DETAILED ACTION
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 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Nakajima (US 2002/0070396 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Nakajima shows a semiconductor memory device comprising: a plurality of word lines (WL in FIG. 9) extending in a first horizontal direction (X/Y direction); a plurality of channel patterns (P+/N in FIG. 9) adjacent to a plurality of word line structures (WL in FIG. 9), arranged in a row in the first horizontal direction (see FIG. 9), and extending in a vertical direction (X or Y direction); a plurality of bit lines (BL in FIG. 9) extending in a second horizontal direction different from the first horizontal direction and electrically connected to a plurality of channel patterns (see FIG. 9); the plurality of word lines (WL in FIG. 9) adjacent to the plurality of channel patterns (P+/N), and the plurality of channel patterns on the bit lines (BL); a shield conductive layer (shield layer 46) arranged below the plurality of bit lines (BL) and extending in the vertical direction between the bit lines (BL); and a cover insulating layer (insulation layer 42 as shown in FIG. 7)) arranged between the plurality of bit lines (BL) and the shield conductive layer ( shield layer 46), wherein in a plan view the shield conductive layer comprises a main body unit ( main body of layer 46) and a pad unit (unit 47), the plurality of bit lines (BL) overlapping the main body unit in the vertical direction (see FIG. 7), and a pad unit extending from the main body unit but the plurality of bit lines not overlapping the pad unit in the vertical direction (see FIG. 7).
Regarding claim 2, Nakajima shows a semiconductor memory device comprising, wherein the main body unit (center of layer 46 in FIG. 9) has a rectangular shape (see FIG. 9) in a plan view, and each of the pad units extend from a corner portion of the main body unit in a plan view (see FIG. 7 with respect to FIG. 9).
Regarding claim 4, Nakajima shows a semiconductor memory device comprising wherein the pad unit has a rectangular shape having a less area than the main body unit in a plan view.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 11-20 are allowed.
Claims 3 and 5-10 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ELIAS M ULLAH whose telephone number is (571)272-1415. The examiner can normally be reached M-F at 8AM-5PM EST.
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/ELIAS ULLAH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2893
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