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 § 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee, US 2012/0074424 in view of Tischler et al., US Patent 5,679,152.
Lee shows the invention substantially as claimed including a method of manufacturing a non-emitting III-nitride semiconductor stacked structure, comprising:
Preparing a growth substrate SUB1;
Forming a plurality of protrusions 7 on the growth substrate;
Growing a first buffer layer 300a to cover the plurality of protrusions on the growth substrate;
Forming a plurality of growth prevention films 70 on the first buffer layer;
Growing a second buffer layer 300b from the first buffer layer exposed through the growth prevention films; and
Forming a non-emitting III-nitride semiconductor stacked structure (300’, 200) on the second buffer layer (see fig. 8 and paragraphs 0089-0092).
Lee does not expressly disclose where the growth substrate comprises silicon. Tischler et al. discloses growing a layer of gallium nitride using silicon as a growth substrate 20 (see col. 7-lines 46-56). In view of this disclosure, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the primary reference of Lee so as to utilize silicon as the growth substrate because Tischler et al. shows the suitability of using silicon as a growth substrate for the formation of a gallium nitride layer.
With respect to dependent claim 2, note that when giving the claim its broadest reasonable interpretation, Lee discloses wherein in the forming of a growth prevention film, a plurality of growth prevention films are formed on the upper part of each protrusion and between the protrusions because a single layer can be broken up to an infinite number of smaller layers particularly since there is nothing in the claim to distinguish the layers.
Claim(s) 5-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee, US 2012/0074424 in view of Tischler et al., US Patent 5,679,152 as applied to claims 1-2 above, and further in view of Lee et al., KR 10-2015-0049806.
Lee and Tischler et al. are applied as above but do not expressly disclose wherein the plurality of protrusions are formed of a different material from the growth substrate. Lee et al. discloses wherein protrusions 211 and a growth substrate 100 are formed of different materials (see, for example, “Description of Embodiments”, and paragraphs 0038-0043). In view of this disclosure, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the process of Lee modified by Tischler et al. so as to comprise the growth substrate and protrusions of different materials as shown by Lee et al. because this is shown to be a suitable configuration with which to grow GaN based devices.
Concerning dependent claim 6, note that as described previously, Lee discloses where the protrusions and the growth substrate can be composed of the same material (see paragraph 0090). On this basis, official notice is taken that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to etching a top layer of the growth substrate would be an effective means with which to form the plurality of protrusions.
As to dependent claim 7, note that Lee discloses a seed layer 30 and a III-nitride semiconductor layer 30a that can be formed on the seed layer (see, for example, figs. 7d-7f).
With respect to dependent claims 8-9, note that the III-nitride semiconductor layer and/or seed layer can be exposed by etching (see, for example, figs. 7C-7F).
Claim(s) 10-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee, US 2012/0074424 in view of Tischler et al., US Patent 5,679,152 and Lee et al., KR 10-2015-0049806 as applied to claims 5-9 above, and further in view of Cho et al., KR 10-2014-0148200.
Lee, Tischler et al., and Lee et al. are applied as above but do not expressly disclose wherein the plurality of protrusions are formed by lifting off the protrusion base layer. Cho et al. discloses where a substrate 10 is separated by a group III nitride semiconductor using a lifting off technique (see translation and figs. 4-5 and 8 and their descriptions). In view of this disclosure, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the process of Lee modified by Tischler et al. and Lee et al. so as to form the plurality of protrusions by a lift-off technique because Cho et al. shows this to be a suitable method with which to remove a GaN layer from a growth substrate.
Regarding dependent claim 11, note that Lee discloses the formation of a seed layer 30 (see figs. 7d-7f).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US 2010/0078672 discloses the formation of a group III-nitride semiconductor based device using a growth substrate (see abstract).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RICHARD A BOOTH whose telephone number is (571)272-1668. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday, 8:30 to 5:00.
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/RICHARD A BOOTH/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2812
May 2, 2026
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