DETAILED ACTION
Specification
1. 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.
Claim Objections
2. Claims 5, 20 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 5, line 3, “the upper end and the lower end” should be changed to “an upper end and a lower end” because it lacks of antecedent basis.
In claim 20, line 3, “the upper end and the lower end” should be changed to “an upper end and a lower end” because it lacks of antecedent basis.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
3. 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.
4. Claim(s) 1, 10 – 12, 15 – 17, 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over MAEDA et al. (201601047600) in view of SHIN et al. (20210265537).
With regard to claim 1, MAEDA et al. disclose a light-emitting device (for example, see fig. 3), comprising:
a bank (306) provided with a first through hole (referred to as “H1” by examiner’s annotation shown in fig. 3 below);
a lower layer electrode (305) formed on (on a bottom and side surfaces) the bank (306) to close the first through hole (H1);
an upper layer electrode (308) formed above the lower layer electrode (305);
an EL layer (307) functions as at least a light-emitting layer and formed between the lower layer electrode (305) and the upper layer electrode (308) to be at least partially adjacent to the lower layer electrode (305) and the upper layer electrode (308);
a first refractive index layer (an insulator layer 311 functions as a first refractive index layer) provided on the upper layer electrode (308) in the first through hole (H1);
an auxiliary wiring line (310) provided on the upper layer electrode (308) to be adjacent to the upper layer electrode (308); and
a second refractive index layer (a material layer 311 functions as a second refractive index layer) provided on the upper layer electrode (308) to cover the first refractive index layer (309) and the auxiliary wiring line (310),
wherein the auxiliary wiring line (310) includes a second through hole (referred to as “H2” by examiner’s annotation shown in fig. 3 below) that is provided corresponding to the first through hole (H1), and
a peripheral edge portion of the auxiliary wiring line (310) surrounding the second through hole (H2) covers a peripheral edge portion of the first refractive index layer (309) in a plan view (a cross-sectional view including a plan view).
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MAEDA et al. do not clearly disclose the first refractive index layer having a refractive index greater than 1.7 wherein a second refractive index layer having a lower refractive index than the first refractive index layer.
However, SHIN et al. discloses the first refractive index layer (442) having a refractive index greater than 1.89 wherein a second refractive index layer (443) having a lower refractive index than the first refractive index layer (442). (for example, see paragraph [0079], fig. 3).
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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 MAEDA et al.’s device to have the first refractive index layer having a refractive index greater than 1.7 wherein a second refractive index layer having a lower refractive index than the first refractive index layer as taught by SHIN et al. in order to enhance a high light efficiency of the semiconductor device for enhancing a stability operation of the semiconductor device, as is known to one of ordinary skill in the art.
With regard to claim 10, MAEDA et al. disclose the light-emitting layer (307) is a quantum dot light-emitting layer containing a quantum dot. (for example, see paragraph [0036]).
With regard to claim 11, MAEDA et al. disclose the light-emitting device is a display device including a plurality of subpixels, and the bank (306) includes at least one first through hole (H1) mentioned above in each subpixel (as shown in fig. 3).
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With regard to claim 12, MAEDA et al. disclose the bank (306) includes, in each of the plurality of subpixels, a plurality of the first through holes (H1) each formed in a small hole shape (any size of a hole functions as small hole shape) as the first through hole (H1).
With regard to claim 15, MAEDA et al. disclose the lower layer electrode (305) is formed in an island shape for each of the plurality of subpixels.
With regard to claim 16, MAEDA et al. disclose an edge cover (referred to as “E1” by examiner’s annotation shown in fig. 3 below), on the bank (306), including a third through hole (referred to as “H3” by examiner’s annotation shown in fig. 3 below) corresponding to the first through hole (H1) in such a manner as to open the first through hole (H1), wherein the edge cover (E1) covers a portion of the lower layer electrode (305) located on an upper face of the bank (306).
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With regard to claim 17, MAEDA et al. disclose the lower layer electrode (305) is formed in an island shape for each of the plurality of first through holes (H1).
With regard to claim 19, MAEDA et al. disclose the lower layer electrode (a single layer 305) is formed only in the first through hole (H1).
5. Claim(s) 2, 3, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over MAEDA et al. (201601047600) in view of SHIN et al. (20210265537) and further in view of Jang et al. (11289683).
With regard to claim 2, MAEDA et al. disclose the upper layer electrode (308) includes an inclined face along at least part of the inclined face of the EL layer (307), but MAEDA et al. and SHIN et al. do not clearly disclose the lower layer electrode includes an inclined face along at least part of the opening sidewall of the first through hole, the EL layer includes an inclined face along at least part of the inclined face of the lower layer electrode.
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However, Jang et al. disclose the lower layer electrode (150) includes an inclined face (a sidewall face) along at least part of the opening sidewall of the first through hole (referred to as “140H1” by examiner’s annotation shown in fig. 1 below), the EL layer (160) includes an inclined face along at least part of the inclined face of the lower layer electrode (150).
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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 MAEDA et al. and SHIN et al.’s device to have the lower layer electrode includes an inclined face along at least part of the opening sidewall of the first through hole, the EL layer includes an inclined face along at least part of the inclined face of the lower layer electrode as taught by Jang et al. in order to improve the light extraction efficiency of the organic light-emitting device for enhancing a stability operation of the semiconductor device, as is known to one of ordinary skill in the art.
With regard to claim 3, Figure 1 of the Jang et al. reference (shown below) does appear to show an angle formed by a lower face of the bank (a layer 140 or 136 functions as the bank) and the opening sidewall is in a range of 30°, as claimed. However, since the patent drawings are not labeled as “to scale,” one cannot be certain that an angle formed by a lower face of the bank and the opening sidewall is in a range of 30° as seemingly shown [see MPEP 2125].
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It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of the claimed invention to form an angle formed by a lower face of the bank and the opening sidewall is in a range of 30°, because Fig. 1 suggests an angle formed by a lower face of the bank and the opening sidewall is in a range of 30° and a prima facie case of obviousness exists where device dimensions of the prior art are such that one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected them to have the same performance {MPEP 2144.04(IV)(A)}
With regard to claim 20, MAEDA et al. disclose the lower layer electrode (305) is formed with an edge (a top surface edge of the top surface) of the lower layer electrode (305) located between the upper end (an upper end of the sidewall corner) and the lower end (a bottom end of the sidewall corner) of the opening sidewall.
6. Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over MAEDA et al. (201601047600) in view of SHIN et al. (20210265537) and further in view of Sun et al. (11424303).
With regard to claim 5, MAEDA et al. and SHIN et al. do not clearly disclose a height between the upper end and the lower end of the first through hole is in a range from 1 μm to 4 μm.
However, Sun et al. disclose a height (a thickness of the pixel defining layer 30) between the upper end (uppermost top surface) and the lower end (a bottom surface) of the first through hole (the hole forming between the pixel defining layers 30) is 2 μm. (for example, column 7, lines 28, 29, fig. 5).
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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 MAEDA et al. and SHIN et al.’s device to have a height between the upper end and the lower end of the first through hole is in a range from 1 μm to 4 μm as taught by Sun et al. in order to improve the high light efficiency of the organic light-emitting device for enhancing a stability operation of the semiconductor device, as is known to one of ordinary skill in the art.
7. Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over MAEDA et al. (201601047600) in view of SHIN et al. (20210265537) and further in view of Zheng et al. (9419174).
With regard to claim 9, MAEDA et al. and SHIN et al. do not clearly disclose a hole injection layer containing NiO nanoparticles.
However, Zheng et al. disclose a hole injection layer containing NiO nanoparticles. (for example, see column 5, lines 39 – 41).
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 MAEDA et al. and SHIN et al.’s device to have a hole injection layer containing NiO nanoparticles as taught by Zheng et al. in order to achieve high luminance, which promotes degradation of the OLEDs, as is known to one of ordinary skill in the art.
Allowable Subject Matter
8. Claims 4, 6 – 8, 13, 14, 21 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 4, 6 – 8, 13, 14, 21 are allowable over the prior art of record, because none of these references disclose or can be combined to yield the claimed invention such as an opening diameter at a lower end side of the first through hole is in a range from 10 μm to 20 μm, and an opening diameter at an upper end side of the first through hole is in a range from 12 μm to 65 μm as recited in claim 4, an overlapping width between a peripheral edge portion of the auxiliary wiring line surrounding the second through hole and a peripheral edge portion of the first refractive index layer in a plan view falls within a range from 0.5 μm to a value less than 5.6 μm as recited in claim 6, the bank is formed on the array substrate to cover the plurality of connection electrodes in such a manner that the plurality of first through holes expose part of the plurality of connection electrodes, and the lower layer electrode is connected to the plurality of connection electrodes in the plurality of first through holes as recited in claim 13, the lower layer electrode at least includes a reflective electrode and a light-transmissive electrode formed on the reflective electrode, and in at least two subpixels of the red subpixel, the green subpixel, and the blue subpixel, layer thicknesses of the light-transmissive electrodes differ from each other as recited in claim 14, an edge cover, on the bank, including a third through hole having an opening end on the opening sidewall of the bank, wherein a relation of ⅓L<L′<⅔L is satisfied, where L is a length of the opening sidewall of the bank and L′is a length of a portion of the opening sidewall not covered with the edge cover as recited in claim 21.
Conclusion
9. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TAN N TRAN whose telephone number is (571) 272 - 1923. The examiner can normally be reached on 8:30-5:00PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Davienne Monbleau can be reached on (571) 272-1945. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TAN N TRAN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2812
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