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 § 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, 7 and 9-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nad et al. (US 20190229082) in view of Takeshita et al. (US 20010050182) and/or Sheffield et al. (US 8123927).
As to claim 12, Nad et al. teaches a power electronic system, comprising: power components (not shown chips that are connected with the “chip to chip interconnection”, ¶0005, or not shown components that “metal trace”, ¶0004, is connected between); and a conductor (metal trace), configured to connect the power components, and comprising a damping part (roughness) on a surface of the conductor. Nad et al.’s fails to teach that the damping part has an average roughness greater than 20 μm and/or a maximum height roughness greater than 50 μm. However, Takeshita et al.’s ¶0090 teaches that the surface roughness can be set three times as great as the skin depth. Sheffield et al.’s col.3, lines 23-30, that “[t]he term high frequency generally refers to a frequency range where the amplitude of the surface roughness equals or exceeds the skin depth in the conductor… typical frequency ranges that result in significant signal deterioration due to the skin effect include frequencies from 1 Megahertz (MHz) to hundreds of Gigahertz (GHz), depending at least in part on the properties of the conductor.” Nad et al.’s ¶0005 teaches that “[a]t 1 MHz signal transfer this skin depth is typically about 66 μm”. Therefore, at 1 MHz signal transfer or high frequency, setting the average roughness to be greater than 20 μm and/or a maximum height roughness to be greater than 50 μm (three times as great as 66 mm or “equals or exceeds” 66 mm) is seen as an obvious design preference to ensure optimum performance, MPEP 2144.05.
As to claim 13, Sheffield et al.’s figure 1A shows that its conductor comprises two damping parts (roughness) on two opposite surfaces (top 122A and bottom 124A) of the conductor.
As to claim 1, the modified Nad et al.’s reference teaches power components (chips); and a conductor (metal trace), configured to connect the power components (further see Sheffield et al.’s figure 1A), and comprising a damping part (roughness) disposed on a surface of the conductor (further see Sheffield et al.’s figure 1A), wherein the damping part is at least partially formed with a damping material having different resistances at different frequencies (Takeshita et al.’s ¶0090), and a relative permeability of the damping material is greater than 1 at a frequency higher than 1 MHz (Sheffield et al.’s col. 3, lines 45-50 teaches that “[t]he circuit trace 112A may include any of a variety of circuit trace materials used in circuit devices, including, for example, wrought foils, electroplated foils or deposited conductive material and may include any of a variety of conductive substances, such as copper, aluminum, gold, nickel, silver and the like.” selecting the material for the conductor/trace such that its relative permeability to be greater than 1 at frequency higher than 1HMz is seen as an obvious design preference to ensure optimum performance), wherein the damping part forms first and second paths for first and second power currents flowing between the power components respectively, the first power current is at a frequency higher than 1 MHz, the second power current is at a frequency lower than 1 MHz, and a resistance of the first path is higher than a resistance of the second path.
As to claim 7, the modified Nad et al.’s reference teaches that the conductor comprises two said damping parts on two opposite surfaces of the conductor (see the rejection of claim 13).
As to claim 9, Takeshita et al.’s figure 1 shows that its conductor comprises a plurality of body parts (3, 5 6) and insulation layer (2) arranged between the body parts. It would have been obvious to arrange Nad et al.’s conductor as claimed for the purpose of saving space.
As to claim 10, selecting the materials for the damping part is seen as an obvious design preference to ensure optimum performance, see Sheffield et al.’s col. 3, lines 45-50.
As to claim 11, the modified Nad et al.’s reference teaches that the conductor is configured as a trace of a printed circuit board, a terminal pin of a device package, or a trace, a clip or a lead frame terminal of a power module package.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-6 and 8 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.
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/QUAN TRA/
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2843
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