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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 1/8/2025 and 7/14/2026 were filed in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Election/Restrictions
Claims 14-20 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 7/6/2026.
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.
1: Claim(s) 1, 2, 6 and 7 are is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2022254659 A1 Sekido in view of US 2012/0230669 A1 Abe Further in view of US 2012/0107516 A1 Wu.
2: As for Claim 1, Sekido teaches in the abstract and depicts in Figure 2 A camera unit comprising: an optical element comprising one or more lenses (31 and 32); an image sensor comprising a cover glass (33), a solid-state image pickup device (34), and a first adhesive adhering (teaches adhesive is used to bond the elements) the cover glass (33) and the solid-state image pickup device (34); a first resin (20) having a light-shielding property, the first resin (20) covering at least a part of a side surface of the optical element (31 and 32). Sekido teaches multiple resins, however, does not teach a second resin covering a side surface of the first adhesive (bond on the direct top surface of the image sensor); wherein a tensile elastic modulus of the second resin is smaller than a tensile elastic modulus of the first resin.
Abe depicts in Figure 2 and teaches in Paragraphs [0042 and 0043] a camera module (11) and teaches it is advantageous when building the camera module to use two different layers for the light-shielding resin (31 and 32) in order to improve ease of construction and further teaches forming a lower layer (32 viewed as the second layer) using a ultraviolet curable resin which is instantaneously cured and forming the second resin (31 viewed as the first resin layer) made of a thermosetting resin which is heated and thereby cured.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to construct the light shielding resin (20) of Sekido using
two different layers for the light-shielding resin (31 and 32) wherein the lower layer (32) using a ultraviolet curable resin which is instantaneously cured and forming the second resin (31) made of a thermosetting resin which is heated and thereby cured as taught by Abe in order to improve ease of construction. However, Abe is silent as to the tensile elastic modulus of the first resin formed using a ultraviolet curable resin and the second resin formed of a thermosetting resin.
Wu teaches methods for forming both ultraviolet curable resins and a thermosetting resin to be used in image forming systems and further teaches in Table 1 and Paragraph [0054] a UV curable resin exhibits a higher tensile elastic modulus than most commercially available thermoplastic resins. Therefore, using the disclosed ultraviolet curable resins and thermosetting resin for the ultraviolet curable resin (second resin) and a thermosetting resin (first resin) will result in a tensile elastic modulus of the second resin (element 31 in Figure 2 of Abe) is smaller than a tensile elastic modulus of the first resin (element 32 in Figure 2 of Abe).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the disclosed ultraviolet curable resin and a thermosetting resin with corresponding tensile elastic modulus for the ultraviolet curable resin and thermosetting resin of the invention of Sekido in view of Abe since Wu teaches the disclosed materials are commonly used in image forming systems.
3: As for Claim 2, Abe further depicts in Figure 2 wherein the second resin (element 32 depicted in Figure 2) extends upward above the top surface of the image sensor. Therefore, in view of the combination with Sekido as discussed in Claim 1, the second resin covers a side surface of the cover glass and a side surface of the solid-state image pickup device.
4: As for Claim 6, Sekido teaches in the abstract and depicts in Figure 2 A camera unit comprising: an optical element comprising one or more lenses (31 and 32); an image sensor comprising a cover glass (33), a solid-state image pickup device (34), and a first adhesive adhering (teaches adhesive is used to bond the elements) the cover glass (33) and the solid-state image pickup device (34); a first resin (20) having a light-shielding property, the first resin (20) covering at least a part of a side surface of the optical element (31 and 32); a three-dimensional wiring board (10) including a side wall (outer edge of 10) and a bottom defining a cavity (recess H10), the camera unit (30, 33, 34,39 and 20) being disposed in the cavity (H10) and electrically connected (via wiring 19) to the bottom (10SB); and a third resin (element 10) having a light-shielding property and being located between at least the side surface of the camera unit and the side wall (10 is formed between the outer edge of the wiring board and resin 20). Sekido teaches multiple resins, however, does not teach a second resin covering a side surface of the first adhesive (bond on the direct top surface of the image sensor); wherein a tensile elastic modulus of the second resin is smaller than a tensile elastic modulus of the first resin.
Abe depicts in Figure 2 and teaches in Paragraphs [0042 and 0043] a camera module (11) and teaches it is advantageous when building the camera module to use two different layers for the light-shielding resin (31 and 32) in order to improve ease of construction and further teaches forming a lower layer (32 viewed as the second layer) using a ultraviolet curable resin which is instantaneously cured and forming the second resin (31 viewed as the first resin layer) made of a thermosetting resin which is heated and thereby cured.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to construct the light shielding resin (20) of Sekido using
two different layers for the light-shielding resin (31 and 32) wherein the lower layer (32) using a ultraviolet curable resin which is instantaneously cured and forming the second resin (31) made of a thermosetting resin which is heated and thereby cured as taught by Abe in order to improve ease of construction. However, Abe is silent as to the tensile elastic modulus of the first resin formed using a ultraviolet curable resin and the second resin formed of a thermosetting resin.
Wu teaches methods for forming both ultraviolet curable resins and a thermosetting resin to be used in image forming systems and further teaches in Table 1 and Paragraph [0054] a UV curable resin exhibits a higher tensile elastic modulus than most commercially available thermoplastic resins. Therefore, using the disclosed ultraviolet curable resins and thermosetting resin for the ultraviolet curable resin (second resin) and a thermosetting resin (first resin) will result in a tensile elastic modulus of the second resin (element 31 in Figure 2 of Abe) is smaller than a tensile elastic modulus of the first resin (element 32 in Figure 2 of Abe).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the disclosed ultraviolet curable resin and a thermosetting resin with corresponding tensile elastic modulus for the ultraviolet curable resin and thermosetting resin of the invention of Sekido in view of Abe since Wu teaches the disclosed materials are commonly used in image forming systems.
5: As for Claim 7, Abe further depicts in Figure 2 wherein the second resin (element 32 depicted in Figure 2) extends upward above the top surface of the image sensor. Therefore, in view of the combination with Sekido as discussed in Claim 6, the second resin covers a side surface of the cover glass and a side surface of the solid-state image pickup device.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3- 5 and 8-13 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 JAMES M HANNETT whose telephone number is (571)272-7309. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00 AM-5:00 PM Monday thru Thursday.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Twyler Haskins can be reached at 571-272-7406 The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
/JAMES M HANNETT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2639
JMH
September 30, 2026
