DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to the election received on 05/07/2026.
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 1-10) in the reply filed on 05/07/2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that there would be no undue search burden to search all of the claims as many of the groups overlap in feature. This is not found persuasive because applicant has not identified an error in the restriction requirement. Search and examination burden is not a criterion for determining lack of unity of invention for applications submitted under 35 U.S.C. 371. In any case, applicant has not identified art on the record showing the two identified inventions as being patentably indistinct or stated on the record that the identified groups are obvious variants. The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claim(s) 11-16 is/are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected group, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 05/07/2026.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d) or (f), 365(a) or (b), or 386(a) based upon an application filed in JAPAN on 07/21/2021.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 04/17/2024 has/have been considered by the examiner and made of record in the application file.
Claim Objections
Claim(s) 3 and 7 is/are objected to because of the following informalities where proposed corrections are bolded and underlined:
Claim 3, final line, “decreases from the p-type layer side toward [[the]] an inner layer portion” as this is the first recitation of an inner layer portion in this claim since the claim does not depend on claim 2.
Claim 7, line 3, vicinity of [[the]] an interface between the active layer and the p-type layer” as this is the first recitation of an interface between these two layers.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-3 and 5-8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1)/(a)(2) as being anticipated by US 2021/0091268 A1; Dierolf et al.; 03/2021; (“Dierolf”).
Regarding Claim 1. Dierolf discloses A rare-earth-doped semiconductor device (Figure 5, color tunable light emission diode, [0073]-[0079])
using GaN, InN, AIN, or an alloy compound semiconductor of two or more of these as a base material (Figure 5, base materials are either GaN or AlGaN which is an alloy of GaN and AlN) and
a rare earth- doped active layer (Figure 5, top set of the 13x quantum well pair structures including a Europium doped GaN layer and two undoped GaN layers on either side) being provided between an n-type layer (Figure 5, n-GaN) and a p-type layer (Figure 5, p-GaN and AlGaN layers which include a p-type doped region) (Figure 5, all of the 13x quantum well pair structures are located between a p-type and n-type layers),
characterized in that a p-type doped layer in which a p-type dopant is added together with a rare earth element is formed in the p- type layer side of the active layer to have a thickness of 1/4 to 1/2 of the active layer (Figure 5, in the top set of the 13x quantum well pair structures near the p-type layer includes a Europium doped GaN layer which is further doped with p-type magnesium, see [0075], and has a thickness of at least 1/3 of the total active layer thickness further including upper and lower undoped layers).
Regarding Claim 2. Dierolf discloses The rare-earth-doped semiconductor device according to claim 1, characterized in that the concentration of the p-type dopant decreases from the p-type layer side toward an inner layer portion, in the p-type doped layer (Figure 5, the magnesium concentration necessarily decreases from the magnesium doped GaN layer being nearer the p-type GaN layer towards the lower undoped GaN layer as an inner portion with a gradient therebetween).
Regarding Claim 3. Dierolf discloses The rare-earth-doped semiconductor device according to claim 1, characterized in that the p-type doped layer is formed by stacking a plurality of layers having different concentrations of the p-type dopant (Figure 5, the top set of the quantum well pair structures includes a plurality of layers having different magnesium concentrations, those which are doped and the undoped layers on either side) so that the concentration of the p-type dopant decreases from the p-type layer side toward [[the]] an inner layer portion (Figure 5, the magnesium concentration necessarily decreases from the magnesium doped GaN layer being nearer the p-type GaN layer towards the lower undoped GaN layer as an inner portion with a gradient therebetween).
Regarding Claim 5. Dierolf discloses The rare-earth-doped semiconductor device according to claim 1, characterized in that the concentration of the rare earth element in the active layer is 1 x 1017 to 5 x 1021 cm-3 ([0094], the Eu concentration in each active layer is 5.6 × 1019 cm−3 which is within the claimed range).
Regarding Claim 6. Dierolf discloses The rare-earth-doped semiconductor device according to claim 1, characterized in that the rare earth element is europium (Eu) (Figure 5, [0094], the rare earth element is europium (Eu)).
Regarding Claim 7. Dierolf discloses The rare-earth-doped semiconductor device according to claim 1, characterized in that the concentration of the p-type dopant in the vicinity (examiner note: use of the word ‘vicinity’ only requires a position near the interface and does not require such a concentration at the interface) of [[the]] an interface between the active layer and the p-type layer is 1 x 1017 to 1 x 1020 cm-3 (Figure 5, [0094], the magnesium concentration in all the active layers, and thus in the vicinity of the interface, is 1 × 1019 cm−3 which is within the claimed range).
Regarding Claim 8. Dierolf discloses The rare-earth-doped semiconductor device according to claim 1, characterized in that the p-type dopant is magnesium (Mg) (Figure 5, [0094] and [0075], the p-type dopant is magnesium).
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(s) 9-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2021/0091268 A1; Dierolf et al.; 03/2021; (“Dierolf”) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of JP 2014175482 A; Fujiwara et al.; 09/2014; (“Fujiwara”).
Regarding Claim 9. Dierolf discloses The rare-earth-doped semiconductor device according to claim 1.
Dierolf does not disclose that oxygen element is further added to the active layer.
However, Fujiwara teaches a GaN LED device including an active layer which is doped with a rare earth metal like Europium (see Abstract) wherein oxygen is included in the active layer (see page 2, paragraph 13).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to consider provided oxygen in the active layer of Dierolf as was done by Fujiwara since “the light emission center of Eu can be simplified, and that a red light emitting semiconductor element with a greatly increased light emission intensity can be produced” (see page 2, paragraph 13).
Regarding Claim 10. Dierolf in view of Fujiwara discloses The rare-earth-doped semiconductor device according to claim 9, characterized in that the concentration of the oxygen element in the active layer is 1 x 1017 to 1 x 1020 cm-3 (page 3, paragraph 13, the oxygen concentration is 1 x 1017 to 1 x 1020 cm-3).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Perspective: Toward efficient GaN-based red light emitting diodes using europium doping; Mitchell et al.; 2018 – Figures 1a and 2a detail GaN light emitting diodes where magnesium is doped into the active layers with europium (see pages 3-5 and 7).
Current status for light-emitting diode with Eu-doped GaN active layer grown by MBE; Wakahara et al.; 2012 – Figures 1 and 5 detail magnesium and europium co-doping in an active layer wherein the magnesium is provided at different concentrations at changing depths within the active layer.
Eu-Doped AlGaN/GaN Superlattice-Based Diode Structure for Red Lighting: Excitation Mechanisms and Active Sites; Sedrine et al.; 2018 – The abstract and abstract figure detail a co-doped magnesium and europium active layer in a GaN led wherein the p-type layer extends partially into the active region with the europium to create a partial magnesium gradient in the active layer.
Europium-Implanted AlN Nanowires for Red Light-Emitting Diodes; Cardoso et al.; 2022 – Figure 2 discloses a GaN LED nanowire with a co-doped magnesium and europium active layer in the GaN led wherein the p-type layer extends partially into the active region including the europium to create a partial p-type magnesium gradient in the active layer.
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/TYLER J WIEGAND/Examiner, Art Unit 2812
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