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 .
Response to Election/Restrictions
1. Applicant’s election of Group I, claims 12-23, in the reply filed on 09/30/2025 is acknowledged. Because applicant did not distinctly and specifically point out the supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election has been treated as an election without traverse (MPEP § 818.01(a)).
2. Claims 1-11 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention(s), there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 09/30/2025.
Status of Application
3. This application is Continuation of PCT/EP2022/056911, which was filed on 03/17/2022.
Claims 1-23 were originally presented in this application for examination.
Claims 1-23 are currently pending in this application.
Specification
4. The examiner has not checked the specification to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors (grammatical, typographical, and idiomatic). Cooperation of the applicant(s) is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant(s) may become aware of in the specification, in the claims and in any further amendment(s) that applicant(s) may file.
Applicant(s) is also requested to complete the status of the copending applications referred to in the specification by their Attorney Docket Number or Application Serial Number, if any.
The status of the parent application(s) and/or any other application(s) cross-referenced to this application, if any, should be updated in a timely manner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102(a)(1)
5. 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.
Claim(s) 12-23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Straubinger et al. (US 8,865,324 B2), hereinafter “Straubinger et al. ‘324”.
Straubinger et al. ‘324 discloses a monocrystalline SiC substrate, comprising:
a substrate structure having a main substrate surface with a main substrate surface region, a substrate thickness, and a means specific electrical resistance which is determined based on said main substrate surface region, which is at least 90% in size of said main substrate surface, and on said substrate thickness, etc.;
said main substrate surface having an edge exclusion region being at most 10% in size of said main substrate surface and surrounding said main substrate surface region; etc. (see col. 14, claim 1).
Regarding claim 12, Straubinger et al. ‘324 appears to teach the claimed monocrystalline SiC substrate having the same structure, and wherein the edge exclusion region of at most 10% disclosed by the reference meets the claim limitation on” an accumulation sub-area of at most 20%” since the disclosed range is under 20% (see col. 14, claim 1).
Regarding claims 12, 13, & 14, the disclosed substrate structure has at least 90% in size of said main substrate surface with a main substrate surface region, which meets the claim limitations on “said accumulation sub-area comprises at least 80% of all substrate screw dislocations that are present on said total main surface”, “at least 85%”, and “at least 90%”, respectively, (see col. 14, claim 1).
Regarding claim 15, the instant claim further defines that the accumulation sub-area has a size of “at most 15%” of said total main surface. This is also met by the reference teaching of “at most 10%” because the disclosed range is under 15%. Specifically, Straubinger et al. ‘324 teaches the main substrate surface has an edge exclusion region, which is at most 10% in size, which surrounds said main substrate surface region one of symmetrically and concentrically (see col. 14, claim 3).
Regarding claims 16 & 17, Straubinger et al. ‘324 is silent with respect to the density of the SiC substrate main surface. However, it would be expected that this feature exists in the disclosed SiC substrate and the density value would inherently be the same as claimed in view of the same substrate structure, diameter, electrical resistance value, etc. disclosed and claimed.
Regarding claims 18 & 19, Straubinger et al. ‘324 teaches the main substrate surface has a diameter of at least 150 mm (see col. 14, claim 5) and of at least 200 mm (see col. 14, claim 6), which appear to be the same diameters as recited in the instant claims.
Regarding claims 20 & 21, the disclosed SiC substrate is taught to be a 4H-SiC, which is the same SiC polytype as claimed (see col. 13, line 23).
Regarding claims 22 & 23, the disclosed SiC substrate has an electrical resistance value of at most 20 mὨcm (see col. 6, lines 24-25), which is falling within the claimed range of 8 mὨcm to 26 mὨcm and 10 mὨcm to 24 mὨcm, respectively.
Citations
6. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. All references are cited for related art. See PTO-892 Form prepared.
Conclusion
7. Claims 1-23 are pending. Claims 1-11 are withdrawn. Claims 12-23 are rejected. No claims are allowed.
Contacts
8. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Primary Examiner CAM N. NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-1357. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F (8:30 am – 5:00 pm) at alternative worksite or at cam.nguyen@uspto.gov.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Anthony Zimmer, can be reached at 571-270-3591. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/Cam N. Nguyen/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1736
/CNN/
February 07, 2026
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