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, 2, 4, 12-13, 15-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin et al. (hereinafter Lin, US 2022/0181370) in view of Kim et al. (hereinafter Kim, US 2024/0047488).
In regards to independent claim 1, Lin teaches an imaging device, comprising:
a substrate having an isolation region (Lin, [0025]);
an array of pixels, comprising a plurality of sensing pixels and a plurality of phase detection auto focus (PDAF) pixels (Lin, Fig. 1, Fig. 2A, 104 vs 106 and 108), wherein each of the PDAF pixels comprises:
four photoelectric conversion elements in the substrate and separated by the isolation region of the substrate (Lin, Fig. 1, Four elements in 104);
a color filter layer on the four photoelectric conversion elements (Lin, 102); and
a deflection element partially over the isolation region of the substrate, wherein a refractive index of the deflection element is larger than a refractive index of the color filter layer (Lin, Fig. 2A, 112).
Lin fails to explicitly teach that a deflection element inside the color filter layer of the autofocus pixel. Kim teaches a deflection element inside the color filter layer of the autofocus pixel (Km, Fig. 5, WG). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Lin and Kim before him before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the PDAF taught by Lin to include the deflection element in the color filter of Kim in order to obtain a PDAF where the deflection element is in the color filter. One would have been motivated to make such a combination because it ensures no light leakage between color filters by coming in contact with the color filter.
In regards to dependent claim 2, Lin teaches wherein the refractive index of the deflection element is from 1.5 to 2.0 (Lin, [0028], TiN).
In regards to dependent claim 4, Lin teaches the imaging device of claim 1, wherein from a cross-section view, a height of the deflection element is smaller than ⅓ of a height of the color filter layer (Lin, Fig. 2A, 112 vs 102).
In regards to dependent claim 12, Lin teaches the imaging device of claim 1, wherein the deflection element has a rectangle shape from a top view, and the rectangle shape has a long side and a short side that is shorter than the long side (Lin, Fig. 3A, 112).
In regards to dependent claim 13, Lin teaches the imaging device of claim 12, wherein the long side is arranged to face a center of the array of pixels from the top view (Lin, Fig. 3A, 112).
In regards to independent claim 15, Lin teaches the imaging device of claim 1, wherein the deflection element has an arc shape from a top view, and an arc angle of the arc shape is larger than or equal to 90° and is smaller than 180° (Lin, Fig. 3B, 112).
In regards to dependent claim 16, Lin teaches the imaging device of claim 15, wherein a concave side of the arc shape is arranged to face a center of the array of pixels from the top view (Ling, Fig. 3E, 112).
In regards to dependent claim 17, Lin teaches the imaging device of claim 1, wherein the deflection element comprises TiO2 (Lin, [0028]).
In regards to dependent claim 18, Lin teaches the imaging device of claim 1, wherein each of the PDAF pixels is surrounded by the sensing pixels, and the deflection element is not configured in the sensing pixels (Lin, Fig. 1, 108).
In regards to dependent claim 19, Lin teaches the imaging device of claim 1. Lin fails to explicitly teach wherein an upper surface of the deflection element is in direct contact with the color filter layer. Kim teaches wherein an upper surface of the deflection element is in direct contact with the color filter layer. (Km, Fig. 5, WG). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, having the teachings of Lin and Kim before him before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the PDAF taught by Lin to include the deflection element in the color filter of Kim in order to obtain a PDAF where the deflection element is in the color filter. One would have been motivated to make such a combination because it ensures no light leakage between color filters by coming in contact with the color filter.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3,5-11,14 and 20 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WILLIAM C TRAPANESE whose telephone number is (571)270-3304. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 7am-12pm & 8pm-10pm EST.
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/WILLIAM C TRAPANESE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2812
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