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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
Page 16, line 11: The second range listed for the thermistor film appears to be redundant. A possible correction would be removing the second range: “In this embodiment, the thickness of the thermistor film 5 may range from 80 nm to 300 nm
Page 22, line 6: 11b is described as the first connection member even though 11a has already been described as the first connection member. Possible correction: “The second connection member 11b”
Page 29, line 5: The second time range appears to be redundant. Possible correction: “set to a range of from 0.5 hours to 5 hours
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.
Claims 1 and 2 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Funahashi (US 20210241946 A1), hereinafter referred to as “Funahashi”.
Regarding claim 1, Funahashi discloses a thermistor element (Para. 10) comprising: a thermistor film formed of an oxide having a spinel crystal structure; (Para. 48, Para. 49/L9-11, Fig. 8(a) Element 10) a first surface-side electrode provided in contact with a first surface of the thermistor film; (Para. 77/L1-18, Fig. 8(a) Element 13j) and a second surface-side electrode provided in contact with a second surface of the thermistor film, (Para. 77/L1-18, Fig. 8(a) Element 13l) wherein the first surface-side electrode includes a first electrode and a second electrode that is disposed to be separated from the first electrode in a plan view, (Para. 77/L1-18, Fig. 8(a) Element 13j, 13k) and at least a part of the first electrode and at least a part of the second electrode are disposed to overlap the second surface-side electrode in a plan view, (Para. 77/L1-18, Fig. 8(b) Element 13) and in the thermistor film, an oxygen concentration of a second region located between the first electrode and the second electrode in a plan view (Fig 8(b) distance d) is higher than an oxygen concentration of a first region consisting of a region that overlaps the first electrode and the second surface-side electrode in a plan view and a region that overlaps the second electrode and the second surface-side electrode in a plan view. (Fig. 8(b) 13j and 13k. Oxygen concentration is higher in the second region because the thermistor material 10 is thicker in the second region compared to the first. A thicker material means more oxygen in a plan view.)
Regarding claim 2, Funahashi discloses an electromagnetic wave sensor comprising at least one of the thermistor element according to claim 1. (Para 149/L1-4, A temperature sensor using a thermistor measures infrared radiation, which is an electromagnetic wave.)
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 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Funahashi in light of Hornbeck (US 5021663 A), hereinafter referred to as “Hornbeck”. Funahashi teaches the electromagnetic wave sensor according to claim 2 as discussed above but does not disclose a plurality of thermistors in an array.
However, Hornbeck discloses at least one of the thermistor element includes a plurality of the thermistor elements, and the thermistor elements are arranged in an array. (C3/L5-7, Fig. 2, Fig. 5b)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to substitute the thermistor elements in the array of Hornbeck with the thermistor element taught by Funahashi. They would have been motivated to make this substitution to arrange the thermistor sensors with a high fill factor as taught by Hornbeck (C3/L40-43). Said substitution would have had a reasonable expectation of success.
Conclusion
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/Ramsey Lane Stuart/Examiner, Art Unit 2831
/KYUNG S LEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2831
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