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 .
Claims 1-11 are pending as filed November 22, 2024.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sepa et al (US 2011/0174190) in view of Japan 2006-261570 (hereinafter ‘570), EITHER alone OR further in view of Japan 63-107769 (hereinafter ‘769).
Claim 1: Sepa provides a method of producing a laminate (layered structure) including a base (substrate) and a metal nanowire layer (conductor/conductive layer/film) (note 0038, 0089, 0107-0108, 0129-0135). The method includes spin coating on a base a composition/ink including metal nanowires and solvent (dispersing/suspending fluid, which can be a liquid such as water) to form a conductive film/layer (note 0134-0135, 0106-0107, 0110, 0129, 0167). Sepa indicates adjusting conditions, including loading amount, spin speed and time when forming the film, which can adjust thickness, and it is indicated a uniform film formation is desired (note 0134-0135, 0167-0168), where since the coating is a spin coating process, it is understood to be at least inclusive of the substrate rotating and the coating applied with rotation of the substrate.
As to providing the first and second steps as claimed when spin coating,
‘570 further describes substrate processing for providing even supply of liquid to the substrate to be processed when providing a rotating substrate on which liquid is to be supplied and the substrate processed uniformly (note 0001, 0006, 0011). ‘570 describes applying etching fluid, but is specifically not limited to this and can be used for any substrate processing apparatus that supplies a predetermined liquid to the surface of a rotating substrate to be processed to perform surface processing (note 0028). ‘570 indicates that when supplying liquid to the rotating substrate, in known processing, if the rotation is just at a holding so that the center of rotation of the substrate coincides with that of the holding stage, the circulation of the supplied liquid is insufficient at the center of the substrate, giving an uneven supply of liquid (note 0002). ‘570 teaches that instead, a substrate processing method is provided that while a predetermined liquid is supplied to a surface of the substrate while rotating the substrate, the position of the center of rotation of the substrate is moved at least once to a position within the substrate to be processed while the substrate is rotated, and by providing this, the liquid can be supplied evenly to the entire surface of the substrate and the entire surface of the substrate can be processed in a uniform manner (note 0011, 0020, 0017, figure 3). It is indicated that the holding plate (which moves the substrate, and resulting center of rotation of the substrate) can be constantly moved during the process or can be moved intermittently, or moved several times at predetermined intervals (note 0022, 0017, figure 3).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Sepa to provide at least a first step of rotating the base substate and spin coating a composition with metal nanowires and a solvent on a surface of the base and then provide a second step of rotating the base obtained in the first step and spin coating on the surface of the base on which the composition has been spin coated in the first step, the composition including metal nanowires and a solvent, where a position of a rotation center of the base in the first step is different from a position of a rotation center of the base in the second step as suggested by ‘570 with an expectation of helping to provide a desirably uniform coated film of the composition, since Sepa provides for using a spin coating process to apply a coating ink that is desirably uniform on a substrate, and ‘570 indicates that when applying a liquid to a rotating substrate it is desirable to supply a uniform covering, where the uniformity can be provided by moving the center of rotation of the substrate while applying the liquid, where the movement can be intermittent or at predetermined intervals, such that there would be a first step of rotating the base and spin coating/application of the liquid where the base has a first position of a rotation center of the base, and then a second step of rotating the base and spin coating/application of the liquid to the base (after the first step has been performed) where the base has a second/different rotation center of the base, and when using this process with Sepa, the composition ink (with metal nanowires and solvent such as water) of Sepa would act as the liquid for application. Note as worded that the composition in the first and second steps can be the same.
Optionally, further using ‘769, furthermore, specifically as to the spin coating process in Sepa providing application of coating composition onto a rotating substrate, ‘769 further describes how coating with spin coating can be provided, including on a substrate with a moving center of rotation (note abstract, page 2, translation), describing how for normal spin coating, fluid coating composition is applied to a rotating substrate (note page 2, translation, figure 8), where it is described for ‘769 to apply the coating and rotate at a first position of center of rotation, then move the center of rotation and rotate again (note page 2, translation, figure 1).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Sepa in view of ‘570 to specifically understand that the spin coating process can be used in the form of applying coating composition/ink to a substrate with rotation, and further that providing at least two steps with movement of the center of rotation of the base would apply to spin coating processes as suggested by ‘769 with an expectation of providing a desirable coating, since Sepa provides spin coating of the nanowire/solvent composition ink and ‘570 shows a way to get an even covering when applying liquids with a moving rotation center of the base, and ‘769 shows that spin coating a composition involves applying the composition and rotating the substrate, and that one can also provide moving rotation center of the base for coating compositions.
Claims 2, 3, 6, as to the movement distance between the position of the rotation center of the at the first step and second step being 3-20 mm, ’570 indicates that the amount of movement of the holding plate (and therefore the resulting distance between the position of the rotation center of the base at the first and then second step, note 0020) may be determined appropriately depending on the processing conditions, including the rotation speed (note 0024), and therefore it would be suggested to optimize the movement distance, given the suggestion to optimize/determine the value based on the specific conditions used, and this would give a value in the claimed range. "[W]here the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, it is not inventive to discover the optimum or workable ranges by routine experimentation." In re Aller, 220 F.2d 454, 456, 105 USPQ 233, 235 (CCPA 1955).
Claims 4, 7, 8: as to the length of the metal nanowires, Sepa indicates the nanowires/nanostructures can have a length of no more than 55 microns long or 5-30 microns long (note 0062, 0054-0055), overlapping the claimed range, and it would have been obvious to optimize from this range, giving a value in the claimed range. "[W]here the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, it is not inventive to discover the optimum or workable ranges by routine experimentation." In re Aller, 220 F.2d 454, 456, 105 USPQ 233, 235 (CCPA 1955).
Claims 5, 9, 10, 11: as to the amount of metal nanowires used in the composition for the first and second steps, Sepa describes that a typical ink composition for use (which would be the composition used for the first and second steps, note the discussion for claim 1 above), can have 0.01 to 1.5 wt% metal nanowires (note 0107), and with an example of 0.1 to 0.2 wt% silver nanowires (note 0167), and where water can be a solvent/dispersing fluid (0110). As a result, it is understood that with the use of water (which can be 94.5 to 99.0 wt% of the ink, note 0107), it would be understood that the weight and volume of the ink in liters would be very close, and therefore the wt% of the metal nanowires would overlap with that claimed, and it would have been obvious to optimize from these ranges, giving a value in the claimed range. "[W]here the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, it is not inventive to discover the optimum or workable ranges by routine experimentation." In re Aller, 220 F.2d 454, 456, 105 USPQ 233, 235 (CCPA 1955).
Japan 2012-216535 also notes spin coating a metal nanowire containing composition on a substrate (note, used as provided with the IDS of February 2, 2025. 0111, 0113, 0040). Tsai et al (US 2018/0209927) notes providing a laminate with multiple layers 406 with metal nanowires (note figure 4, 0019, 0036).
Conclusion
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/KATHERINE A BAREFORD/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1718