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
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 1, 4-10 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee (US PGPub 2019/0280063).
Claim 1: Lee teaches a method for manufacturing a display device, the method comprising: preparing a substrate comprising a display area, a pad area, a peripheral area, a first electrode, and an intermediate layer, the first electrode (101) and the intermediate layer (130) being in the display area; forming a preliminary first lift-off layer (161) on the substrate (100) (Fig. 4A); forming a first photoresist pattern on (171) the preliminary first lift-off layer and defining a photo-opening part overlapping with the display area (Fig. 4B); etching the preliminary first lift-off layer to form a first lift-off layer exposing the display area (Fig. 4C); forming a second electrode (141) on the intermediate layer through the photo-opening part (Fig. 4E); and removing the first lift-off layer and the first photoresist pattern (Fig. 4F). Though not specifically disclosed, one of ordinary skill in the art would know that the display device would contain pad and peripheral areas in addition to the display are as they are commonly known in the art.
Claim 4: Lee teaches [0078] the first lift-off layer comprises polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).
Claim 5: Lee teaches [0022] the forming of the first lift-off layer comprises: etching the preliminary first lift-off layer by a first solvent comprising fluorine by using the first photoresist pattern as a mask.
Claim 6: Lee teaches [0082] the first solvent comprises hydrofluoroether (HFE).
Claim 7: Lee teaches [0092] the removing the first lift-off layer and the first photoresist pattern comprises: treating the first lift-off layer and the first photoresist pattern with a second solvent comprising fluorine.
Claim 8: Lee teaches preparing the substrate comprises: preparing a base substrate in which the display area and the pad area are defined; forming the first electrode on the base substrate to overlap with the display area (Fig. 3); forming a pixel definition layer (110) defining a pixel opening part exposing a portion of the first electrode (Fig. 3) and comprising a liquid repelling part comprising a liquid repelling material; and forming the intermediate layer on the first electrode (Fig. 4D).
Claim 9: Lee teaches (Fig. 4A-F) at least a portion of the liquid repelling part is removed by the etching process during the forming of the first lift-off layer.
Claim 10: Lee teaches the forming the intermediate layer comprises [0056-0060]: forming a hole transport region (131) on the first electrode; forming an emission layer (132) on the hole transport region (135); and forming an electron transport region on the emission layer.
Claim 12: Lee teaches (Fig. 4E) the forming the second electrode (141) is performed through a deposition process.
Claims 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee (US PGPub 2019/0280063) as applied to claim 8 above, and further in view of Pan et al. (US PGPub 2018/0230321)
Regarding claim 11, as described above, Lee substantially reads on the invention as claimed, except Lee does not teach forming the intermediate layer is performed through an inkjet process. Pan teaches using inkjet printing as a known method for depositing the various layers of the intermediate layer of a display device [0172].Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method taught by Lee to have specified the use of inkjet printing as it is a known deposition method as taught by Pan [0172].
Claims 17, 19, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lee (US PGPub 2019/0280063) in view of Pan et al. (US PGPub 2018/0230321)
Claim 17: Lee teaches (see claim 2) (Fig. 4A-F) a method for manufacturing a display device, the method comprising: preparing a base substrate comprising a display area, the display area comprising multiple pixel areas and a pad area; forming a first electrode (101) and a pixel definition layer (110), on the base substrate (100), the pixel definition layer defining pixel-opening parts, each one of the pixel-opening parts overlapping a pixel area; providing an intermediate layer in the pixel-opening parts; forming a first lift-off layer exposing the display area and comprising fluorine, and a first photoresist pattern in which a photo-opening part exposing the display area is defined; forming a second electrode on the intermediate layer through the photo-opening part; and removing the first lift-off layer and the first photoresist pattern. Though not specifically disclosed, one of ordinary skill in the art would know that the display device would contain pad and peripheral areas in addition to the display are as they are commonly known in the art. Lee does not teach providing the intermediate layer by an inkjet printing method. Pan teaches using inkjet printing as a known method for depositing the various layers of the intermediate layer of a display device [0172].Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method taught by Lee to have specified the use of inkjet printing as it is a known deposition method as taught by Pan [0172].
Claim 19: Lee teaches forming of the first lift-off layer and the first photoresist pattern comprises: forming a preliminary lift-off layer on the display area and the pad area; forming the first photoresist pattern on the preliminary first lift-off layer; and etching the preliminary first lift-off layer using the first photoresist pattern as a mask to form the first lift-off layer.
Claim 20: Lee teaches (Fig. 4A-F) the pixel definition layer comprises: a first pixel definition part on the base substrate; and a second pixel definition part on the first pixel definition part and comprising a liquid-repelling material, wherein at least a portion of the second pixel definition part is removed during the etching of the preliminary first lift-off layer.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 3, and 18 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.
Claims 13-16 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. The prior art of record does not teach the combinations of method steps described in claim 13. Claims 14-16 depend from claim 13.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SARAH KATE SALERNO whose telephone number is (571)270-1266. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 6:30am-2:30pm.
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/SARAH K SALERNO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2814
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