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 .
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) 1-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Schulte-Braucks, “Schottky barrier tuning via dopant segregation in NiGeSn-GeSn contacts”, 2017 (hereinafter Schulte-Braucks) in view of QUINTERO COLMENA (USPGPUB DOCUMENT: 2022/0037477, hereinafter QUINTERO COLMENA) and Guo (USPGPUB DOCUMENT: 2017/0200526, hereinafter Guo).
Re claim 1 Schulte-Braucks discloses in Fig 6 a method for forming an ohmic contact[pg 4, Para 2] on a layer of a semiconductor material(Fig 6a)[pg 4, Para 1-2] comprising germanium and tin, comprising depositing a nickel-germanium layer(Fig 6d)[pg 5, Para 1] onto the semiconductor material layer by a deposition technique(plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition)[pg4, para3].
Schulte-Braucks does not disclose a physical vapour deposition technique; the nickel-germanium layer being a layer of a nickel-germanium alloy as deposited by the physical vapour deposition technique.
QUINTERO COLMENA discloses a physical vapour deposition technique(physical vapour deposition technique)[0035, 0046 of QUINTERO COLMENA].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the invention to apply the teachings of QUINTERO COLMENA to the teachings of Schulte-Braucks in order to obtain an ohmic contact of satisfactory quality having suitable electrical qualities [0005, QUINTERO COLMENA].
Schulte-Braucks and QUINTERO COLMENA does not disclose a physical vapour deposition technique; the nickel-germanium layer being a layer of a nickel-germanium alloy as deposited by the physical vapour deposition technique.
Guo disclose a physical vapour deposition technique[0082];
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the invention to apply the teachings of Guo to the teachings of Schulte-Braucks in order to avoid many of the various disadvantages that have prevented widespread use in various optical and photonic applications and devices [0008, Guo]. In doing so, the nickel-germanium layer being a layer of a nickel-germanium alloy(Fig 6d)[pg 5, Para 1] as deposited by the physical vapour deposition[0082 of Guo] technique.
A physical vapour deposition technique or a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition for a deposition process would have been obvious because a particular known technique was recognized as part of the ordinary capabilities of one skilled in the art. KSR, see MPEP 2143.
Re claim 2 Schulte-Braucks and QUINTERO COLMENA and Guo disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein the physical vapour deposition technique is selected from evaporation techniques, especially thermal evaporation and electron beam evaporation (EBPVD), sputtering techniques, especially cathode sputtering and ion beam sputtering (IBD), ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) (physical vapour deposition technique)[0035, 0046 of QUINTERO COLMENA].
Re claim 3 Schulte-Braucks and QUINTERO COLMENA and Guo disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein the nickel-germanium layer(Fig 6d)[pg 5, Para 1 of Schulte-Braucks] is formed by sputtering a single nickel-germanium target.
Re claim 4 Schulte-Braucks and QUINTERO COLMENA and Guo disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein the nickel-germanium layer(Fig 6d)[pg 5, Para 1 of Schulte-Braucks] is formed by co-sputtering a nickel target and a germanium target.
Re claim 5 Schulte-Braucks and QUINTERO COLMENA and Guo disclose the method according to claim 1, further comprising annealing the nickel-germanium layer(Fig 6d)[pg 5, Para 1 of Schulte-Braucks] at a temperature less than or equal to 350°C.
Re claim 6 Schulte-Braucks and QUINTERO COLMENA and Guo disclose the method according to claim 1, devoid of an annealing step(physical vapour deposition technique)[0035, 0046 of QUINTERO COLMENA].
Re claim 7 Schulte-Braucks and QUINTERO COLMENA and Guo disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein the semiconductor material(Fig 6a)[pg 4, Para 1-2 of Schulte-Braucks] is germanium-tin (GeSn) or silicon-germanium-tin (SiGeSn).
Re claim 8 Schulte-Braucks and QUINTERO COLMENA and Guo disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein the semiconductor material(Fig 6a)[pg 4, Para 1-2 of Schulte-Braucks] has an atomic percentage of tin less than or equal to 25%.
Re claim 9 Schulte-Braucks and QUINTERO COLMENA and Guo disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein the semiconductor material(Fig 6a)[pg 4, Para 1-2 of Schulte-Braucks] layer belongs to a semiconductor device of the field-effect transistor, photodetector, light-emitting diode or laser type.
Re claim 10 Schulte-Braucks and QUINTERO COLMENA and Guo disclose the method according to claim 1, wherein the nickel-germanium layer(Fig 6d)[pg 5, Para 1 of Schulte-Braucks] is deposited from a single nickel-germanium target or source, or from a nickel target or source and a germanium target or source[0082,0083 of Guo].
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-10 have been considered but are moot because the arguments do not apply to any of the references being used in the current rejection.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/PATRICIA D VALENZUELA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2812
