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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Group I and Species A in the reply filed on 12 November 2025 is acknowledged.
Claims 4-6, 14-16, 21-24, and 28-30 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention and/or species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 12 November 2025.
Claim Objections
Claim 11 is objected to because of the following informalities:
Re. claim 11: the term “a heat generating electronic component” in line 5 should be changed to “the heat generating electronic component” because this limitation is previously found in line 2.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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) 1-3, 7, 11-13, 17, 25-27, 31 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Peng (US 2007/0107874 A1).
Re. claim 1: Peng discloses a cold plate assembly comprising:
a cold plate (1) comprised of a thermally conductive material, the cold plate having a first surface (bottom surface of 12) attachable to a heat generating electronic component (4) of an information processing system and having a second surface (top surface of 12) opposite to the first surface and comprising an array of more than one riser columns (2) extending orthogonally from the second surface of the cold plate; (see fig. 5; para. 0017-0019)
a stacked arrangement of two or more levels of fins (3) that are physically attached to at least one of the more than one riser columns perpendicular to the at least one of the more than one riser columns, the two or more levels spaced apart, substantially in parallel with each other and with the second surface to form a fin stack; and (see fig. 1, 5; para. 0017-0020)
an encapsulating lid (11) attachable to the second surface to form a liquid cooling cavity that encloses the fin stack and comprising an intake port (111) and an exhaust port (112) that are laterally positioned and aligned with the fin stack to create liquid flow through the fin stack for liquid cooling. (see fig. 4, 5; para. 0017-0019)
Re. claim 2: Peng discloses wherein each of the one or more fins (3) of the fin stack comprises a flat geometric shape (square shape) configured to increase rate of liquid flow through the fin stack and mitigate sedimentation and scaling. (see fig. 4)
Re. claim 3: Peng discloses wherein each of the one or more fins (31, 32) of the fin stack comprises a non-flat geometric shape (“F” shape when combined with wee, 114) configured to increase convection heat transfer performance. (see fig. 6, 7; para. 0020-0021)
Re. claim 7: Peng discloses wherein each of the one or more fins of the fin stack are physically attached to one or more riser columns via an attachment process from among a group comprising a brazed attachment, a press-fit attachment, a soldered attachment (soldering), and an adhesive attachment. (see para. 0017-0018)
Re. claim 11: Peng discloses An information processing system comprising:
at least one heat generating electronic component (4); and
a cold plate assembly comprising:
a cold plate (1) comprised of a thermally conductive material, the cold plate having a first surface (bottom surface of 12) attachable to the heat generating electronic component of an information processing system and having a second surface (top surface of 12) opposite to the first surface and comprising an array of more than one riser columns (2) extending orthogonally from the second surface of the cold plate; (see fig. 5; para. 0017-0019)
a stacked arrangement of two or more levels of fins (3) that are physically attached to at least one of the more than one riser columns perpendicular to the at least one of the more than one riser columns, the two or more levels spaced apart, substantially in parallel with each other and with the second surface to form a fin stack; and (see fig. 1, 5; para. 0017-0020)
an encapsulating lid (11) attachable to the second surface to form a liquid cooling cavity that encloses the fin stack and comprising an intake port (111) and an exhaust port (112) that are laterally positioned and aligned with the fin stack to create liquid flow through the fin stack for liquid cooling. (see fig. 4, 5; para. 0017-0019)
Re. claim 12: Peng discloses wherein each of the one or more fins (3) of the fin stack comprises a flat geometric shape (square shape) configured to increase rate of liquid flow through the fin stack and mitigate sedimentation and scaling. (see fig. 4)
Re. claim 13: Peng discloses wherein each of the one or more fins (31, 32) of the fin stack comprises a non-flat geometric shape (“F” shape when combined with 122, 114) configured to increase convection heat transfer performance. (see fig. 6, 7; para. 0020-0021)
Re. claim 17: Peng discloses wherein each of the one or more fins of the fin stack are physically attached to one or more riser columns via an attachment process from among a group comprising a brazed attachment, a press-fit attachment, a soldered attachment(soldering), and an adhesive attachment. (see para. 0017-0018)
Re. claim 25: Peng discloses a method of manufacturing a stacked fin cold plate for providing liquid cooling of heat generating electronic components, the method comprising:
physically attaching a stacked arrangement of two or more levels of fins (3) that are to at least one of more than one riser columns (2) of a cold plate (1) perpendicular to the at least one of the more than one riser columns, the two or more levels spaced apart and substantially in parallel with each other to form a fin stack, the cold plate comprised of a thermally conductive material, (see fig. 1, 5; para. 0017-0020)
the cold plate having a first surface (bottom surface of 12) attachable to a heat generating electronic component (4) of an information processing system and having a second surface (top surface of 12) substantially in parallel to the fin stack, opposite to the first surface, and comprising the more than one riser columns extending orthogonally from the second surface of the cold plate; and (see fig. 5; para. 0017-0019)
attaching an encapsulating lid (11) to the second surface to form a cold plate assembly having a liquid cooling cavity that encloses the fin stack and comprising an intake port (111) and an exhaust port (112) that are laterally positioned and aligned with the fin stack to create liquid flow through the fin stack for liquid cooling. (see fig. 4, 5; para. 0017-0019)
Re. claim 26: Peng discloses configuring each of the one or more fins (3) of the fin stack to have a flat geometric shape (square shape to increase rate of liquid flow through the fin stack and mitigate sedimentation and scaling. (see fig. 4)
Re. claim 27: Peng discloses configuring each of the one or more fins of the fin stack to have a non-flat geometric shape (“F” shape when combined with 122, 114) to increase convection heat transfer performance. (see fig. 6, 7; para. 0020-0021)
Re. claim 31: Peng discloses physically attaching each of the one or more fins of the fin stack to one or more riser columns by an attachment process from among a group comprising brazing, press-fitting, soldering (soldering), and adhering via an adhesive. (see para. 0017-0018)
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.
Claim(s) 8, 18, and 32-33 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Peng as applied to claims 1, 11, and 25 above, and further in view of Mochizuki et al. (US 2003/0066628 A1).
Re. claims 8, 18, and 32: Peng fails to disclose:
wherein each riser column comprises a hollow pipe filled with a saturated working fluid to support thermal convection through evaporation and condensation in addition to thermal conduction away from the heat generating electronic component.
However, Mochizuki discloses:
wherein a riser column (11) comprises a hollow pipe (4) filled with a saturated working fluid (10) to support thermal convection through evaporation and condensation in addition to thermal conduction away from the heat generating electronic component (1). (see fig. 1; para. 0028-0034)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to make the riser column of Peng into a hollow pipe with a saturated working fluid as taught by Mochizuki. One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to do this in order to lower heat resistance between the electronic component and the heat dissipating fins. (Mochizuki para. 0009-0012)
Re. claim 33: Peng fails to disclose:
wherein the thermally conductive material used to form the cold plate comprises copper.
However, Mochizuki discloses:
wherein the thermally conductive material used to form the cold plate comprises copper. (see para. 0028-0034)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to make the thermally conductive material of the cold plate to comprise copper as taught by Mochizuki. One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to do this in order to make the cold plate out of a well-known conductor material. (Mochizuki para. 0028)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9, 10, 19, 20, 34, and 35 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.
Re. claims 9, 19, and 34: the limitations of “the thermally conductive material of the cold plate comprises copper; and the second surface, the more than one riser columns, and the more than one fins are coated with at least one material that is one or more of hydrophobic, non-conductive, and anti-corrosive to enable use of facility water as a cooling liquid” in combination with the remaining limitations in the claim cannot be found in the prior art. It is well known in the art to make the cold plate comprise copper. However, copper itself is non-corrosive in water and one of ordinary skill in the art would not have been motivated to further coat the copper with one or more of hydrophobic, non-conductive, and anti-corrosive. The copper itself would have been able to withstand the use of facility water and one of ordinary skill in the art would not have wanted the added expense of the anti-corrosive.
Re. claims 10, 20, and 35: the limitations of “wherein the more than one levels of fins of the fin stack are spaced apart at least 800 microns and the encapsulating lid is configured to maintain a flow velocity of at least 0.7 m/s of liquid impinging the fin stack to prevent sedimentation within the fin stack” in combination with the remaining limitations in the claim cannot be found in the prior art. The prior art does not teach the combination of fin spacing and flow velocity being used to prevent sedimentation.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Lin et al. (US 7,426,956 B2) discloses a fin stack with a plurality of columns filled with working fluid. Hsu (US 7,013,957 B2) discloses an end structure of a heat pipe with fin stack.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ADAM B DRAVININKAS whose telephone number is (571)270-1353. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9a-6p MT.
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June 11, 2026
/ADAM B DRAVININKAS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2841
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