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 Invention 1, Species A, directed to claims 1-11, in the reply filed on July 13, 2026 is acknowledged. Claims 12-14, with claims 13-14 depending upon the unelected claim 12, and 15-23 have been withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention and species. The election was made without traverse.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
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.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Youn et al. (KR 20200014141 A; hereafter Youn) in view of Kim et al. (US 2016/0087244 A1; hereafter Kim).
Regarding claim 1, Youn teaches a display device (see e.g., organic light emitting device 100, Figures 2, 4-5 and 9) comprising:
a substrate (see e.g., first substrate 101, Figure 9);
an interlayer insulating layer disposed on the substrate and having a first trench and a second trench (see e.g., protective layer 140, formed as a multilayer structure, made of inorganic or organic insulating material disposed on the first substrate 101. The protective layer 140 includes trenches 144 in the pixel regions P1, P2 and P3, Figure 9), wherein the first trench has a different depth from the second trench in a thickness direction (see e.g., the depths of the trenches 144 in the pixel areas P1, P2 and P3 maybe different. The trench 144 is formed to a depth h1 in the pixel region P1, and the pixel region P2 forms the trench 144 to a second depth h2 that is lower than the first depth h1 (that is, smaller). The pixel region P3 may form the trench 144 at a third depth h3 lower than the second depth h2, Figure 9);
a first reflective electrode disposed inside the first trench (see e.g., reflective electrode 150 disposed inside the trench 144 in the pixel region P1, Figure 9);
a second reflective electrode disposed inside the second trench (see e.g., reflective electrode 150 disposed inside the trench 144 in the second region P2, Figure 9);
a first-first electrode disposed on the interlayer insulating layer and connected to the first reflective electrode (see e.g., first electrode 165 disposed on the protective layer 140 and connected to the reflective electrode 150 in the pixel region P1, Figure 9);
a first-second electrode disposed on the interlayer insulating layer and connected to the second reflective electrode (see e.g., first electrode 165 disposed on the protective layer 140 and connected to the reflective electrode 150 in the pixel region P2, Figure 9);
a second electrode disposed on the first-first electrode and the first-second electrode (see e.g., second electrode 169 formed on the first electrodes 165 in the pixel regions P1 and P2, Figure 9);
a first color filter disposed on the second electrode to overlap the first-first electrode in the thickness direction; and (see e.g., color filter 190r disposed on the second electrode 169 to overlap the first electrode 165 in the pixel region P1, Figure 9)
a second color filter disposed on the second electrode to overlap the first-second electrode in the thickness direction (see e.g., color filter 190g disposed on the second electrode 169 to overlap the first electrode 165 in the pixel region P2, Figure 9),
wherein the interlayer insulating layer includes a plurality of insulating layers (see e.g., the protective layer 140 may have a multilayer structure, Figure 9),
at least two of the plurality of insulating layers contain different materials, and (see e.g., In the multi-layered structure, the protective layer 140 may be formed using at least one of an inorganic insulating material and an organic insulating material, Figure 9)
Youn does not explicitly teach
“at least one of the first trench or the second trench penetrates the plurality of insulating layers containing different materials of the interlayer insulating layer in the thickness direction”.
In a similar field of endeavor Kim teaches a display device including a passivation layer 27, as shown in Figure 4, formed by alternately stacking organic and inorganic insulating materials. When Youn’s trenches having different depths are formed within the alternately stacked multilayer passivation layer, the deeper trench would penetrate a greater number of the constituent sub-layers, which comprise both organic and inorganic materials. Accordingly, at least one trench would penetrate a plurality of insulating layers containing different materials in the thickness direction.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to implement at least one of the first trench or the second trench penetrates the plurality of insulating layers containing different materials of the interlayer insulating layer in the thickness direction in order to provide a passivation structure having complementary properties of the different insulating materials, thereby improving the reliability of the display device.
Regarding claim 2, Youn, as modified by Kim, teaches the limitations of claim 1 as mentioned above. Youn does not explicitly teach
“wherein a number of the insulating layers penetrated by the first trench in the thickness direction is different from a number of the insulating layers penetrated by the second trench in the thickness direction.”
In a similar field of endeavor Kim teaches forming a passivation layer 27 as a multilayer structure comprising alternately stacked organic and inorganic insulating layers. Youn’s first and second trenches have different depths, when the trenches are formed in the alternating multilayer insulating structure taught by Kim, the deeper first trench would penetrate a greater number of insulating layers in the thickness direction than the shallower second trench. Therefore, the number of insulating layers penetrated by the first trench would be different from the number of insulating layers penetrated by the second trench.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to implement wherein a number of the insulating layers penetrated by the first trench in the thickness direction is different from a number of the insulating layers penetrated by the second trench in the thickness direction in order to provide a passivation structure having complementary properties of the different insulating materials, thereby improving the reliability of the display device.
Regarding claim 3, Youn, as modified by Kim, teaches the limitations of claim 1 as mentioned above. Youn does not explicitly teach
“wherein the interlayer insulating layer includes: a first insulating layer; and a second insulating layer disposed on the first insulating layer to be adjacent to the first insulating layer and containing a different material from the first insulating layer”.
In a similar field of endeavor Kim teaches
wherein the interlayer insulating layer includes: a first insulating layer; and a second insulating layer disposed on the first insulating layer to be adjacent to the first insulating layer and containing a different material from the first insulating layer (see e.g., The passivation layer 27 may be made out of an organic insulating material, an inorganic insulating material or may be formed by alternately stacking an organic insulating material and an inorganic insulating material, Para [0057], Figure 4).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to implement Kim’s teachings of wherein the interlayer insulating layer includes: a first insulating layer; and a second insulating layer disposed on the first insulating layer to be adjacent to the first insulating layer and containing a different material from the first insulating layer in the device of Youn in order to provide a passivation structure having complementary properties of the different insulating materials, thereby improving the reliability of the display device.
Regarding claim 4, Youn, as modified by Kim, teaches the limitations of claim 3 as mentioned above. Youn does not explicitly teach
“wherein the interlayer insulating layer includes a plurality of first insulating layers and a plurality of second insulating layers disposed alternately.”
In a similar field of endeavor Kim teaches
wherein the interlayer insulating layer includes a plurality of first insulating layers and a plurality of second insulating layers disposed alternately (see e.g., The passivation layer 27 may be made out of an organic insulating material, an inorganic insulating material or may be formed by alternately stacking an organic insulating material and an inorganic insulating material, Para [0057], Figure 4).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art at the time the invention was effectively field to implement Kim’s teachings of wherein the interlayer insulating layer includes a plurality of first insulating layers and a plurality of second insulating layers disposed alternately in the device of a passivation structure having complementary properties of the different insulating materials, thereby improving the reliability of the display device.
Regarding claim 5, Youn, as modified by Kim, teaches the limitations of claim 1 as mentioned above. Youn further teaches
wherein the first reflective electrode is disposed along side and bottom walls of the first trench, and the second reflective electrode is disposed along side and bottom walls of the second trench (see e.g., the reflective electrode 150 is formed in the trenches 144 along the trench surface in each pixel region P. The portion of the reflective electrode 150 formed in the trench 144 is called the concave portion 151. The concave portion 151 is formed along the trench 144, so that it is a flat bottom portion 151a located on the bottom surface 144a of the trench 144, and the side portion 151c formed along the side surface 144c of the trench 144, Figure 9).
Regarding claim 6, Youn, as modified by Kim, teaches the limitations of claim 5 as mentioned above. Youn further teaches
wherein each of the first reflective electrode and the second reflective electrode has an U-shaped structure when viewed from a cross section (see e.g., the reflective electrode 150 formed in each pixel region P has a U-shaped structure as shown in Figure 9).
Regarding claim 7, Youn, as modified by Kim, teaches the limitations of claim 1 as mentioned above. Youn further teaches
a first intermediate insulating layer disposed between the first reflective electrode and the first-first electrode of the first trench; and a second intermediate insulating layer disposed between the second reflective electrode and the first-second electrode of the second trench (see e.g., within each pixel region P, a filling pattern 155 is disposed in the trenches 144 located between the reflective electrode 150 and the first electrode 165. The filling pattern 155 may be formed of an inorganic insulating material, Figure 9).
Regarding claim 8, Youn, as modified by Kim, teaches the limitations of claim 7 as mentioned above. Youn further teaches
wherein one portion of the first intermediate insulating layer is surrounded by the first reflective electrode, and an other portion of the first intermediate insulating layer is surrounded by the first-first electrode, and one portion of the second intermediate insulating layer is surrounded by the second reflective electrode, and an other portion of the second intermediate insulating layer is surrounded by the first-second electrode (see e.g., within each pixel region P, a filling pattern 155 is disposed in the trenches 144 located between the reflective electrode 150 and the first electrode 165. The filling pattern has one portion surrounded by the reflective electrode 150 and another portion surrounded by the first electrode 165, Figure 9).
Regarding claim 9, Youn, as modified by Kim, teaches the limitations of claim 7 as mentioned above. Youn further teaches
wherein a depth of the first intermediate insulating layer in the thickness direction is different from a depth of the second intermediate insulating layer in the thickness direction (see e.g., the structural depth of the trenches 144 vary across the display device. Within the pixel region P1, the trench 144 has a depth h1, while in pixel region P2 the depth is reduced to h2. Consequently, the filling pattern 155 exhibits corresponding variations in depth as it conforms to these trenches, Figure 9).
Regarding claim 10, Youn, as modified by Kim, teaches the limitations of claim 1 as mentioned above. Youn further teaches
wherein a distance from a bottom surface of the second electrode to a bottom of the first reflective electrode, which is disposed at a bottommost portion of the first trench, is different from a distance from a bottom surface of the second electrode to a bottom of the second reflective electrode, which is disposed at a bottommost portion of the second trench (see e.g., the structural depth of the trenches 144 vary across the display device. Within the pixel region P1, the trench 144 has a depth h1, while in pixel region P2 the depth is reduced to h2. Consequently, the distance between the second electrode 169 and the bottom of the reflective electrode 150, disposed at the bottommost portion of the trenches 144, varies for each pixel region P, Figure 9).
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Youn et al. (KR 20200014141 A; hereafter Youn) in view of Kim et al. (US 2016/0087244 A1; hereafter Kim) and further in view of Park et al. (US 2018/0062116 A1; hereafter Park).
Regarding claim 11, Youn, as modified by Kim, teaches the limitations of claim 1 as mentioned above. Youn further teaches
wherein the first-first electrode is connected to a transistor on the substrate (see e.g., the first electrode 165 is connected to the transistor Td on the substrate 101, Figure 2)
Youn does not explicitly teach
“the first-first electrode is connected to a transistor …..through at least a contact hole connected to the first trench in the thickness direction”.
In a similar field of endeavor Park teaches
the first-first electrode is connected to a transistor …..through at least a contact hole connected to the first trench in the thickness direction (see e.g., the electrode 161 is connected to the transistor 120 through a contact hole 131h connected to the trench 131t in the thickness direction, Paras [0050], [0053], [0056], Figures 2 and 3e).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art at the time the invention was effectively filed to implement Park’s teachings of the first-first electrode is connected to a transistor …..through at least a contact hole connected to the first trench in the thickness direction in the device of Youn in order to electrically connect the pixel electrode with the transistor contact structure.
Conclusion
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/FAKEHA SEHAR/Examiner, Art Unit 2893
/YARA B GREEN/Supervisor Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2893
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