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 (Claims 1-15)” in the reply filed on 04/06/2026, is acknowledged. Claims 16-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to as failing to comply with 37 CFR 1.84(p)(4) because reference character “410” has been used to designate both “top view” and “sectional view”. Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Objections
Claims 9 and 15 are objected to because of the following informality: the use of the acronym pGAN fails to properly disclose the chemical composition as part of the acronym, rather than pGaN which properly discloses the chemical composition as part of the acronym. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 12 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. The limitation “wherein the one or more contact positions are separated by at least a contact distance” is not properly described as written, because for the case of a single contact position there is no contact distance to separate a contact position from itself.
Application will be examined with Claim 12 being best interpreted by the Examiner in the following manner:
wherein the two or more contact positions are separated by at least a contact distance, wherein the contact distance is based at least in part on a drain distance between the one or more contact positions and the drain position.
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 1-4,6-8,11 and 14-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over US 10,541,313 B2; Curatola et al.; 01/2020; (“313”).
Regarding Claim 1. 313 teaches in Figs. 1 and 2 about a method comprising:
providing a semiconductor base material comprising a first side and a second side (Fig. 1, semiconductor base material item 106 comprising an upper or first side and a lower or second side), wherein the semiconductor base material comprises a gallium nitride (GaN) material (“layer 106 can be an intrinsic layer of pure or essentially pure GaN”, Col. 5, Ln. 34-35), the first side comprises a frontside barrier layer (Fig. 1, first side of item 106 comprises barrier layer item 108), and the second side comprises a backside barrier layer (Fig. 1, second side of item 106 comprises barrier layer item 104);
forming a pGaN landing on a first region of the first side of the semiconductor base material (annotated by Examiner Fig. 1, item 124 is formed on the first region annotated by Examiner, “semiconductor region 124 includes p-type GaN”, Col. 6, Ln. 7);
removing a portion of the frontside barrier layer (Fig. 1, portion of layer item 108 removed to position item 120) on at least one portion of a second region of the first side of the semiconductor base material (annotated by examiner Fig. 1, portion of layer item 108 removed, to position item 120, is located on at least one portion of the second region of the upper side of item 106) to form an ohmic contact on the at least one portion of the second region (“input-output electrodes … 120 are in ohmic contact with the first two-dimensional charge carrier gas 110”, Col. 5, Ln. 51-53); and
removing portions of the semiconductor base material (Fig. 2, portion of layer item 106 removed to position item 132) within the at least one portion of the second region (annotated by examiner Fig. 2, portion of layer item 106 removed to position item 132 is located on at least one portion of the second region) to form back barrier contacts (Fig. 2, item 132 forms a contact with item 104).
313 does not teach about a method comprising:
removing one or more portions of the semiconductor base material at one or more contact positions within the at least one portion of the second region to form one or more back barrier contacts.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the two embodiments taught by 313 into one semiconductor device; therefore, combining the embodiments of Figs. 1 and 2 into side-by-side GAN devices within a same substrate forming multiple contact positions of different vertical lengths, since it has been held that forming in one piece an article which has formerly been formed in two pieces and put together involves only routine skill in the art. In re Larson, 144 USPQ 347, 349 (CCPA 1965). See MPEP 2144.04.
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Fig. 1, annotated by Examiner from Curatola et al., “313”
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Fig. 2, annotated by Examiner from Curatola et al., “313”
Regarding Claim 2. 313 teaches in Fig. 2 about a method comprising:
forming a metallic layer (item 132) over the at least one portion of the second region (item 132 is formed over at least one portion of the second region), wherein the metallic layer directly contacts the backside barrier layer at the one or more contact positions (item 132 directly contacts backside barrier layer item 104).
Regarding Claim 3. 313 teaches in Fig. 2 about a method comprising:
wherein the metallic layer comprises a titanium (Ti), an aluminum copper (AlCu), or a titanium nitride (TiN) material (“first contact material 132 includes an electrically conductive metal, such as … aluminum, copper, titanium, titanium nitride”, Col. 9, Ln. 5-7).
Regarding Claim 4. 313 teaches in Fig. 14 about a method comprising:
forming one or more via contact landings (item 172) at one or more via positions on the metallic layer (via position of item 172 is on the metallic layer item 132).
Regarding Claim 6. 313 teaches in Fig. 1 about a method comprising:
forming a substrate layer (layer item 130, “materials that are suitable for … layers … 130 include silicon nitride (SiN), silicon dioxide (SiO2), and silicon oxynitride (SiOxNy), to name a few”, Col. 6, Ln. 22-25) over the metallic layer (item 130 is over item 120).
Regarding Claim 7. 313 teaches in Fig. 1 about a method comprising:
wherein the substrate layer is formed using a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process (“layers … 130 are formed … using a deposition technique, such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD)”, Col. 12, Ln. 23-25).
Regarding Claim 8. 313 teaches in Fig. 1 about a method comprising:
wherein the substrate layer comprises a silicon nitride (SiN) material (“materials that are suitable for … layers … 130 include silicon nitride (SiN)”, Col. 6, Ln. 22-23).
Regarding Claim 11. 313 teaches in Fig. 1 about a method comprising:
wherein the one or more contact positions are based at least in
part on a drain position (contact position item 120 is based at least on a drain position of item 118, wherein item 118 is on one side of the gate electrode item 126 and therefore item 120 should be on the opposite side of item 126), wherein the drain position is indicative of a location of a drain on the semiconductor base material (position of item 118 indicates a position of item 118 on item 106).
Regarding Claim 14. 313 teaches in Fig. 1 about a method comprising:
further comprising forming a metal gate (item 126) on the pGaN landing to form a pGaN gate (item 126 is formed on item 124), wherein the metal gate comprises a titanium nitride (TiN) material (“gate electrode 126 can include metals … titanium, alloys thereof, metal nitrides … TiN”, Col. 6, Ln. 10-12).
Regarding Claim 15. 313 teaches in Fig. 1 about a method comprising:
forming, through a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process, a gate contact dielectric over the pGAN gate (layer item 128 is formed over the pGaN item 126, “passivation layers 128, 130 are formed … using a deposition technique, such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD)”, Col. 12. Ln. 23-25, wherein PECVD is considered a type of CVD).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 9-10 and 12-13 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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