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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Status of the Claims
Applicant’s election, without traverse, of claims 1-13 in the reply filed on April 30th, 2026, is acknowledged. Claims 14-20 have been withdrawn from consideration. Claims 1-20 are pending.
Action on merits of Group I, claims 1-13 as follows.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on May 16th, 2024 has been considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings filed on 12/18/2023 are acceptable.
Specification
The specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant's cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
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.
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 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.
Claims 1-2 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Carpenter (US 2022/0052667, hereinafter as Carp ‘667) in view of Marbell (US 2022/0157671, hereinafter Marb ‘671).
Regarding Claim 1, Carp ‘667 teaches a device, comprising:
a substrate (Fig. 1H, (12); [0030]);
an integrated circuit die (14; [0030]) designed to function at a high temperature, wherein the integrated circuit die (14); and wherein the integrated circuit die receives signals from the substrate and transmits signals to the substrate;
a package lid (80; [0042]) to enclose the integrated circuit die and is disposed on an opposite side of the integrated circuit die from the substrate, wherein the package lid functions as a heatsink (see para. [0043]);
a thermo-mechanical attachment layer (60; [0038]) between the integrated circuit die (14) and the package lid (80); and
one or more microfabricated metal pillars (36; [0033]), wherein the one or more microfabricated metal pillars (36) incorporate thermo-mechanical pathways and signal pathways, and wherein the one or more microfabricated metal pillars connect the integrated circuit die (14) to the substrate (12).
Thus, Carp ‘667 is shown to teach all the features of the claim with the exception of explicitly the limitations: “one or more high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs)”.
Marb ‘671 teaches one or more high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) (see para. [0074] and [0123]).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Carp ‘667 by having one or more high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) for using in the high power and/or high frequency applications (see para. [0008]) as suggested by Marb ‘671.
Regarding Claim 2, Carp ‘667 teaches the integrated circuit die is a monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) die (see para. [0048]).
Regarding Claim 6, Marb ‘671 teaches drain (154; [0099]) and gate electrodes (152; [0099]).
Carp ‘667 and Marb ‘671 are shown to teach all the features of the claim with the exception of explicitly the limitations: “one or more drains and gate electrodes that are curvilinear arcs”.
However, it has been held to be within the general skill of a worker in the art to select curvilinear arcs shape for the drains and gate electrodes on the basis of it suitability for the intended use as a matter of obvious design choice. In re Leshin, 125 USPQ 416. In re Dailey, 357 F.2d 669, 149 USPQ 47 (CCPA 1966) (The court held that the configuration of the claimed disposable plastic nursing container was a matter of choice which a person of ordinary skill in the art would have found obvious absent persuasive evidence that the particular configuration of the claimed container was significant.). A person of ordinary skills in the art is motivated to select curvilinear arcs shape for the drains and gate electrodes when this improves the performance of the semiconductor devices.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5 and 7-13 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. Claim 10-12 are objected to as being dependent upon objected claim 8.
Examiner’s Note
Applicant is reminded that the Examiner is entitled to give the broadest reasonable interpretation to the language of the claims. Furthermore, the Examiner is not limited to Applicants' definition which is not specifically set forth in the claims. See MPEP 2111, 2123, 2125, 2141.02 VI, and 2182.
Examiner has cited particular paragraph numbers in the references applied to the claims above for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant in preparing responses, to fully consider the references in their entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner. See MPEP 2141.02 VI.
In the case of amending the claimed invention, Applicant is respectfully requested to indicate the portion(s) of the specification which dictate(s) the structure relied on for proper interpretation and also to verify and ascertain the metes and bounds of the claimed invention.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The following patents are cited to further show the state of the art with respect to semiconductor devices:
Wood et al. (US 2009/0068791 A1)
Lu et al. (US 2008/0003720 A1)
Sikka (US 6292367 B1)
For applicant’s benefit portions of the cited reference(s) have been cited to aid in the review of the rejection(s). While every attempt has been made to be thorough and consistent within the rejection it is noted that the PRIOR ART MUST BE CONSIDERED IN ITS ENTIRETY, INCLUDING DISCLOSURES THAT TEACH AWAY FROM THE CLAIMS. See MPEP 2141.02 VI.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DZUNG T TRAN whose telephone number is (571) 270-3911. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8 AM-5PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sue Purvis can be reached on (571) 272-1236. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DZUNG TRAN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2893
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