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 1-22 are pending.
Action on merits of claims 1-22 as follows.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on September 13th, 2024, has been considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings filed on 09/13/2024 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.
Claims 17-19 and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shim (US 2022/0181399, hereinafter as Shim ‘399) in view of Choi (US 2019/0172898, hereinafter as Choi ‘898).
Regarding Claim 17, Shim ‘399 teaches a display device comprising:
a substrate (Fig. 2, (110); [0053]) including an emission area (EA; [0065]) and a contact area (CCA; [0064]);
a power line (EVSS; [0053]) on the substrate, the power line supplying a voltage;
a transistor (T; [0055]) on the substrate (110);
a light emitting element (230; [0068]) in the emission area and connected to the transistor, the light emitting element including a first electrode (210; [0068]), a light-emitting layer (230) on the first electrode (210), and a second electrode (250; [0068]) on the light-emitting layer; and
an auxiliary electrode (AE; [0064]) in the contact area that is connected to the power line and the second electrode (see para. [0088]), the auxiliary electrode having a flat surface and an inclined surface that extends from the flat surface with respect to the substrate (see Fig. 2).
Thus, Shim ‘399 is shown to teach all the features of the claim with the exception of explicitly the limitations: “an end of the second electrode contacts the inclined surface of the auxiliary electrode in the contact area”.
Choi ‘898 teaches an end of the second electrode (Fig. 7, (123); [0072]) contacts the inclined surface of the auxiliary electrode (123b; [0053]) in the contact area (CNA; [0052]).
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 Shim ‘399 by having an end of the second electrode contacts the inclined surface of the auxiliary electrode in the contact area for the purpose of improving brightness uniformity on a large-area (see para. [0053]) as suggested by Choi ‘898.
Regarding Claim 18, Choi ‘898 teaches the end of the second electrode (123) contacts the inclined surface without the second electrode contacting the flat surface of the auxiliary electrode (120b) (see Fig. 17).
Regarding Claim 19, Choi ‘898 teaches the light-emitting layer (122) contacts the flat surface and the inclined surface of the auxiliary electrode (120b) (see Fig. 7).
Regarding Claim 22, Shim ‘399 teaches a first auxiliary electrode (AE; [0064]) that is connected to the power line (EVSS; [0053]) but does not contact the second electrode (250’; [0101]); and a second auxiliary electrode (270; [0038]) that includes the inclined surface that contacts the end of the second electrode (250’) and the flat surface that contacts the first auxiliary electrode (AE).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 1 is allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding Claim 1, Shim ‘399 and Choi ‘898 do not disclose or fairly suggest, along with the other claim features, an insulation layer between the auxiliary electrode and the light-emitting diode, the insulation layer having a contact hole exposing the auxiliary electrode, wherein a portion of the insulation layer extends past the inclined surface of the auxiliary electrode and an undercut structure is between the inclined surface of the auxiliary electrode and a bottom surface of the portion of the insulation layer that is exposed on at least one side of the contact hole, and wherein the light-emitting layer and the second electrode are respectively disconnected from another light-emitting layer and another second electrode by the undercut structure such that an end of the light-emitting layer and an end of the second electrode are in contact with the inclined surface of the auxiliary electrode at a location that is under the undercut structure. Dependent Claims 2-16, depend on base claim 1, are also allowed.
Claims 20-21 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim 17, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
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:
Choi et al. (US 2023/0207735 A1)
Lee et al. (US 2022/0208913 A1)
Wang (US 2019/0229152 A1)
Kim et al. (US 2018/0151831 A1)
Kim et al. (US 2016/0149155 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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