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 .
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Information Disclosure Statement
Information disclosure statement has not been received. If applicant is aware of any prior art or any other co-pending applications not already of record, he/she is reminded of his/her duty under 37 CFR 1.56 to disclose the same.
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 1-2, 4-6 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable Chen et al (US US-20210193866 A1) in view of Dulman et al (US2003/0152844A1).
Re claim 1 Chen teaches a method of manufacturing an isolation structure, comprising:
preparing a substrate (110, fig 2A) [0012] having a metal electrode pattern (120A/120B, fig 2A) [0012] thereon ;
disposing at least one two-terminal micro device (130, fig 2B) [0018] on the substrate (110, fig 2A), such that a bottom electrode (132, fig 2B)[0013] on a bottom side (bottom of 130) of the at least one two-terminal micro device (130) is in contact with the metal electrode pattern (120A), wherein the at least one two-terminal micro device (130) has a lateral size smaller than 100 µm (1-100um) [0030] and a device height smaller than 50 µm (T2 and T1 ratio greater than 1.5, T1 is 2 um, fig 2C 2D) [0024] ;
forming a photoresist layer (140, fig 2C) [0015] to cover the substrate (110) and the at least one two-terminal micro device (130, fig 2C), wherein the photoresist layer (140) has an upper portion (T1, fig 2C) and a lateral portion (T2, fig 2C) respectively on a top side and a lateral side of the at least one two-terminal micro device (130, fig 2C), and a height difference between the upper portion (T1) and the lateral portion (T2) is less than half of the device height; (D2-T1) [0015].
exposing [0023] the photoresist layer (140, fig 2D-2E) with a low dose [0021]; and
developing [0004] a top side (fig 2D) of the exposed photoresist layer (140, fig 2E) at least until a top electrode (138, fig 2E)[0018]on the top side (1382, fig 2D) of the at least one two-terminal micro device is exposed by the developed photoresist layer [0018].
Chen does not teach the exposing the photoresist layer with the low dose to adjust a developing rate of the photoresist layer, wherein the low dose is less than half of a full dose of the photoresist layer.;
Dulman does teach “exposing to radiation of different doses the layers of photoresist of different thickness and developing the layers which are exposed to radiation [0126]”.
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching taught by Dulman into the structure of Chen to include the exposing the photoresist layer with the low dose to adjust a developing rate of the photoresist layer, wherein the low dose is less than half of a full dose of the photoresist layer as claimed.
The ordinary artisan would have been motivated to modify Chen based on the teaching of Dulman in the above manner for the purpose of achieving for precision and accuracy in patterning [0004] .
Re claim 2 Chen in view of Dulman teach, wherein the at least one two-terminal micro device comprises a micro-emitting diode (130, fig 2E) [Chen, 0030].
Re claim 4 Chen in view of Dulman teach the method of claim 1, wherein the photoresist layer is a positive tone photoresist (140, fig 2D) [Chen, 0017].
Re claim 5 Chen in view of Dulman teach the method of claim 4, further comprising: exposing the photoresist layer (140, fig 2E) to form a full exposure pattern (fig 2D-2E) [Chen, 0021-002] before the developing (S5).
Re cliam 6 Chen in view of Dulman the method of claim 5, wherein the exposing the photoresist layer (140, fig 2D-2E) with the low dose and the exposing(E1/E2) the photoresist layer (140) to form the full exposure pattern are performed simultaneously [0035].
Re claim 14 Chen in view of Dulman teach the method of claim 1, wherein a thickness of the photoresist layer (thickness of the 140, fig 2D-2E) [0015] before the developing is less than twice the device height (height of 130, fig 2E) [0013].
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen modified by Dulman as applied to claim 1 above and further in view of Ahn et al (US20200044127A1).
Re claim 3 Chen in view of Dulman teach the method of claim 1,
Chen and Dulman do not teach at least one two-terminal micro device comprises at least one of a laser diode, a micro capacitor, and a micro resistor.
Ahn does tach (fig 1) [0135] “ the micro light emitting diodes can easily interchanged with laser, a laser diode”.
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching taught by Ahn into the structure of Chen and Duman to include at least one two-terminal micro device comprises at least one of a laser diode, a micro capacitor, and a micro resistor as claimed.
The ordinary artisan would have been motivated to modify Chen and Dulman based on the teaching of Ahn in the above manner for the purpose of improving usability and marketability.
Claims 7-11 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen modified by Dulman as applied to claim 1 and further in view of Hu et al (US 20200135997A1).
Re claim 7 Chen in view of Dulman teach the method of claim 4,
Chen and Dulman do not teach exposing the photoresist layer to form a full exposure pattern after the developing; and
developing the photoresist layer again to remove the full exposure pattern.
Hu teaches exposing the photoresist layer (610, fig 6I) [0038] to form a full exposure pattern (fig 6I) after the developing; and
developing the photoresist layer again to remove the full exposure pattern (fig 6J-6K)[0039-0040].
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching taught by Hu into the structure of Chen and Dulman to include exposing the photoresist layer to form a full exposure pattern after the developing; and developing the photoresist layer again to remove the full exposure pattern as claimed.
The ordinary artisan would have been motivated to modify Chen and Dulman based on the teaching of Hu in the above manner for the purpose of reducing the chance of process defects and also provide more flexibility in the design of devices [0032].
Re claim 8 Chen in view of Dulman teach the method of claim 1,
Chen and Dulman do not teach the photoresist layer is a negative tone photoresist.
Hu teaches the photoresist layer (600, fig 6A) [0032] is a negative tone photoresist [0034].
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching taught by Hu into the structure of Chen and Dulman to include the photoresist layer is a negative tone photoresist as claimed.
The ordinary artisan would have been motivated to modify Chen and Dulman based on the teaching of Hu in the above manner for the purpose of reducing the chance of process defects and also provide more flexibility in the design of devices [0032].
Re claim 9 Chen in view of Dulman and Hu teach the method of claim 8, further comprising:
exposing the photoresist layer (610, fig 6I) [Hu,0038-0039 ] to form a full exposure pattern after the developing (fig 6K); and
developing the photoresist layer (610, fig 6F-6K) again to remove an unexposed portion of the photoresist layer (610, fig 6F-6K) [0038-0039].
Re claim 10 Chen in view of Dulman and Hu teach the method of claim 8, further comprising: forming a top conductor pattern (150, fig 2F) [Chen 0026] on the top electrode (138, fig 2F) [Chen 0027].
Re claim 11 Chen in view of Dulman and Hu teach the method of claim 10, wherein
Chen in view of Dulman do not teach the top conductor pattern contains metal.
Hu teaches the top conductor pattern contains metal.(338, fig 20) [0086].
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching taught by Hu into the structure of Chen and Dulman to include the top conductor pattern contains metal as claimed.
The ordinary artisan would have been motivated to modify Chen and Dulman based on the teaching of Hu in the above manner for the purpose of improving the performance of the device. [0076].
Re claim 15 Chen in view of Dulman teach the method of claim 1
Chen and Dulman do not teach depositing a passivation material on the substrate and on a sidewall and a top surface of the at least one two-terminal micro device after the disposing the at least one two-terminal micro device.
Hu teaches depositing a passivation material (304, fig 14) [0079] on the substrate (200, fig 14) [0079] and on a sidewall and a top surface of the at least one two-terminal micro device (104, fig 14) [0079] after the disposing the at least one two-terminal micro device (104, fig 14) [0071].
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching taught by Hu into the structure of Chen and Dulman to include depositing a passivation material on the substrate and on a sidewall and a top surface of the at least one two-terminal micro device after the disposing the at least one two-terminal micro device as claimed.
The ordinary artisan would have been motivated to modify Chen and Dulman based on the teaching of Hu in the above manner for the purpose of improving the performance of the photonic device [0076].
Claims 12 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen modified by Dulman and Hu as applied to claim 1 and 10 and further in view of Bibl et al (US-20180182746-A1).
Re claim 12 Chen, Dulman and Hu teach the method of claim 10,
Chen, Dulman and Hu do not teach the top conductor pattern contains transparent conductive oxide, transparent conductive oxides (TCO) such as indium-tin-oxide (ITO) and indium-zinc-oxide (IZO) .
Bibl teaches the top conductor pattern contains transparent conductive oxide (318, fig 9) [0080] transparent conductive oxides (TCO) such as indium-tin-oxide (ITO) and indium-zinc-oxide (IZO) [Bibl, 0080].
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching taught by Bibl into the structure of Chen, Dulman and Hu to include the top conductor pattern contains transparent conductive oxide, transparent conductive oxides (TCO) such as indium-tin-oxide (ITO) and indium-zinc-oxide (IZO) as claimed.
The ordinary artisan would have been motivated to modify Chen, Dulman and Hu based on the teaching of Bibl in the above manner for the purpose to provide the emission from the subpixel 0090].
Since it has been held to be within the general skill of a worker in the art to select a known material on the basis of its suitability for the intended use a matter of obvious design, choice, In re Leshin, 125 USPQ 416.
Re claim 13 Chen in view of Dulman and Hu teach the method of claim 10,
Chen, Dulman and Hu do not teach a number of the at least one two-terminal micro device is at least two, and the forming the top conductor pattern is performed such that the top electrodes of the two-terminal micro devices are connected by the top conductor pattern.
Bibl teaches a number of the at least one two-terminal micro device is at least two, (400, fig 9) [0056] and the forming the top conductor pattern (318, fig 9)[0078] is performed such that the top electrodes (318) of the two-terminal micro devices (400, fig 9) are connected by the top conductor pattern (see fig 9) [Bibl, 0082].
It would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teaching taught by Bibl into the structure of Chen, Dulman and Hu to include the at least one two-terminal micro device is at least two, and the forming the top conductor pattern is performed such that the top electrodes of the two-terminal micro devices are connected by the top conductor pattern as claimed.
The ordinary artisan would have been motivated to modify Chen, Dulman and Hu based on the teaching of Bibl in the above manner for the purpose of improve the functionality of the device.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PRATIKSHA J LOHAKARE whose telephone number is (571)270-1920. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 7.30 am-4.30 pm.
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/PRATIKSHA JAYANT LOHAKARE/ Examiner, Art Unit 2818
/DUY T NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2818 6/25/26
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