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 .
1. Claims 1-14 are present for examination.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
2. Claims 1, 4-6, 8-10 & 12-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Mihajlovic et al (US 9,293,160).
Claims 1, 8 & 12-13, Mihajlovic (see Fig. 2) clearly shows a semiconductor device comprising stacked layer 212 having a free magnetization layer (217) including a ferromagnetic layer 217 with a nonmagnetic metal layer (219) above it, and including two opposite/current electrodes (couped to two shield layers 202 & 232), and the current electrodes also receiving an input current for passing it through the stacked 212, and the Hall-voltage electrodes (229 & 205) for outputting a Hall voltage produced by the input current, wherein the Hall voltage is generated by an anomalous Hall effect (AHE) occurring in the ferromagnetic layer of the free magnetization layer due to the input current flowing in the nonmagnetic metal layer,
wherein the Hall voltage has one of a local minimum value and a local maximum value when a value of the input current sequentially changes from a first value to a second value, and wherein one of the first value and the second value is greater than the other one of the first value and the second value.
For example, col. 6 (lines 43-54) stated that “.. the Hall voltage is at maximum level when magnetization of the free layer 217 is fully aligned as parallel with the external/magnetic field, and it is at minimum level when magnetization of free layer 217 is anti-parallel with external filed…” In other words, the Hall voltage can be considered at a first/local maximum value or at a second/local minimum value when the input current also changes from a first current value to a second current value, if any, and either one of these two value scan be either greater or smaller level than the other values as well-known to a skilled person in this art too.
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[AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Input current to free layer 212)][AltContent: arrow][AltContent: textbox (Hall voltages V detected as output signals
with 2 different values (maximum & minimum))][AltContent: arrow]
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Claims 4-6 & 9-10, & 13-14. when the input current changes from a first value to a second value, for example, then the Hall voltage respectively would changes a from a positive value to a negative value, or vice versa, as the magnetic field of free layer 217 increases, depending on the current direction as well, see col. 6, lines 7-22 as below:
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Allowable Subject Matter
3. The dependent claims 2-3, 7 & 11 are objected as being dependent upon their respective parent/rejected claims, but they tentatively add other/novel limitations to the recited structures above, which are neither clearly suggested by the prior arts cited herein nor seen elsewhere at this time.
4. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to VIET Q NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-1788. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30-3PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Amir Zarabian can be reached at 571-272-1852. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/VIET Q NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2827
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