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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Species A represented by figure 1, and claims 1-3 and 5-8 in the reply filed on July 2, 2026 is acknowledged. Accordingly, claims 4, and 9-20 are withdrawn from consideration.
Claim 5 is withdrawn from consideration as it requires a crystalline insulating layer. This claim is drawn to figure 6. Figure 6 was listed as Species F. Species F was not elected.
Claim 6 is withdrawn from consideration as it requires the conductive alignment layer to be separated into parts as shown in figure 7A. Figure 7A was listed as Species G. Species G was not elected.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on March 6, 2024; and February 26, 2025 were considered by the examiner.
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) 1-3, and 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hwang et al. (US 2013/0032816 A1) (“Hwang”).
Regarding claim 1, Hwang teaches at least in figures 1-4:
an amorphous substrate (26; ¶ 0036, where 26 may include an oxide, and oxides are known to be amorphous. Thus, it would have been obvious that the oxide substrate disclosed in Hwang would be amorphous);
a conductive alignment layer (24) over the amorphous substrate (26);
a heterojunction structure (34/36) comprising a semiconductor layer (¶ 0037, where 34 comprises AlGan, or Gan) and a polarization layer (36) in contact with the semiconductor layer (34), over the conductive alignment layer (24); and
a gate electrode (38G) over the heterojunction structure (34/36),
wherein the heterojunction structure (34/36) comprises a recessed portion in a region overlapping the gate electrode (the region occupied by 42 is the recessed portion).
Regarding claim 2, Hwang teaches at least in figures 1-4:
wherein a gate insulating layer (42) is provided in the recessed portion (42 is formed in the recessed portion).
Regarding claim 3, Hwang teaches at least in figures 1-4:
wherein the recessed portion (area occupied by 42) is provided in the polarization layer (36).
Regarding claim 8, Hwang teaches at least in figures 1-4:
wherein the amorphous substrate (26) is an amorphous glass substrate (oxide is known in the art as glass. The most common oxide is silicon oxide and is also known as a glass. Further, as stated in claim 1 silicon oxide, i.e. glass, is known to be amorphous. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art that when Hwang teaches the substrate may be an oxide it is known that it could be silicon oxide, and it would have been obvious that silicon oxide, which is also known as glass, would be amorphous.).
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hwang, in view of Watahiki et al., "Preparation of AIGaN/GaN HEMT structures on amorphous substrates with graphene buffer layers", Proceedings of the 64th JSAP Spring Meeting 2017, March 1, 2017, 17a-503-2 (“Watahiki”).
Regarding claim 7, Hwang does not teach
wherein the conductive alignment layer (24) comprises at least one selected from titanium, graphene, and zinc oxide.
This is because Hwang teaches:
The conductive alignment layer 24 comprises Al, Cu, Au, and/or Si.
Watachiki teaches:
wherein the conductive alignment layer (the buffer layer used to grow the heterojunction structure on) comprises at least one selected from titanium, graphene, and zinc oxide (pg. 1 at experimental method).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to replace the material of Hwang with the material of Watachiki because Watachiki teaches that by using graphene as it makes it easier to achieve nitride crystal growth on a glass substate because of the low softening temperature of the substrate. One would be motivated to combine the references as it would allow for one to fabricate the device of Hwang less expensively as stated in Watachiki. One also gains the additional benefit that no surface roughness occurs with the formation of the heterojunction structure.
Conclusion
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/VINCENT WALL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2898
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