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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Status of the Claims
Claims 1, 7, 10, 13, 24 and 26 have been amended. Claims 2-6, 14-23 and 27-33 have been cancelled. Claims 1, 7-11, 13 and 24-26 are pending.
Action on merits of 1, 7-11, 13 and 24-26 as follows.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on August 29th, 2024, has been considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings filed on 08/29/2024 are acceptable.
Specification
The specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant's cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
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, 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.
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 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsunosaki (JP 2008034767, hereinafter as Tsun ‘767) in view of (Narazaki (US 2011/0298485, hereinafter as Nara ‘485).
Regarding Claim 1, Tsun ‘767 teaches a substrate for foreign material adhesion inspection, comprising: a first conductor layer (RWLDC11; [0016] and [0025]); and an insulating layer (interlayer insulating film; [0069]) provided on the first conductor layer,; and a second conductor layer (RWLSt1; [0016]) provided on the insulating layer.
Thus, Tsun ‘767 is shown to teach all the features of the claim with the exception of explicitly the limitations: “the insulating layer being thinner than a foreign material to be detected”
Nara ‘485 teaches the insulating layer (not shown; see para. [0031]) being thinner than a foreign material (3; [0031]) to be detected (see Fig. 3).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Tsun ‘767 by having the insulating layer being thinner than a foreign material to be detected for the purpose of providing a semiconductor device having a plurality of conductive patterns which have optimum configurations for increasing the dielectric strength of the device (see para. [0007]) as suggested by Nara ‘485.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-9, 10-11, 13, 24-25 and 26 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding Claims 7 and 24, Tsun ‘767 and Nara ‘485 do not disclose or fairly suggest, along with the other claim features, “a measurement instrument configured to measure a physical quantity between the first conductor layer and the second conductor layer”.
Claims 8-9 and 25 depend on claims 7 and 24.
Regarding Claim 10, Tsun ‘767 and Nara ‘485 do not disclose or fairly suggest, along with the other claim features, “a measurement instrument configured to measure a physical quantity between the first conductor layer and a conductor portion of a die collet”.
Claims 11 and 13 depends from claim 10.
Regarding Claim 26, Tsun ‘767 and Nara ‘485 do not disclose or fairly suggest, along with the other claim features, “measuring, in a state where a pickup surface made of a conductor held by a die collet is in contact with an upper surface of an insulating layer of a substrate for foreign material adhesion inspection including a conductor layer and the insulating layer provided on the conductor layer, a physical quantity between the conductor layer and the pickup surface; and determining presence/absence of adhesion of a foreign material to the pickup surface from a change in the physical quantity between before the pickup surface is in contact with the upper surface of the insulating layer and when the pickup surface is in contact with the upper surface of the insulating layer, wherein the insulating layer is broken by the foreign material”.
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.”
Examiner’s Note
Applicant is reminded that the Examiner is entitled to give the broadest reasonable interpretation to the language of the claims. Furthermore, the Examiner is not limited to Applicants' definition which is not specifically set forth in the claims. See MPEP 2111, 2123, 2125, 2141.02 VI, and 2182.
Examiner has cited particular paragraph numbers in the references applied to the claims above for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant in preparing responses, to fully consider the references in their entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner. See MPEP 2141.02 VI.
In the case of amending the claimed invention, Applicant is respectfully requested to indicate the portion(s) of the specification which dictate(s) the structure relied on for proper interpretation and also to verify and ascertain the metes and bounds of the claimed invention.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The following patents are cited to further show the state of the art with respect to semiconductor devices:
Jarvis et al. (US 6268717 B1)
Adachi et al. (US 2022/0077046 A1)
For applicant’s benefit portions of the cited reference(s) have been cited to aid in the review of the rejection(s). While every attempt has been made to be thorough and consistent within the rejection it is noted that the PRIOR ART MUST BE CONSIDERED IN ITS ENTIRETY, INCLUDING DISCLOSURES THAT TEACH AWAY FROM THE CLAIMS. See MPEP 2141.02 VI.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DZUNG T TRAN whose telephone number is (571) 270-3911. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 8 AM-5PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sue Purvis can be reached on (571) 272-1236. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DZUNG TRAN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2893
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