DETAILED ACTION
This action is in response to applicant’s amendment received on 11/17/2025. The indication of allowability of claim 6 set forth in the Office Action mailed 09/04/2025 is withdrawn in light of further consideration of the prior art. Since this new rejection did not result from a newly added limitation to claim 1, this Office Action is being made non-final to afford the applicant the opportunity to respond to the grounds of rejection.
Claims 1-5 and 7-20 are pending. Claim 6 is cancelled.
Claim Objections
Claims 15-17 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Regarding claim 15, in line 11, “the capillary channel has” should read –the capillary channels have--.
Regarding claims 16-17, the claims are objected by virtue of their dependency on claim 15.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102:
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.
Claims 1-5, 7, 9, 11, 15 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Belady et al. (US 2006/0238984, herein “Belady”).
Regarding claim 1, Belady discloses:
a heat sink (300A, fig. 3; 600, fig. 6) (figs. 3-4 and 6) configured to transfer heat away from an integrated circuit (310A) [par. 0016], the heat sink (300A, fig. 3; 600, fig. 6) comprising:
a base (the portion of plate 600, figure 6, where plural channels 610 are arranged, as it applies to the embodiment of fig. 3) configured to be mounted over the integrated circuit (310A) in contact with thermal interface material (350A) on the integrated circuit (310A) (fig. 3) [par. 0016];
a sidewall extending from the base (the portion of plate 600, figure 6, where plural channels 610 are arranged, as it applies to the embodiment of fig. 3) (see annotated fig. 6-BELADY, below); and
a channel (330A, fig. 3; 610, fig. 6) [par. 0037] extending along the base away from the integrated circuit (310A) (see annotated fig. 6-BELADY, below),
wherein at the base at least a portion of the channel (330A, fig. 3; 610, fig. 6) has the thermal interface material (350A) therein (seen in fig. 3).
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MPEP 2114 II clearly states “Apparatus claims cover what a device is, not what a device does." Because Claim 1 fails to further limit the apparatus in terms of structure, but rather only recite further functional limitations, regarding the “the capillary channel configured to draw oil released from the thermal interface material away from the integrated circuit by capillary action” limitations, the channels (330A, fig. 3; 610, fig. 6) as taught by Belady are deemed fully capable of being configured as capillary channels capable of drawing oil released from the thermal interface material. It is noted, Belady alludes to the possibility of using thermal greases as thermal interface material [par. 0019], and thermal greases are known to be composed of a base oil of silicone fluid compounded with thermally conductive fillers.
Regarding claim 2, Belady discloses:
the capillary channel (330A, fig. 3; 610, fig. 6) extending from the base to the sidewall and along the sidewall (see annotated fig. 6-BELADY, above).
Regarding claim 3, Belady discloses:
the capillary channel (330A, fig. 3; 610, fig. 6) extending along the base to both the sidewall and an additional sidewall of the heat sink (300A, fig. 3; 600, fig. 6) (see annotated fig. 6-BELADY, above).
Regarding claim 4, Belady discloses:
the capillary channel (330A, fig. 3; 610, fig. 6) being one of a plurality of capillary channels (330A, fig. 3; 610, fig. 6) extending from the base to both the sidewall and an additional sidewall of the heat sink (300A, fig. 3; 600, fig. 6) (see annotated fig. 6-BELADY, page 3).
Regarding claim 5, Belady discloses:
the capillary channel (330A, fig. 3; 610, fig. 6) extending continuously from the base to the sidewall (see annotated fig. 6-BELADY, page 3); and
the sidewall being oriented 90° relative to the base (see annotated fig. 6-BELADY, page 3).
Regarding claim 7, Belady discloses:
the heat sink (300A, fig. 3; 600, fig. 6) further comprising a pedestal including the base, and a plurality of sidewalls including the sidewall (see annotated fig. 6-BELADY, page 3).
Regarding claim 9, Belady discloses:
the capillary channel (330A, fig. 3; 610, fig. 6) being an open channel (seen in figs. 3 and 6).
Regarding claim 11, Belady discloses:
the capillary channel (330A, fig. 3; 610, fig. 6) being an open channel (seen in figs. 3 and 6) including an open square prism.
Regarding claim 15, Belady discloses:
a heat sink (300A, fig. 3; 600, fig. 6) (figs. 3-4 and 6) configured to transfer heat away from an integrated circuit (310A) mounted to a circuit board (312) [par. 0016], the heat sink (300A, fig. 3; 600, fig. 6) comprising:
a base (the portion of plate 600, figure 6, where plural channels 610 are arranged, as it applies to the embodiment of fig. 3) configured to be mounted over the integrated circuit (310A) and the circuit board (312) in contact with thermal interface material (350A) on the integrated circuit (310A) (fig. 3) [par. 0016];
a plurality of sidewalls extending from the base (the portion of plate 600, figure 6, where plural channels 610 are arranged, as it applies to the embodiment of fig. 3), the plurality of sidewalls and the base defining a heat sink pedestal (see annotated fig. 6-BELADY, page 3); and
a plurality of channels (330A, fig. 3; 610, fig. 6) [par. 0037] extending from the base to and along at least one of the plurality of sidewalls (see annotated fig. 6-BELADY, page 3),
wherein at the base at least a portion of the channels (330A, fig. 3; 610, fig. 6) have the thermal interface material (350A) therein (seen in fig. 3).
MPEP 2114 II clearly states “Apparatus claims cover what a device is, not what a device does." Because Claim 1 fails to further limit the apparatus in terms of structure, but rather only recite further functional limitations, regarding the “the plurality of capillary channels configured to draw oil released from the thermal interface material away from the integrated circuit and the circuit board by capillary action” limitation, the channels (330A, fig. 3; 610, fig. 6) as taught by Belady are deemed fully capable of being configured as capillary channels capable of drawing oil released from the thermal interface material. It is noted, Belady alludes to the possibility of using thermal greases as thermal interface material [par. 0019], and thermal greases are known to be composed of a base oil of silicone fluid compounded with thermally conductive fillers.
Regarding claim 16, Belady discloses:
The plurality of capillary channels (330A, fig. 3; 610, fig. 6) being open channels at the base and open channels at the plurality of sidewalls (see annotated fig. 6-BELADY, page 3).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103:
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 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Belady in view of Kurahori et al. (US 2022/0270947, herein “Kurahori”).
Regarding claim 10, Belady discloses:
the capillary channel (330A, fig. 3; 610, fig. 6) being an open channel (seen in figs. 3 and 6), and also discloses that the capillary channel may have various shapes including, but are not limited to, rectangular, square, round, elliptical, angular, bent, circular, and other geometrical shapes, but does not disclose the channel including a radius of 0.8mm — 2.5mm.
Kurahori, also directed to a heat sink (1) (figs. 1-5) configured to transfer heat away from an integrated circuit (4) [par. 0001], the heat sink (1) comprising: a base (the portion of plate 2 that occupies the attachment area 21) configured to be mounted over the integrated circuit (4) in contact with thermal interface material (5) on the integrated circuit (4) (fig. 1) [par. 0031]; a sidewall (23) extending from the base (the portion of plate 2 that occupies the attachment area 21) (figs. 1 and 3-5); and a capillary channel (22) (since oil 6 adheres to the groove top surface 22d and forms into a droplet because of the surface tension and is retained on the groove top surface 22d) [par. 0037] extending along the base (the portion of plate 2 that occupies the attachment area 21) away from the integrated circuit (4) (seen in fig. 1), the capillary channel (22) configured to draw oil (6) released from the thermal interface material (5) away from the integrated circuit (4), teaches that the sizing of the capillary channels to be design to a size to which capillary action works [par. 0045-0046]. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have the channel including a radius of 0.8mm — 2.5mm, since it has been held that discovering an optimum value of a result effective variable involves only routine skill in the art. (MPEP 2144.05, Section II). In this instance, the channel radius is recognized as a result-effective variable, i.e. a variable which achieves a recognized result. In this case, the recognized result is that having the optimal channel radius, interplay between surface tension and the adhesion of the fluid to the channel walls is optimized. Therefore, since the general condition of the claim, i.e. that the capillary channel is design to a size to which capillary action works was disclosed in the prior art by the combination of Belady and Kurahori, it is not inventive to discover the optimum workable range by routine experimentation.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 18-20 are allowed.
Claims 8, 12-14 and 17 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.
Response to Arguments
The objections to the drawings and the rejection of claims 12-14, 17 and 19 under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, are withdrawn in light of the amendments.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GUSTAVO A HINCAPIE SERNA whose telephone number is (571)272-6018. The examiner can normally be reached 9am-5:30pm.
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/GUSTAVO A HINCAPIE SERNA/Examiner, Art Unit 3763
/LEN TRAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3763