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 of Species II in the reply filed on 7/23/2026 is acknowledged. Because applicant did not distinctly and specifically point out the supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election has been treated as an election without traverse (MPEP § 818.01(a)).
Claims 3, 11, and 17 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 7/23/20206.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 1, 2, 4, 7, 12, 13, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Lee (US PG Pub 2002/0179948, hereinafter Lee).
Regarding claim 1, figures 1A-1C of Lee disclose a semiconductor device, comprising:
a substrate (10); and
a capacitor structure (25/27/28), disposed on the substrate and comprising
a plurality of capacitors arranged in an array, wherein at least two of the capacitors physically contact with each other in a horizontal direction being horizontal to the substrate (¶ 10).
Regarding claim 2, figures 1A-1C of Lee disclose each of the capacitors comprises a bottom electrode layer (25), a capacitor dielectric layer (27) and a top electrode layer (28) disposed in sequence along the horizontal direction.
Regarding claim 4, figures 1A-1C of Lee disclose the top electrode layers of at least two of the capacitors physically contact with each other (¶ 10).
Regarding claim 7, figures 1A-1C of Lee disclose:
a substrate (10); and
a capacitor structure (25/27/28), disposed on the substrate and comprising at least one first capacitor and at least one second capacitor, a bottommost surface of a bottom electrode layer of the at least one first capacitor is lower than a bottommost surface of a bottom electrode layer of the at least one second capacitor (when device is tilted at an angle), and at least one of the at least one first capacitor and the at least one second capacitor comprises a bending end (¶ 10); and
a supporting structure, disposed on the substrate and between the at least one first capacitor and the at least one second capacitor, the supporting structure comprising a first supporting layer (22) and a second supporting layer (23) stacked in sequence from bottom to top.
Regarding claim 12, figures 1A-1C of Lee disclose the bottom electrode layer of the at least one second capacitor comprises a discontinuous bottom structure.
Regarding claim 13, figures 1A-1C of Lee disclose the at least one first capacitor and the at least one second capacitor comprise a cylinder cross-sectional structure respectively.
layer of the at least one second capacitor.
Regarding claim 18, figures 1A-1C of Lee disclose a width of the bottom electrode layer of the at least one first capacitor is different from a width of the bottom electrode layer of the at least one second capacitor.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5, 6, 8-10, 14-16 and 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
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/YU-HSI D SUN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2817
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