DETAILED ACTION
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) 1-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Watanabe (US 20200091892).
Regarding claims 1-6, Watanabe discloses an acoustic wave device, in figure 28, comprising:
a support substrate 2;
a piezoelectric layer 4 on the support substrate 2; and
an IDT electrode 5 on the piezoelectric layer 4 and including a plurality of electrode fingers (figure 15);
wherein the piezoelectric layer 4 includes lithium niobate or lithium tantalate [0064].
Watanabe does not disclose the support substrate includes one of YAG (claim 2), rutile (claim 3), lanthanum aluminate (claim 4), strontium titanate (claim 5), or yttrium aluminate (claim 6).
However, it is well known in the art to use includes one of YAG, rutile, lanthanum aluminate, strontium titanate, or yttrium aluminate as a support substrate1, for the purpose of improving acoustic energy confinement and temperature stability.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to have the support substrate includes one of YAG, rutile, lanthanum aluminate, strontium titanate, or yttrium aluminate in the device disclosed by Watanabe, for the purpose of improving acoustic energy confinement and temperature stability.
Regarding claim 7, Watanabe discloses when λ is a wavelength defined by an electrode finger pitch of the IDT electrode, a thickness of the piezoelectric layer is about 1λ or smaller [0076: piezoelectric layer thickness is 600 nm, electrode finger pitch is 2000 nm, thus, the thickness is 0.3 λ].
Regarding claim 8, Watanabe discloses the piezoelectric layer 4 includes rotated Y cut X SAW propagation lithium tantalate [0119], and a cut-angle of the piezoelectric layer is an angle within a range of about 42° ±20° [0119].
Regarding claim 9, Watanabe discloses the piezoelectric layer includes lithium niobate [0066].
Watanabe does not disclose the piezoelectric layer includes rotated Y cut X SAW propagation lithium niobate [0066], and a cut-angle of the piezoelectric layer is an angle within a range of about 30° ±20°.
However, the use of specific crystal cuts and propagation directions in piezoelectric materials is well known in the art to dictate the acoustic properties of the device, such as the electromechanical coupling coefficient, acoustic velocity, and temperature stability2. Because Watanabe explicitly suggests using lithium niobate as the piezoelectric material, one of ordinary skill in the art would understand that a specific crystal cut must be selected to make the device operational.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to have the piezoelectric layer include rotated Y-cut X SAW propagation lithium niobate having a cut-angle within a range of about 30° ± 20° in the device disclosed by Watanabe, for the purpose of optimizing the acoustic wave propagation characteristics and electromechanical coupling efficiency of the acoustic wave device.
Regarding claim 10, Watanabe discloses an intermediate layer 3 between the support substrate 2 and the piezoelectric layer 4;
wherein the intermediate layer 3 includes a silicon oxide layer [0065].
Regarding claim 11, Watanabe discloses the acoustic wave device is a surface acoustic wave resonator (figure 28) [0146].
Regarding claim 12, Watanabe discloses the acoustic wave device is a filter device [0009, 0057].
Regarding claim 13, Watanabe discloses the acoustic wave device is a multiplexer [0010, 0153].
Regarding claim 14, Watanabe discloses reflectors 6/7 provided on opposite sides of the IDT electrode 5.
Regarding claim 15, Watanabe discloses each of the reflectors is defined by a single metal film [0068, 0119].
Regarding claim 16, Watanabe discloses each of the reflectors is a multilayer metal film [0068, 0119].
Regarding claim 17, Watanabe discloses each of the reflectors and the IDT electrode include a Ti layer, an AlCu layer, and a Ti layer in this order [0119].
Regarding claim 18, Watanabe discloses the intermediate layer is defined by a single layer (figure 28, 3).
Regarding claim 19, Watanabe discloses the intermediate layer is defined by a plurality of layers (figure 28, 3, 8).
Conclusion
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/BUMSUK WON/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2872
1 At least Kondo US 20050105038 discloses using YAG, lanthanum aluminate, strontium titanate, or yttrium aluminate for a substrate. At least Lee US 20120105174 or Potrepka US 20160254439 discloses using rutile for a substrate. At least Grousset US 20160261248 discloses using YAG for a substrate.
2 At least Yantchev US 20210409001, Kimura US 20210305964, Takata US 20210143796, or Lu US 20210119606 discloses piezoelectric layers with lithium niobate with cut-angle ranges.
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