DETAILED ACTION
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 9/12/24 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement has been considered by the examiner.
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.
Claim(s) 1-15 is/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.
Claim 1 recites the limitation “a substantially single crystalline layer”. Claims 7-9 refer back to this limitation. Claims 7-9 refer to “substantially single crystalline silicon” (claim 7), “substantially single crystalline gallium nitride” (claim 8), and “substantially single crystalline silicon carbide” (claim 9).
The metes and bounds of the claimed limitations can not be determined for the following reasons:
The term "substantially" is a relative term that renders the claims indefinite. It is not defined by the claims, the specification does not provide a standard for ascertaining the requisite degree, and one of ordinary skill in the art would not be reasonably apprised of the scope of the invention. “Substantially” is defined as "being largely but not wholly that which is specified” (see Merriam Webster online dictionary). The term “substantially” defines a target (“single crystalline”) and implicitly requires boundary different than the target beyond which one is not “substantially single crystalline” any more. Neither the claims, nor the specification, defines this boundary. For example, the specification does not define how “non-crystalline” the substrate can be and still be “substantially single crystalline”. This makes it unclear if it may be polycrystalline, or microcrystalline, or what size its crystal grains must be.
Thus, determining whether one is infringing the limitation is subjective, rather than objective, and the claim is unclear.
Claims 2-15 depend from claim 1 and inherit its deficiencies.
Claim 15 recites the limitation “the thick plated metal layer is characterized by a thickness ranging from 20 µm to 200 µm.”
The metes and bounds of the claimed limitations can not be determined for the following reasons: it is unclear how the “thick plated metal layer” is “characterized by” a thickness in the claimed range. It is unclear if this limitation merely requires the layer to have the claimed thickness, or if it requires both that the layer must have this thickness and that the layer must also be somehow separated into a different class due to the thickness, e.g. by having special properties that only result from this range of thicknesses.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 1-15 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action, and if rewritten to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Specifically, to overcome the 112 rejections, claims 1 and 7-9 would need to remove “substantially” before “single crystalline” everywhere it occurs, and claim 15 would need to change “is characterized by” to “comprises”.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the prior art does not explicitly teach, or reasonably suggest as obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, an invention having all of the limitations of claim 1, including:
forming an epitaxial gallium nitride layer coupled to the single crystalline layer;
forming a plurality of gates, each of the plurality of gates being disposed in one of the plurality of trenches;
forming a plurality of sources coupled to the epitaxial gallium nitride layer;
forming a metal bonding layer on the interconnect structure, wherein the second set of routing structures electrically connect the plurality of sources to the metal bonding layer;
bonding a conductive carrier to the metal bonding layer;
removing the engineered substrate to expose a back surface of the epitaxial gallium nitride layer;
forming a drain layer on the back surface of the epitaxial gallium nitride layer;
etching at least one portion of the epitaxial gallium nitride layer and the interconnect structure to form at least one gate pad recess and expose the embedded metal track; and
forming at least one gate electrode in the at least one gate pad recess.
The closest prior art such as US 2018/0182620 (“Odnoblyudov”) and US 10,290,730 B1 (“Yang”), cited in Applicant’s IDS, and discussed in the international search report for PCT/US2024/037384 (see copy provided by Applicant on 9/12/24) do not disclose either alone or in combination the limitations of claim 1, including those in italics, above.
The other claims each depend from one of these claims, and each would be allowable for the same reasons as the claim from which it depends.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Conclusion / Prior Art
The prior art made of record, because it is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure, but which is not relied upon specifically in the rejections above, is listed on the Notice of References Cited.
US 2023/0231029 A1 discloses transistors having source electrodes coupled through interconnections to a metal pads 968 that are direct bonded to another substrate 101.
Conclusion / Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Kevin Parendo who can be contacted by phone at (571) 270-5030 or by direct fax at (571) 270-6030. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday from 9 am to 4 pm ET.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Billy Kraig, can be reached at (571) 272-8660. The fax number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Kevin Parendo/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2896
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