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 .
The Amendment filed on 10/02/2025 has been received and entered.
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.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cho (US 2006/0023536 cited in the last office action) in view of Kwack (US 2011/0026337).
Regarding claim 8, Cho (Fig. 3) shows an apparatus, comprising:
first and second memory mats (BANKO and BANK1) adjacent along a first direction, the first and second memory mats including memory cells;
a region (MA01) between the first and second memory mats along the first direction, the region including a local input/output (LIO) line that extends along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction through the region (the lio and the lioB extend from nodes A and B along a second direction to the global input/output line gio), and further including a LIO driver and a LIO precharge circuit (110) coupled to the LIO line, and the LIO precharge circuit configured to provide a LIO precharge voltage to the LIO lines
Cho does not the LIO driver configured to drive the LIO line to data voltage levels based on data read from the memory cells or based on data to be written to the memory cells. However, Kwack discloses the first input/output driver 21 writes or reads data into/from memory cells of the first memory bank 11 through local input/output lines (e.g., LIO_up0) (Figs. 1-3). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Cho by using an input/output driver to drive the local input/output line to data voltage levels data read from the memory cells or based on data to be written to the memory cells.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 8 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-7 and 17-21 are allowed.
Claims 9-16 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.
Regarding claim 1, the prior art made of record and considered pertinent to the applicant's disclosure does not teach the claimed limitation of “an activation voltage driver circuit included in a second gap region, the second gap region including a boundary shared with the first gap region, and including a first corner at a corner of the first memory mat and further including a second corner at a corner of the second memory mat, the activation voltage driver circuit configured to provide an activation voltage to the sense amplifiers.” in combination with the other limitations thereof as is recited in the claim. Claims 2-7 depend on claim 1.
Regarding claim 9, the prior art made of record and considered pertinent to the applicant's disclosure does not teach the claimed limitation of “a second region adjacent the region in the second direction, the second region including a first activation voltage driver circuit configured to provide a first activation voltage to sense amplifiers included in the region between the first and second memory mats along the first direction.” in combination with the other limitations thereof as is recited in the claim. Claims 10 and 11 depend on claim 9.
Regarding claim 12, the prior art made of record and considered pertinent to the applicant's disclosure does not teach the claimed limitation of “a conductive activation voltage mesh including conductive lines that extend in the second direction in the region, the conductive activation voltage mesh configured to provide an activation voltage to circuits included in the region.” in combination with the other limitations thereof as is recited in the claim. Claims 13-16 depend on claim 12.
Regarding claim 17, the prior art made of record and considered pertinent to the applicant's disclosure does not teach the claimed limitation of “a conductive activation voltage mesh coupled to the activation voltage driver circuit and the sense amplifiers to provide the activation voltage from the activation voltage driver circuit in the second region to the sense amplifiers in the first region, the conductive activation voltage mesh including conductive lines extending along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction in the first region.” in combination with the other limitations thereof as is recited in the claim. Claims 18-21 depend on claim 17.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HUAN HOANG whose telephone number is (571)272-1779. The examiner can normally be reached 7:30AM-4:00PM M-F.
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, AMIR ZARABIAN can be reached at 571-272-1852. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/HUAN HOANG/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2827