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 .
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 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.
Claim Objections
Claim 8 and 18 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Regarding claim 8, it appears “61” in 2nd line from last should be omitted.
Regarding claim 18, it appears “side.” in line 5 should be “side,”.
Appropriate correction is required.
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 of this title, 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.
Claim 1-2, 6-11, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Gebuhr et al. (US publication 2015/0228873 A1), hereinafter referred to as Gebuhr, in view of Heinrich et al. (US publication 2020/0035645 A1), hereinafter referred to as Heinrich.
Regarding claim 1, Gebuhr teaches a semiconductor device (fig. 5-6 and related text) comprising: a substrate (12, [0057]) with a first surface (top surface); and at least one metal bonding member (16, [0060]) disposed on the first surface of substrate; and at least one semiconductor element (14, [0057]) bonded to the first surface by the at least one metal bonding member (fig. 5), wherein the first surface has a plurality of step portion (20, [0064-0065]) formed outside the at least one semiconductor element and inside an outer edge of the substrate in a plan view (fig. 5-6), the plurality of step portion extends along at least part of an outline of the at least one semiconductor element, in the plan view, the at least one semiconductor element has one corner and a first side and a second side that intersect with each other at the one corner (fig. 5-6), the plurality of step portion has a first step portion extending along the first side and a second step portion extending along the second side, and the first step portion and the second step portion are spaced from each other (fig. 5-6).
Gebuhr does not explicitly teach a sinterable metal bonding member disposed on the first surface of substrate.
Heinrich teaches a sinterable metal bonding member ([0071]) disposed on the first surface of substrate.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to combine the teachings of Gebuhr with that of Heinrich so that at least one sinterable metal bonding member disposed on the first surface of substrate because a particular known technique would have yield predictable results and recognized as part of the ordinary capabilities of one skilled in the art. KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 420, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1397 (2007).
Regarding claim 2, Gebuhr teaches wherein in the plan view, each of the first step portions and the second step portion extends linearly (fig. 5-6).
Regarding claim 6, Gebuhr teaches a semiconductor device (fig. 5-6 and related text) comprising: a substrate (12, [0057]) with a first surface (top surface); a plurality of metal bonding member (16, [0060]) disposed on the first surface of substrate; and a plurality of semiconductor element (14, [0057]) bonded to the first surface by the plurality of metal bonding member (fig. 5), wherein the first surface has at least one step portion (20, [0064-0065]) formed inside an outer edge of the substrate in a plan view, the at least one step portion extends along at least part of an outline of each of the plurality of semiconductor element (fig. 5-6), wherein the plurality of semiconductor elements are spaced from each other side by side in a first direction extending along the first surface (fig. 5-6), and the at least one step portion includes a third step portion disposed between two semiconductor elements adjacent to each other in first direction (fig. 5-6).
Gebuhr does not explicitly teach a plurality of sinterable metal bonding member disposed on the first surface of substrate.
Heinrich teaches a plurality of sinterable metal bonding member ([0071]) disposed on the first surface of substrate.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to combine the teachings of Gebuhr with that of Heinrich so that a plurality of sinterable metal bonding member disposed on the first surface of substrate because a particular known technique would have yield predictable results and recognized as part of the ordinary capabilities of one skilled in the art. KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 420, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1397 (2007).
Regarding claim 7, Gebuhr teaches wherein an outer edge of the at least one sinterable metal bonding member is disposed outside an outer edge of the at least one semiconductor element in the plan view, and each of the first step portion and the second step portion is disposed on the outer edge side of the at least one sinterable metal bonding member in the plan view (fig. 5-6).
Regarding claim 8, Gebuhr teaches a semiconductor device (fig. 5-6 and related text) comprising: a substrate (12, [0057]) with a first surface (top surface); at least one metal bonding member disposed (16, [0060]) on the first surface of substrate; and at least one semiconductor element (14, [0057]) bonded to the first surface by the at least one metal bonding member (fig. 5), wherein the first surface has at least one step portion (inner or outer 20, [0064-0065], fig. 5-6) formed outside the at least one semiconductor element and inside an outer edge of the substrate in a plan view (fig. 5-6), the at least one step portion extends along at least part of an outline of the at least one semiconductor element, wherein the substrate has a recess (outer or inner 20, [0064-0065], fig. 5-6) with the first surface as a bottom surface, an inner wall surface of the recess extends along at least part of the outline of the at least one semiconductor element (fig. 5-6), the at least one step portion includes the inner wall surface of the recess, and a depth of the recess is smaller than a sum of a thickness of the at least one semiconductor element and a thickness of the at least one metal bonding member (fig. 5-6).
Gebuhr does not explicitly teach a sinterable metal bonding member disposed on the first surface of substrate.
Heinrich teaches a sinterable metal bonding member ([0071]) disposed on the first surface of substrate.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of claimed invention to combine the teachings of Gebuhr with that of Heinrich so that at least one sinterable metal bonding member disposed on the first surface of substrate because a particular known technique would have yield predictable results and recognized as part of the ordinary capabilities of one skilled in the art. KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 420, 82 USPQ2d 1385, 1397 (2007).
Regarding claim 9, Gebuhr teaches wherein in the plan view, the inner wall surface of the recess is formed to entirely surround the at least one semiconductor element (fig. 5-6).
Regarding claim 10, Gebuhr teaches wherein in the plan view, the inner wall surface of the recess is formed inside the outer edge of the substrate in a first direction extending along the first surface and reaches the outer edge of the substrate in a second direction extending along the first surface and intersecting the first direction (fig. 5-6).
Regarding claim 11, Gebuhr teaches wherein the substrate has a second recess contiguous to the recess, and a bottom surface of the second recess is spaced from the first surface in a direction orthogonal to the first surface (fig. 5-6).
Regarding claim 17, Gebuhr teaches wherein a space between the first step portion and the second step portion is disposed outside the one corner (fig. 5-6).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5 and 18-20 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
The claims contain limitations that none of the prior art of record discloses, teaches or fairly suggests, alone or in combinations when taken in combination with all other 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 Mohammed R Alam whose telephone number is 469-295-9205 and can normally be reached between 8:00am-6:00pm (M-F) or by e-mail via Mohammed.Alam1@uspto.gov.
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/MOHAMMED R ALAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2897
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