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 .
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
The following title is suggested: SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE WITH INSULATING LAYER HAVING HIGH ALUMINUM CONCENTRATION.
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.
Claim(s) 1-2 and 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sasaki et al. (US 20130153892 A1, hereinafter Sasaki)
With regards to claim 1, Sasaki discloses a semiconductor device (FIG. 3) comprising:
a metal oxide layer (portion of metal oxide layer 402a directly over gate electrode 401) over an insulating surface; (portion of layer 402a directly contacting the substrate 400)
an oxide semiconductor layer (SiNO film 402b) over the metal oxide layer; (See FIG. 3) and
an insulating layer (oxide semiconductor layer 403) over the oxide semiconductor,
wherein the insulating layer comprises a first region overlapping the oxide semiconductor layer, (See FIG. 3, showing the area where the layer 403 directly contacts the layer 402b) and
a first aluminum concentration of the first region is greater than or equal to 1×1017 atoms/cm3. (Paragraph [0067]: “The concentration of aluminum in the oxide semiconductor film is lower than or equal to 1x10^18 atoms/cm^3.” Where the ranges overlap and would be obvious in view of the prior art)
With regards to claim 2, Sasaki teaches the semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein the first region is a region less than or equal to 50 nm from a surface of the insulating layer located on an opposite side of the oxide semiconductor layer. (See FIG. 3, where the region entirely overlaps the surface of the insulating layer 403)
With regards to claim 7, Sasaki teaches the semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein the metal oxide layer contains aluminum oxide. (Paragraph [0182]: “an aluminum oxide film as the gate insulating film 402a…”)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-6 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 STEVEN M Page whose telephone number is (571)272-3249. The examiner can normally be reached M-F: 10:00AM-6:00PM.
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/STEVEN M PAGE/Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2812
