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 with traverse of Group I (claims 1-14) in the reply filed on 06/04/2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that there is no undue burden on the Examiner to consider all claim in the single application. This is not found persuasive because as stated in the previous Office action, the inventions have acquired a separate status in the art due to their recognized divergent subject matter and the inventions require a different field of search (e.g., searching different classes /subclasses or electronic resources, or employing different search strategies or search queries).
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claims 15-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected Group II, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 06/04/2026.
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 3, 4, and 12 are 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.
Claim 3 recites the limitation "the gate dielectric layer" in lines 1 and 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim and therefore this limitation renders the claim indefinite.
Claim 4 is indefinite due to it dependance on indefinite claim 3.
Claim 12 recites the limitation "the respective recesses in the second direction" in line 1. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim and therefore this limitation renders the claim indefinite.
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) 1-4, 7-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang (US 2009/0026525) in view of Lee (US 2004/0166633).
Regarding claim 1, Wang discloses a semiconductor structure, comprising: a substrate (Fig.1, numeral 100) has active regions (note: regions between (110)) and non-active regions (110),; and a word line (130) over the substrate (100) and across the active regions and the non-active regions, wherein the word line (100) comprises: first conductive portions (122) over the corresponding active regions (note: regions between (110)); isolation pillars (110) over the corresponding non-active regions, wherein the first conductive portions (122) and the isolation pillars (110) are disposed alternately in the first direction (Fig.1E); an inter-gate dielectric layer (124) on the first conductive portions (122) and the isolation pillars (110); and a second conductive portion (126) on the inter-gate dielectric layer (124) and extending in the first direction (Fig.1E), wherein protruding parts of the second conductive portion (126) corresponds to the non-active regions (110).
Wang does not disclose wherein the active regions and the non-active regions are alternately disposed in a first direction and extend in a second direction and the isolation pillars are disposed on opposite sides of the corresponding protruding parts in a cross section of the non-active regions along the second direction.
Lee however discloses wherein the active regions (Fig.4, numeral 59) and the non-active regions (64) are alternately disposed in a first direction and extend in a second direction (Fig.4) and the isolation pillars (64) are disposed on opposite sides of the corresponding protruding parts of the second conductive portion (68W) in a cross section of the non-active regions (64) along the second direction (Fig. 4).
It would have been therefore obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was field to modify Wang with Lee to have the active regions and the non-active regions are alternately disposed in a first direction and extend in a second direction and the isolation pillars are disposed on opposite sides of the corresponding protruding parts in a cross section of the non-active regions along the second direction for the purpose of fabrication nonvolatile memory device with floating gates (Lee, Abstract).
Regarding claim 2, Lee discloses wherein top surfaces of the first conductive portions (58C) are coplanar with top surfaces of the isolation pillars (64).
Regarding claim 3, Wang discloses wherein the gate dielectric layer (Fig.1E, numeral 244) covers a top surface and an inner sidewall of each of the isolation pillars (110), and also covers a top surface and inner sidewalls of each of the first conductive portions (122).
Regarding claim 4, Wang discloses wherein each of the isolation pillars (Fig.1C, numeral 110) comprises two opposite sidewalls (114) that are in direct contact with the corresponding inner sidewalls of two adjacent first conductive portions (104); (108).
Regrading claim 7, Wang discloses wherein the second conductive portion (126) comprises: a main body, extending in the first direction; and the protruding parts, corresponding to the non-active regions (110) and joined to a bottom surface of the main body (126), wherein the protruding parts protrude toward the substrate (100), and lower surfaces of the protruding parts face away from the main body (126) (Fig.1E).
Regarding claim 8, Wang discloses a dielectric stack surrounding sidewalls and the bottom surfaces of the protruding parts, wherein the dielectric stack (Fig.1E, numerals 112, 114, 116, 124) includes the isolation pillars (116) and the inter-gate dielectric layer (124), wherein in a cross-section of the word line (126) along the second direction, the dielectric stack has a U-shaped cross section that corresponds to each of the non-active regions (110).
Regarding claim 9, Wang discloses wherein the second conductive portion (126) includes portions corresponding to the non-active regions (110), and the portions have a T-shaped cross-section in the second direction (Fig. 1E).
Regarding claim 10, Wang discloses wherein the second conductive portion includes portions (Fig.1E, note: portions of (126) on (122)) corresponding to the active regions, and the portions have a rectangle-shaped cross-section in the second direction (Fig.1E).
Claim(s) 11 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang in view of Lee as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Ding (US 6, 171, 909).
Regarding claim 11, Wang discloses wherein the word line has recesses over the corresponding non-active regions (Fig.1E; note” recess in (126)), wherein the inter-gate dielectric layer (124) is conformally deposited in the recesses, and portions of the second conductive portion fill (126) remaining spaces of the recesses.
Wang does not disclose that the recesses are separated from each other in the first direction.
Ding however discloses that the recesses are separated from each other in the first direction (Fig. 3, numeral 126a; Fig. 1I).
It would have been therefore obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify Wang with Ding to have recesses are separated from each other in the first direction for the purpose of forming a flash memory cell (Ding, Abstract).
Regarding claim 12, Wang discloses wherein a width of the respective recesses (Fig.1, recess in (126)) in the second direction is less than a width of the word line (126) in the second direction (note: recess in (126) is narrow).
Claim(s) 13 and 14 are is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang in view of Lee as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Lu (US 2023/0048610).
Regarding claim 13, Wang does not disclose isolation structures in the non-active regions to define the active regions, wherein the isolation pillars extend from the isolation structures in a direction away from the substrate, and the isolation pillars and the isolation structures include the same material.
Lu however discloses isolation structures (Fig.4, lower part of (110)) in the non-active regions to define the active regions (100), wherein the isolation pillars (upper part of (110)) extend from the isolation structures (lower part of (110)) in a direction away from the substrate (10) ([0020]), and the isolation pillars and the isolation structures include the same material (110).
It would have been therefore obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify Wang with Lu to have isolation structures in the non-active regions to define the active regions, wherein the isolation pillars extend from the isolation structures in a direction away from the substrate , and the isolation pillars and the isolation structures include the same material for the purpose of better control conductivity of the channels in the active regions (Lu, [0036]).
Regarding claim 14, Lu discloses wherein the isolation pillars (upper part of (110) that are positioned over one of the non-active regions (110) join corresponding portions of the isolation structure (lower portion of (110)) so as to collectively form a structure with a U-shaped cross section (Figs.1 and 4).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5 and 6 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 following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The search of the prior art does not disclose or reasonably suggest wherein the first parts and the second parts are positioned at the same horizontal level as required by claim 5.
Conclusion
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/JULIA SLUTSKER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2891
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