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 .
1. This office acknowledges receipt of the following item(s) from the Applicant:
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after allowance or after an Office action under Ex Parte Quayle, 25 USPQ 74, 453 O.G. 213 (Comm'r Pat. 1935). Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on has been entered.
2. Claims 1-26 are presented for examination.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
3. 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 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.
4. 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.
5. Claims 1-2, 5, 10-12, 14-15, 18 and 23-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Oh et al. US Pub. No. 20190377632.
As per claims 1 and 14, Fig. 4 and 21 of Oh are directed to a computer readable medium (Fig. 21) having stored thereon a set of instructions (application programs, program data, stored user data, par. 176), said set of instruction when executed perform a method comprising: executing first a writing algorithm of the codeword (first code is stored, par. 92); and executing a subsequent writing algorithm of the codeword (subsequent write codeword, par. 92).
As per claims 2 and 15, a paragraph 92 of Oh discloses wherein information relating to logic values of the codeword are stored before executing the first writing algorithm.
As per claims 5 and 18, Fig. 11B of Oh discloses wherein the executing first writing algorithm (WL0), includes "0" logic values of the codeword.
As per claims 10 and 23, a paragraph 5 of Oh discloses wherein the memory cells to be programmed are included in a vertical 3D memory device.
As per claims 11 and 24, a paragraph 76 of Oh discloses wherein user data are encoded in a codeword having a number of bits exhibiting a first logic state in a range (Fig. 11B), the encoding comprising manipulating the codeword to constrain the number of bits exhibiting the first logic value in the range (210, Fig. 8).
As per claim 12 and 25, a paragraph 76 and Fig. 8 of Oh disclose wherein the encoded user data (210) have a same number of bits exhibiting the first logic value (information data) and a second logic value (parity).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
6. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
7. Claims 3-4 and 16-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Oh et al. US Pub. No. 20190377632 in view of Nemazie US Pub. No. 20180088808 (previous cited).
A paragraph 92 Oh discloses wherein read and write operations on the memory cells are mapped in a given sequence of algorithms (a row adds and a column address with a write (read) command, par. 92), but fails to disclose comprising a first activate command and a subsequent precharge command related to the codeword of the memory array. However, Nemazie discloses these limitations wherein read and write operations on the memory cells are mapped in a given sequence of algorithms (Fig. 10 or 12a), comprising a first activate command (ACT) and a subsequent precharge command (PRE, Fig. 12a) related to the codeword of the memory array. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time invention was made to recognize that Oh would have the activate and precharge commands as taught by Nemazie in order to access the write/read operation.
8. Claims 9 and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over Oh et al. US Pub. No. 20190377632 in view of Yang et al. US Pub. No. 20200192791.
Oh fails to disclose wherein a refresh of the codeword is performed in response to an access cycle to the codeword. However, a paragraph 95 of Yang discloses this limitation. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at the time invention was made to add the refresh of the codeword to Oh as taught by Yang in order to perform the refresh operation if the amount of error exceeds a threshold.
Allowable Subject matter
9. Claims 6-8, 13, 19-21 and 26 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.
10. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Claims include allowable subject matter since the prior art made of record and considered pertinent to the applicants’ disclosure, taken individually or in combination, does not teach or suggest the claimed invention having wherein the executing a subsequent writing algorithm, includes "1" logic values of the codeword in the claims 6 and 19; wherein when a read phase is performed for a subsequent codeword reading phase, a sense amplifier circuitry performs a leakage compensation that represents at least another half of the write to read delay period in the claims 8 and 21; wherein each codeword stored in the memory array comprises respective additional data information associated thereto and said additional data information are downloaded in parallel during said a latching, comparing and executing the leakage compensation algorithm performed before the execution of said writing in the claims 13 and 26.
11. When responding to the office action, Applicants are advised to provide the examiner with the line numbers and page numbers in the application and/or references cited to assist the examiner to locate the appropriate paragraphs.
12. A shortened statutory period for response to this action is set to expire 3 (three) months and 0 (zero) day from the date of this letter. Failure to respond within the period for response will cause the application to become abandoned (see MPEP 710.02 (b)).
13. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HOAI V HO whose telephone number is (571) 272-1777. The examiner can normally be reached 7:00 AM -- 5:30 PM from Thursday and Friday of the first week of a bi-week and Tuesday and Wednesday of the second week.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amir Zarabian can be reached on (571) 272-1852. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571)-273-8300.
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/HOAI V HO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2827
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