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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claims 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kuhara et al. (US 6,043,550) (“Kuhara”).
With regard to claim 1, fig. 24 of Kuhara discloses a light receiving element comprising: a light receiving area 269 for an optical signal 277; an anode electrode pad 272 being connected to an anode 272 of the light receiving area (267, 269); a cathode electrode pad 273 being connected to a cathode 270 of the light receiving area (267, 269), the light receiving area (267, 269), the anode electrode pad 272 and the cathode electrode pad 273 being formed on one surface (top of 267 of a substrate 266; and a ground pattern 275 being formed outside an opening region 276 on an opposite surface of the substrate 266, the opening region 276 being located at a position corresponding to the light receiving area (269, 267).
With regard to claim 2, fig. 24 of Kuhara discloses that the optical signal 277 incident into the opening region 276 is passed through the inside of the substrate 266 and received by the light receiving area (269, 267).
With regard to claim 3, fig. 24 of Kuhara discloses that the ground pattern 275 is formed on entire surface of the opposite surface except for the opening region 276.
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.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuhara et al. (US 6,043,550) (“Kuhara”) in view of Fujimura (US 2001/0042869) (“Fujimura”).
With regard to claim 5, Kuhara does not disclose a lens is formed at the opening region.
However, fig. 2 of Fujimura discloses a lens 26 is formed at the opening region 10c.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to form in the device of Kuhara a lens as taught in Fujimura in order to converge incident light to the light receiving layer. See par [0043] of Fujimura.
Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kuhara et al. (US 6,043,550) (“Kuhara”) in view of Kuhara et al. (US 2003/0152391) (“Kuhara II”).
With regard to claim 5, fig. 24 of Kuhara disclose the light receiving area (267, 269), the anode electrode pad 272, and the cathode electrode pad 273 constitute a unit element.
Kuhara does not dislcose a plurality of the unit elements are arrayed.
However, fig. 2 of Kuhara II discloses a plurality of the unit elements are arrayed 23.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to form the device of Kuhara in an array as taught in Kuhara II in order to place multiple photodiodes on a single chip. See par [0070] of Khuhara II.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4 is 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 7 is allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The primary reason for the allowance of claim 7 is that Kuhara et al. (US 6,043,550) (“Kuhara”) does not disclose a transimpedance amplifier having a signal pad being electrically connected to the anode electrode pad, and a ground pad being electrically connected to a metallized ground surface of the sub-carrier, wherein a signal current flows from the cathode electrode pad to the signal input pad, while a return current flows through a path including the ground pattern from the ground pad.
Conclusion
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/BENJAMIN TZU-HUNG LIU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2893