DETAILED ACTION
The following Office action concerns Patent Application Number 19/176,743. Claims 1-10 are pending in the application.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § and 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 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.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over Inoue et al (US 10,636,914).
Inoue et al teaches oxide semiconductor thin film comprising In, Ga, Al and a lanthanoid (col. 3, lines 15-20 and 38-42). The lanthanoid includes Gd (col. 6, lines 30-35). The total atomic amount of Ga, Al, and lanthanoid is 8-17 % (col. 6, lines 35-40). By subtraction, the atomic amount of Indium is 83-92 %. In an example, the atomic amount of Ga is 7.3 % and the amount of lanthanoid (Sm) is 3.9 % (Table 3, Ex. 13). Since the total of Al, Ga and lanthanoid is 8-17 %, the atomic amount of aluminum is determined by subtraction to be up to 17%-7.3%-3.9%=5.8%. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to include 7.3 % Ga, 3.9 % Gd (as the lanthanoid), up to 5.8 % Al, and the balance of about 83-88.8 % In.
The corresponding ratios as per claims 1 and 2 are:
In/(In+Ga+Ln) = 83/(83+7.3+3.9)=0.88
Ga/(In+Ga+Ln) = 7.3/(83+7.3+3.9)=0.077
Ln/(In+Ga+Ln) = 3.9/(83+7.3+3.9)=0.04.The ratios as per claims 3 and 4 are:
In/(In+Ga+Ln+Al) = 83/(83+7.3+3.9+5.8)=0.83
Ga/(In+Ga+Ln+Al) = 7.3/(83+7.3+3.9+5.8)=0.073
Ln/(In+Ga+Ln+Al) = 3.9/(83+7.3+3.9+5.8)=0.039
Al/(In+Ga+Ln+Al) = 5.8/(83+7.3+3.9+5.8)=0.058.
The film contains In2O3 and a bixbyite crystal structure (col. 4, lines 55-58 and col. 11, lines 50-60). The metal atoms form a solid solution in the indium oxide phase (col. 8, lines 59-65 and col. 11, 55-60). The film is used in a thin film transistor and an electronic device (col. 1, lines 20-30).
Examiner’s Information
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