 1, no 10. On the base substrate is grown an intermediate layer, which is porous and includes a gallium nitride crystal, note fig 1,no 11. There is a cover layer grown on the intermediate layer, the cover layer also being a group III nitride. The cover layer is not porous. The difference between the instant claim and the prior art is the making of the intermediate layer porous. However, the Zhu et al reference teaches making an intermediate layer porous by electrochemical means, note para 0076-0078. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant invention modify the Song reference by the teachings of the Zhu et al reference to make the intermediate layer porous in order to reduce the stress on the other layers during the separation step.
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Song (jp 2007176790) in view of Zhu et al (2020/02272255).
The Song and Zhu et al references are relied on for the same reasons as stated, supra, and differ from the instant claim in the cooling and removing at the same time. However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant invention to determine through routine experimentation the optimum, operable separation timing and temperature in the combined references in order to use the changes in the lattices due to heating to aid in separation.
Claim(s) 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Song (jp 2007176790) in view of Zhu et al (2020/02272255).
The Song and Zhu et al references are relied on for the same reasons as stated, supra, and differ from the instant claim in the orientation. However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant invention to determine through routine experimentation the optimum, operable orientation of the layer in the combined references in order to have the wanted orientation for further growth, noting the 0001 orientation is well known.
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Song (jp 2007176790) in view of Zhu et al (2020/02272255).
The Song and Zhu et al references are relied on for the same reasons as stated, supra, and differ from the instant claim in the polishing the base and repeating steps. However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant invention to determine through routine experimentation the optimum, operable treatment of the base for further use and repeating the steps in the combined references in order to reuse the substrate.
Claim 12 is 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 prior art does not teach the warping step as set froth in the instant claim.
Examiner’s Remarks
Claims 1 to 8, 16 and 17 stand allowed over the prior art of record.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ROBERT M KUNEMUND whose telephone number is (571)272-1464. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00 am to 4:30 pm.
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RMK
/ROBERT M KUNEMUND/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1714
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