DETAILED ACTION
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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1, 5, 6, 9 11, 18 and 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Brew et al. (US 2023/0098562).
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Re Claim 1, Brew et al. (US 2023/0098562) phase-change device, comprising: an oxide insulator layer (110 120, Paragraph [0028]) disposed on a semiconductor substrate (not shown) ; a phase-change material (PCM) feature (114, Paragraph [0022]) disposed in the oxide insulator layer (106 110 120); a heater element (108, Paragraph [0022]) disposed in the oxide insulator layer (110 120), and disposed between the PCM feature (114) and the semiconductor substrate (not labeled); and a first oxygen-free feature (104) sandwiched between the heater element (108) and the oxide insulator layer (106). See Fig. 1A and related text in Paragraphs [0020] – [0034])
Re Claim 5, as applied to claim 1 above, Brew et al. disclose all the claimed limitations including wherein the heater element (108) includes tungsten (Paragraph [0027]), and the first oxygen-free feature (104) is one of a layer of silicon nitride, a layer of tungsten silicide, and a layer of tungsten nitride. See Fig. 1A and related text in Paragraphs [0020] – [0034]).
Re Claim 6, as applied to claim 1 above, Brew et al. disclose all the claimed limitations including wherein the first oxygen-free feature is disposed between a bottom of the heater element and the oxide insulator layer and between a sidewall of the heater element and the oxide insulator layer. See Fig. 1A and related text in Paragraphs [0020] – [0034].
Re Claim 9, as applied to claim 1 above, Brew et al. disclose all the claimed limitations including a first insulator feature (112) made of a material that has a thermal conductivity greater than 100 W/m·K, (i.e., WN has high thermal conductivity above 100 W/m·K ) and disposed between the heater element (108) and the PCM feature (114); and a second insulator feature (116) disposed on a top and sidewalls of the PCM feature (114). See Fig. 1A and related text in Paragraphs [0020] – [0034].
Re Claim 11, Brew et al. disclose a method for fabricating a phase-change device, comprising: forming an oxide insulator layer (110 120) on a semiconductor substrate (not shown); forming an oxygen-free layer (112) on the oxide insulator layer (110); forming a metal (108)) layer on the oxygen-free layer (112), the metal layer (108) having a melting point greater than 1500oC (i.e., W has high melting point, greater than 1500oC); patterning the metal layer to form a heater element; and forming a phase-change material (PCM) feature (114) over the heater element. See Fig. 1A and related text in Paragraphs [0020] – [0034].
Re Claim 18, as applied to claim 11 above, Brew et al. disclose all the claimed limitations including after the patterning of the metal layer, etching the oxygen-free layer with the metal layer thus patterned serving as an etching mask. See Fig. 1A and related text in Paragraphs [0020] – [0034].
Re Claim 19, Brew et al. disclose a method for fabricating a phase-change device, comprising: forming an oxide insulator layer (106 110 1120 ) over a semiconductor substrate (not shown); forming an oxygen-free layer (104) on the oxide insulator layer (106 110); forming a heater element (114) on the oxygen-free layer (104), the heater element (108) being made of a metal material (i.e., W) having a melting point greater than 1500oC (i.e., W has higher melting point) ; forming an insulator feature (112) over the heater element, the insulator feature (112) having a thermal conductivity greater than 100 W/m·K (i.e., WN has thermal conductivity mor than 100 W/m·K); and forming a phase-change material (PCM) feature (114)over the insulator feature. See Fig. 1A and related text in Paragraphs [0020] – [0034].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4, 7, 8, 10, 12-17 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure Chuang et al. (US 2009/0161406), Sugawara et al. (US 2011/0124175) and Philip et al. (US 2023/0210026) also disclose similar inventive subject matter.
Correspondence
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BROOK KEBEDE whose telephone number is 571-272-1862. The examiner can normally be reached Monday Friday 8:00 AM 5:00 PM.
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/BROOK KEBEDE/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2894
/BK/
May 29, 2026
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