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 .
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1 to 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xu et al (2019/0323145).
The Xu et al reference teaches a silicon carbide boule, note entire reference. The boule is grown by sublimation or PVT methods. The boule has a line orthogonal to the crystal growth direction. This crosses the largest inscribed circle and connects two circumferential points. The range for this can be above 200mm, note paras 0083, 0088 and 0089. The sole difference between the instant claims and the prior art is the specific length range of this line. However, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the instant invention to determine the length range of the line in the XU et al reference in order to have the desired sized of the silicon carbide for further processing. Noting, the reference does teach growing difference sizes of the silicon carbide boule and over the ranges claimed.
Claims 9 and 10 are allowable over the art of record. The art does not teach nor render obvious the instantly claimed method, noting in particular the use of a laser during growth and where the laser is pointed.
Examiner’s Remarks
The remaining references are merely cited of interest as showing the state of the art in silicon carbide growth.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ROBERT M KUNEMUND whose telephone number is (571)272-1464. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00 am to 4:30 pm.
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RMK
/ROBERT M KUNEMUND/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1714
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