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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 1 and 7 lack clarity as it is presently ambiguous if "selected from the group
consisting of Sb and Bi; and Te" refers to a single selection from the elements Sb, Bi or Te or if the element Te has to be strictly part of said selection (i.e. resulting in the alloys SbTe and BiTe). According to claim 3 also intermediate layers made from Sb or Bi appear to be included in the scope of the claims as "SbₓTe1-x or BixTe1-x for X= 1 correspond to the elements Sb or Bi without Te being present (noting the range 0≤x≤1 is claimed). The term "selected from the group consisting of Sb and Bi; and Te" has therefore been broadly interpreted as including any of the three elements Sb, Bi or Te. Claims 1, 3 and 7 should hence, be clarified to be consistent.
Claim 1 lacks clarity as the expression "a crystal layer of an intermediate layer- forming material" is not a commonly used expression. It appears, that the expression could be clarified as follows: "wherein the intermediate layer is crystalline and contains at least one element selected from the group consisting of Sb and Bi; and Te". A similar objection also applies to method claim 7 where reference to an intermediate layer-forming material should be removed.
Claim 5 recites the limitation "the semiconductive transition metal dichalcogenide and the graphene" in lines 4-5. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 6 recites the limitation "the semiconductive transition metal dichalcogenide and the graphene" in lines 4-5. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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) 1-4 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Choi et al. (2013/0167897).
Re claims 1 and 7, Choi et al. disclose (Figs. 1-3, [0041-0043]) discloses a thermoelectric module comprising top (12) and bottom (22) electrodes as well as a n/p doped thermoelectric compound stacked between the electrodes. The thermoelectric compound is formed by stacking layers of graphene and a Bi-Sb-Te-based thermoelectric inorganic compound such as (Bi,Sb)2 (Te,Se)3, with Sb and Se being dopants ([0042]).
Re claim 2, Choi et al. disclose wherein the layered material layer is formed so as to contain graphene ([0043]).
Re claims 3 and 4, Choi et al. disclose a Bi-Sb-Te based thermoelectric inorganic compound such as (Bi,Sb)2 (Te,Se)3, with Sb and Se being dopants ([0041-0042]).
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.
Claim(s) 5 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shen et al. (“Ultralow contact resistance between semimetal and monolayer semiconductors”) in view of Frougier (2021/0135015).
Shen et al. disclose (Figs. 1-4 and correlated text) discloses a similar bottom-gate
transistor, comprising a channel layer made from various TMDs such as WS2, WSe2 or MoS2 (see fig. 4e), a contact interlayer made from a semi-metal (such as Bi, Sb, Fig. 4e, Fig. 3g and corresponding caption) as well as a capping layer made from gold layer (see inlet of fig. 2c disclosing a TLM architecture with Bi/Au contacts). A crystalline structure of the semi-metal layer is furthermore implicit from the atomic layer structure depicted in e.g. fig. 3c.
Shen et al. does not disclose (claim 5) wherein the electronic/optical device comprises a transistor structure including: the layered material layer formed so as to contain at least one selected from the group consisting of the semiconductive transition metal dichalcogenide and the graphene; a gate electrode arranged on the layered material layer through an insulating film; a source electrode portion formed by laminating the intermediate layer and the metal electrode layer in the stated order on the layered material layer; and a drain electrode portion formed by laminating the intermediate layer and the metal electrode layer in the stated order at a position on the layered material layer opposed to the source electrode portion across the gate electrode; (claim 6) or wherein the electronic/optical device comprises a transistor structure including: the layered material layer formed so as to contain at least one selected from the group consisting of the semiconductive transition metal dichalcogenide and the graphene; a gate electrode arranged so as to cover a top surface and a bottom surface of the layered material layer and at least two side surfaces facing each other out of four side surfaces thereof through an insulating film; a source electrode portion formed by laminating the intermediate layer and the metal electrode layer in the stated order on the top surface of the layered material layer; and a drain electrode portion formed by laminating the intermediate layer and the metal electrode layer in the stated order at a position on the top surface of the layered material layer opposed to the source electrode portion across the gate electrode.
Frougier discloses two-dimensional material forming the replacement channel layers (34) and layer (36) characterized by a carrier mobility that is greater than the carrier mobility of silicon; the two-dimensional material may be composed of a transition metal dichalcogenide, transition metal dichalcogenides or graphene ([0029]) in gate all around configurations (which include gate electrode and source/drain features).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the invention to combine Shen et al. and Frougier to include the interlayer of a transition metal such as Bi or Sb of Shen et al. into the device of Frougier to lower the contact resistance in a transistor.
Citation of Pertinent Prior Art
The following prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: US 2021/0373430 A1, US 2011/0129675 A1 disclose a similar configuration for an electronic/optical device with a laminated structure.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHELLE MANDALA whose telephone number is (571)272-1858. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00-5:00 PM.
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/MICHELLE MANDALA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2893 June 24, 2026
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