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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claims 1-8 and 10-17 depend upon rejected claim 1 and inherit the deficiency thereby.
Claim 1, Line 6, “thinning the first substrate” is unclear to one of ordinary skill in the art as to what this recitation of “thinning” is intended to convey, thereby leaving the boundaries of the claim unclear.
Claim 9, Lines 1-3, the second bulkplate and the recess formed within the second bulkplate appear to be redundant of Claim 1, Lines 8-9, it is unclear to one of ordinary skill in the art whether a differing limitation was intended to be defined.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-3, 9, 18-20, and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Wang (US 11005448).
As per Claims 1-3, 9, 18-20 and 25:
Wang discloses in Figure 21:
An acoustic wave device comprising a first substrate (100) comprising a first bulkplate (“first insulating material layer”, 110 is inherently a bulkplate as it is a flat layer), forming (the first electrode recess, first frame, first frame recess, first electrode, piezoelectric layer on the first electrode, and second electrode on the piezoelectric layer as defined below within these claims are inherently formed as is necessary to form the structure, as is known to one of ordinary skill in the art) a first frame (“structure supporting sheet”, 241) partially surrounding a first electrode (211), piezoelectric layer (221), and a second electrode (212) stacked in sequence (as is evident by the formation in Figure 21), the first substrate (100) is thinned so the first electrode (211) is exposed from a first surface of the first substrate (bulk plate 110, which is a portion of the first substrate 100 is thinned where the first cavity 115 is located and is inherently exposing the first electrode from the first surface of the first substrate), a second substrate (200) having a second surface (the bottom surface of the second insulting material layer 210 that is in contract with the temperature compensation film, 232) with a second bulkplate (“second insulting material layer”, 210 is inherently a bulkplate as it is a flat layer); a recess formed from a second surface of a second substrate and located in the second bulkplate (as per claim 9, “second cavity”, 215), and bonding the first surface of the first substrate and second surface of the second substrate (the first and second substrates may be bonded together by bonding the second insulting material layer 215 to the second conductive film/second electrode 212, [Col. 13, Lines 39-42]) so the recess (215), first (211) and second electrodes (212), and piezoelectric layer (221) partially overlap in a vertical direction to overlap (as is evident the structures overlapping in Figure 21) and the first substrate (100) and the second substrate (200) form a sealed cavity at the recess (as per claims 18 and 25, “second cavity” 215 is a sealed cavity, as is evident by Figure 21) and the second bulkplate (210) having a second frame (“temperature compensation film”, 232) disposed in the second bulkplate (as the temperature compensation film 232 is disposed on the surface of the second insulting material layer 210 are thereby inherently disposed in the second insulting material layer 210) and partially surrounding the sealed cavity (as per claims 19 and 25, 232 surrounds the 215 as is evident by Figure 21), the first frame and the second frame being at least partially aligned (as per claim 20, as is evident by the vertical alignment on film 232 and sheet/frame 241 as shown in Figure 21), and a first electrode recess in the first bulkplate (“first cavity”, 115), a first frame recess (“first electrode cavity”, 261) filled with a dielectric material (as per claim 3, cavity (261) is an empty space inherently filled with air which is a dielectric, as is known to one of ordinary skill in the art) in the first bulkplate (110) and the first frame (241) formed utilizing the first frame recess (as per claim 2, sheet/frame 241 is inherently formed utilizing cavity 261 as the sheet/frame 241 is formed around the cavity).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 24 is allowable over Wang (US 11005448), while teaching the first and second electrodes, the first and second bulkplates, the piezoelectric layer, the recess, thinning the first substrate, and the first frame, fails to teach or suggest the planarization process, the passivation later, or the adhesion layer on the first substrate.
Claims 21-23 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 ABIGAIL YALDO whose telephone number is (703)756-1784. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 7 AM - 4 PM.
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/ABIGAIL AMIR YALDO/Examiner, Art Unit 2843
/ANDREA LINDGREN BALTZELL/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2843
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