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
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.
1. Claims 1-2, 4, 11, 12, 14, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over An et al (USPN 2020/0402447) in view of Singor (USPN 2018/0054054).
Regarding claim 1, An discloses a display device (a display device 1 shown in figure 1) comprising:
a display panel which includes a display area (a display area DA) and a non-display area (a non-display area NDA, see figure 1, 2a, 4a, 4b) and includes an electrostatic protection circuit (a protection circuit EP, see figure 4a) which is disposed in the non-display area,
wherein the electrostatic protection circuit includes:
a first stage circuit (EP3) having a (1-1)-th diode (such as diode D6) which causes a forward current to flow from a first node (a common node between an anode of the diode D6 and a cathode of a diode D5) to a second node (such as a node between a cathode of the diode D6 and an anode of the diode D5, see figure 4b) to which a first floating line (a GRL3 terminal is floated under non-ESD event) is connected;
a second stage circuit (a second stage circuit EP2) having a (2-1)-th diode (a diode D4) which causes a forward current to flow from the second node to a third node (a common node between an anode of the diode D4 and a cathode of a diode D3) to which a second floating line (a GRL2 terminal is floated under non ESD event); and
a third stage circuit (a third stage circuit EP1) having a (3-1)-th diode (a diode D2) which causes a forward current to flow from the third node to a fourth node (such a node a cathode of the diode D4 and an anode of the diode D3).
An does not explicitly discloses capacitors and resistors as claimed.
Singor discloses an ESD protection device (110, 310 see figure 3) comprises first, second and third stage circuits, each stage circuit includes a forward conducting diode (such as diodes D4, D3, D2), each diode coupled to a corresponding float line at nodes (N3, N4, N5), and each diode (D4-D2) connected in parallel to a resistor (R4, R3, R2) and a capacitor (C4, C3, C2).
It 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 to have modified diode of each stage circuit of An to incorporate a capacitor and a resistor as disclosed by Singor in order to protect the diode from damage during a surge voltage event.
Regarding claims 2, 12, An discloses wherein the first node is connected to a main ground line (SGND) of a mother substrate (MB) which is provided for manufacturing the display panel (see figure 4b).
Regarding claims 4, 14, An discloses wherein static electricity input to the first node experiences a voltage drop as the static electricity sequentially passes through the first, second, and third stage circuits, and then is discharged through the fourth node (e.g. see par. 0099, and figures 3b, 5).
Regarding claim 11, An discloses a mobile electronic device (see figure 1) comprising:
a display panel which includes a display area (a display area DA) and a non-display area (a non-display area NDA, see figure 1, 2a, 4a, 4b) and includes an electrostatic protection circuit (a protection circuit EP, see figure 4a) which is disposed in the non-display area,
wherein the electrostatic protection circuit includes:
a first stage circuit (EP3) having a (1-1)-th diode (such as diode D6) which causes a forward current to flow from a first node (a common node between an anode of the diode D6 and a cathode of a diode D5) to a second node (such as a node between a cathode of the diode D6 and an anode of the diode D5, see figure 4b) to which a first floating line (a GRL3 terminal is floated under non-ESD event) is connected;
a second stage circuit (a second stage circuit EP2) having a (2-1)-th diode (a diode D4) which causes a forward current to flow from the second node to a third node (a common node between an anode of the diode D4 and a cathode of a diode D3) to which a second floating line (a GRL2 terminal is floated under non ESD event); and
a third stage circuit (a third stage circuit EP1) having a (3-1)-th diode (a diode D2) which causes a forward current to flow from the third node to a fourth node (such a node a cathode of the diode D4 and an anode of the diode D3). An does not explicitly discloses capacitors and resistors as claimed.
Singor discloses an ESD protection device (510, 310) comprises first, second and third stage circuits, each stage circuit includes a forward conducting diode (such as diodes D2_P, D3_P, D4_P), each diode coupled to a corresponding float line at nodes (N3, N4, N5), and each diode (D2_P, D3_P, D4_P) connected in parallel to a resistor (R2, R3, R4) and a capacitor (C2, C3, C4).
It 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 to have modified diode of each stage circuit of An to incorporate a capacitor and a resistor as disclosed by Singor in order to protect the diode from damage during a surge voltage event.
Regarding claim 20, An discloses a display device (a display device shown in figure 1) comprising:
a display panel which includes a display area (a display area DA) and a non-display area (a non-display area NDA);
a display driver (a DIC driver, see par. 0066) configured to generate data signals and voltages for driving the display panel ; and
an electrostatic protection circuit (an electrostatic protection circuit in figure 4a) which is disposed in the non-display area of the display panel,
wherein one end of the electrostatic protection circuit is connected to the display driver through a common ground line (such as a protection circuit EP2, shown in figure 4a, coupled to the display driver DIC through a common ground line GT1) and an other end of the electrostatic protection circuit (EP2) is connected to a main ground line (SGND) of a mother substrate (a main substrate MB) which is provided for manufacturing the display panel,
wherein the electrostatic protection circuit includes:
a first stage circuit (EP3) having a (1-1)-th diode (such as diode D6) which causes a forward current to flow from a first node (a common node between an anode of the diode D6 and a cathode of a diode D5) to a second node (such as a node between a cathode of the diode D6 and an anode of the diode D5, see figure 4b) to which a first floating line (a GRL3 terminal is floated under non-ESD event) is connected;
a second stage circuit (a second stage circuit EP2) having a (2-1)-th diode (a diode D4) which causes a forward current to flow from the second node to a third node (a common node between an anode of the diode D4 and a cathode of a diode D3) to which a second floating line (a GRL2 terminal is floated under non ESD event); and
a third stage circuit (a third stage circuit EP1) having a (3-1)-th diode (a diode D2) which causes a forward current to flow from the third node to a fourth node (such a node a cathode of the diode D4 and an anode of the diode D3).
wherein the first node is connected to the main ground line (SGND), and the fourth node is connected to the common ground line (GT1).
An does not explicitly discloses capacitors and resistors as claimed.
Singor discloses an ESD protection device (110, 310 see figure 3) comprises first, second and third stage circuits, each stage circuit includes a forward conducting diode (such as diodes D4, D3, D2), each diode coupled to a corresponding float line at nodes (N3, N4, N5), and each diode (D4-D2) connected in parallel to a resistor (R4, R3, R2) and a capacitor (C4, C3, C2).
It 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 to have modified diode of each stage circuit of An to incorporate a capacitor and a resistor as disclosed by Singor in order to protect the diode from damage during a surge voltage event.
2. Claims 3, 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over An et al (USPN 2020/0402447) in view of Singor (USPN 2018/0054054), and further in view of Huang (USPN 2020/0343270).
Regarding claims 3, 13, An and Singor disclose all limitations of claims 1 and 11 as discussed above, but do not explicitly disclose the diodes as claimed.
Huang discloses an ESD protection circuit (see figure 3) for protection a display panel comprises an electrostatic protection circuit (12), each circuit (12) comprises a diode that includes a thin film transistor (T1, T2) (see figure 4).
It 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 to have modified diode of each stage circuit of An and Singor to incorporate a thin film transistor as disclosed by Hunag in order to provide high conduction, low cost, and lower power consumption. Thus, improving a circuit performance.
Allowable Subject Matter
3. Claims 5-10, 15-19 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
4. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANNY NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-2054. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00AM-4:30PM.
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/DANNY NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2838