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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Status of the Claims
Claims 1-6 are pending in the current application.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claim 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, because the specification, while being enabling for a maximum defect area greater than 0.01% of the bonding region area (and under 0.3%), does not reasonably provide enablement for a maximum defect area greater than 0.001% of the bonding region, nor for a maximum defect area range including 0% (as the range of the instant independent claim includes). The specification does not enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make the invention commensurate in scope with these claims.
The instant specification contains specific examples in which the maximum defect area of the bonding region reaches 0.01%. No indication is given how a value an entire order of magnitude lower (0.001%) is reached, nor the technical feasibility of obtain a value including 0% which may be an impossible limit. It is generally understood that reduction in values such as maximum defect areas generally become incrementally more difficult as the unobtainable limit value of “0%” is approached (similar to how reaching “100% purity”/”0% impurities” is a limit technically impossible to reach, and incrementally harder for each fractional percentage closer to 100/0). Therefore, the lower range value of 0.001% from claims 3 and 5 does not appear within the scope of enablement of the instant specification and the independent claim’s range including values under 0.001% (including 0%) does not appear within the scope of enablement of the instant specification.
Pertinent Prior Art
Lo (US 20080236738, as applied in the parent claim) discloses knowledge in the art of maximizing the bonding area between a target and backing plate with ‘substantially complete’ bonding (paragraph 15) – thus teaching one of ordinary skill in the art to obtain a bonding area of over 97% of the bonding region, as required by the instant claims. Lo, however, does not disclose nor suggest a maximum defect area percentage of the bonding material between the target and backing plate in the bonding region, nor the specified 0.3% or less maximum defect area required by the instant claims. Additionally, Lo does not disclose nor suggest the bonding region area to be over 13000 mm2. However, as further discussed in the parent application, such large area target and backing plate structures are known in the art.
Vascak (US 5230462) discloses knowledge in the art of a target and backing plate bonded structure in which voids and other imperfections in the bonding material is reduced and/or eliminated (col 1 line 59-col 2 line 20). Vascak, while disclosing reducing or eliminating various bonding material imperfections, does not teach nor suggest a specific percentage obtained, nor does Vascak provide teachings or motivation for obtaining a specific ‘maximum defect area’ percentage – distinguishable from overall percentage of defects which one of ordinary skill in the art would be minimizing based on the teaching of Vascak. Additionally, similarly to Lo, Vascak does not teach nor suggest the high area target bonding region of the instant claims.
Correspondence Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JASON BERMAN whose telephone number is (571)270-5265. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday - Thursday 8-4.
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/JASON BERMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1794