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 § 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.
Claims 16-17 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Jou et al. (US PGPub 2016/0147088).
Claim 16: Jou teaches (Fig. 23) a structure comprising: an interconnect structure (604) on a substrate (601); a through interposer via (TIV) structure (609) [0051] on the interconnect structure; a dielectric layer (613) on the TIV structure, wherein edges of the dielectric layer are aligned with side surfaces of the TIV structure; and a metal layer (106/110) on the dielectric layer. The claim language does not describe how the edges of the dielectric layer are aligned with the side surface of the TIV structure. Jou teaches a dielectric layer (613) with edges aligned with the side surfaces of the TIV structure in a way that maintains an opening for the subsequent metal layer to contact the TIV.
Claim 17: Jou teaches (Fig. 23) a redistribution layer (RDL) on the metal layer [0064-0066]; an under bump metallization (UBM) contact on the RDL [0066]; and a solder bump (619) on the UBM contact.
Claim 20: Jou teaches (Fig. 23) edges of the metal layer and TIV structure are aligned with the side surfaces of the TIV structure.
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.
Claims 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jou et al. (US PGPub 2016/0147088), as applied to claim 16 above, and further in view of Liao et al. (2019/0157108).
Regarding claim 18, as described above, Jou substantially reads on the invention as claimed, except Jou does not teach the metal layer comprises: a titanium layer; a seed layer on the titanium layer; and a copper layer on the seed layer. Liao teaches the metal layer comprises: a titanium layer; a seed layer on the titanium layer; and a copper layer on the seed layer for use as a metal layer for a capacitor plate or RDL layer [0038-0041]. 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 metal layer taught by Jou to have had the claimed layers as an effective layering of metal for multiple uses within an interconnect device as taught by Liao.
Claim 19. The structure of claim 16, wherein a capacitance between the metal layer and TIV structure is between about 10-15 Farad and about 10-9 Farad. since it has been held when the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, it is not inventive to discover the optimum or workable ranges by routine experimentation. In re Aller, 220 F.2d 454, 105 USPQ 223, 235 (CCPA 1955). Applicant can rebut a prima facie case of obviousness based on ranges by showing unexpected results or the criticality of the claimed range. “The law is replete with cases in which the difference between the claimed invention and the prior art is some range or other variable within the claim. In such a situation, the applicant must show that the particular range is critical, generally by showing that the claimed range achieves unexpected results relative to the prior art range.” In re Woodruff, 919 F. 2d 1575, 16 USPQ2d 1934 (Fed. Cir. 1990). See MPEP 716.02-716.02(g) for a discussion of criticality and unexpected results. The materials of the prior art and the claimed invention are the same and one of ordinary skill in the art would be able to optimize their usage to attain the claimed range through routine experimentation.
Allowable Subject Matter
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: Claims 1-15 are allowed. The prior art of record does not teach the side surface of the metal layer being coplanar with a side surface of the TIV structure as required by independent claim 1 or the metal layer and the TIV structure having the same width as required by independent claim 10.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SARAH KATE SALERNO whose telephone number is (571)270-1266. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 6:30am-2:30pm.
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/SARAH K SALERNO/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2814
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