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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted 7/12/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97 and being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
The following title is suggested: Acoustic Wave Device With Shield Layer.
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor, or a joint inventor, regards as the invention.
Claims 1, line 18, recites “the shield layer.” There is insufficient antecedent basis for the limitation, rendering the claim indefinite. For examination purposes, “the shield layer” will be understood to mean “the conductive shield layer,” previously recited in the claim at line 9.
Claims 2-20 are also rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as dependent on the rejected claim.
Appropriate correction is required, including in the dependent claims 2-3, 5-7, 17, and 19.
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.
Claims 1-2, 10-12, 14-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2017/0346463 A1, published Nov. 30, 2017 (“Hatakeyama”).
Hatakeyama discloses in Figs. 1-6, 14-15 and the corresponding description:
Claim 1
An acoustic wave device (Fig. 1, ¶23) comprising:
an outer terminal electrode (Fig. 1, outer terminals 30a-b; Fig. 6, terminals 30) that includes a first terminal, a second terminal, and a ground terminal (¶35, “The terminals 30 include a common terminal Ant, a transmit terminal Tx, a receive terminal Rx, and a ground terminal Gnd.”; ¶28 “The shield electrode 37 can be grounded by supplying a ground potential to the terminal 30a.”);
a first piezoelectric substrate (Fig. 2B, piezoelectric film 24; ) including a first (lower) surface and a second (upper) surface;
a first filter (Fig. 5, receive filter 62) that is connected to the first terminal and the second terminal (¶¶26, 34-35) and includes a first resonator (Fig. 1, resonator 22; Fig. 5, resonators P21 or P23) on the first surface (one surface of piezoelectric film 24); and
a conductive shield layer (Figs. 1 and 3, shield electrode 37) above the first resonator to overlap with at least a portion of the first resonator in a case where the first piezoelectric substrate is viewed in a plan view in a thickness direction of the first piezoelectric substrate (Fig. 3); wherein
the first resonator includes:
a first electrode (Figs. 1, 2B, lower electrode 23; ¶30) electrically connected to the first terminal or the second terminal (¶¶26, 34-35); and
a second electrode (Figs. 1, 2B, upper electrode 25; ¶30) connected to the ground terminal with the shield layer interposed between the second electrode and the ground terminal (Fig. 1, shield electrode 37 is interposed between electrodes 23 and 25 and the ground terminal 30a).
Claim 2
further comprising:
a support (Fig. 1, support substrate 10a, ¶23); and
a cover that is supported by the support and includes a third surface (upper surface of 10a) and a fourth surface (lower surface of 10a); wherein
the cover is spaced apart from the first piezoelectric substrate such that the first surface and the third surface face each other (Fig. 1);
the outer terminal electrode (terminals 30a-b) is on the fourth surface of the cover (lower surface of 10b); and
the shield layer is between the first surface and the third surface (Fig 1).
Claim 10
wherein each resonator is a surface acoustic wave resonator or a bulk acoustic wave resonator (Figs. 2A-B, ¶¶29-30).
Claim 11
wherein the acoustic wave device is a duplexer including two filters (¶36).
Claim 12
wherein the first resonator is a surface acoustic wave resonator or a bulk acoustic wave resonator (Figs. 2A-B, ¶¶29-30).
Claim 14
wherein the first piezoelectric substrate includes lithium tantalate, lithium niobate, zinc oxide, aluminum nitride, lead zirconate titanate, or a piezoelectric laminate material (¶30, “The piezoelectric film 24 is, for example, an aluminum nitride film.”).
Claim 15
wherein the first resonator includes a metal including aluminum, copper, silver, gold, titanium, tungsten, platinum, chromium, nickel, or molybdenum, or an alloy of aluminum, copper, silver, gold, titanium, tungsten, platinum, chromium, nickel, or molybdenum (¶30).
Claim 16
wherein the first resonator includes a plurality of metal films (¶30, lower electrode 23 and the upper electrode 25).
Claim 17
wherein the shield layer includes copper, silver, or aluminum (¶25).
Claim 18
wherein the shield layer is located in a hollow space between the first resonator and the cover (Fig. 1, airgap 26, ¶27).
Claim 19
wherein the shield layer is connected to the ground terminal (¶28 “The shield electrode 37 can be grounded by supplying a ground potential to the terminal 30a.”);.
Claim 20
A communication device comprising:
a transmission and reception circuit including a filter device; wherein
the filter device is the acoustic wave device according to claim 1 (¶36, duplexer including the transmit filter 60 and receiver filter 62).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-9 and 13 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim but would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim(s) and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the closest prior art reference of Hatakeyama does not disclose or render obvious the feature of segmented, isolated shield layers, required by claim 3 and its dependents; the feature of the 5–40 µm shield-to-piezoelectric substrate spacing, required by claim 5; or the feature of a third filter disposed on a second piezoelectric substrate spaced apart from a first substrate, required by claim 6 and its dependents, in combination with the remaining limitations of the respective claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2018/0019727 A1, published Jan. 18, 2018 (“Ando”) discloses a acoustic wave device including a shielding layer covering SAW resonators (Fig. 13, ¶¶99-105).
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/VICTOR COLE/
Examiner, Art Unit 2843
/ANDREA LINDGREN BALTZELL/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2843