DETAILED ACTION
Examiner’s Notes
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Objections
Claim 20 is objected to because of the following informality:
Claim 20 is objected to because of the informality in the recitation “solar cells according to claim 1” in line 2. Examiner suggests changing the recitation to “solar cells, and each of the solar cells is the solar cell according to claim 1”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112:
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites “the P-type conductive region” in line 5. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. For the purpose of this office action, the recitation will be treated as if it recites “a P-type conductive region”. All claims which depend on clam 1 are rejected by virtue of dependency. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 1 recites “the N-type conductive region” in line 8. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. For the purpose of this office action, the recitation will be treated as if it recites “a N-type conductive region”. All claims which depend on clam 1 are rejected by virtue of dependency. Appropriate correction is required.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-20 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance: the prior art taken alone or in combination fails to anticipate or fairly suggest the limitations of the claims, in such a manner that a rejection under 35 USC 102 or 103 would be proper. The prior art fails to teach a combination of all the claimed features as presented in independent claim 1.
Regarding claim 1, GAO (CN 111613688 A, see English Machine Translation) teaches a solar cell (see the IBC battery cell in Fig. 1) comprising a semiconductor substrate (see the N-type single crystal silicon substrate 1), a first passivation layer (see the back surface aluminum oxide (Al2O3) passivation layer 8) disposed on a side of the P-type conductive region (see the P+ doped layer 6), a second passivation layer (see the back surface silicon nitride (SiNx) passivation layer 9) disposed on a side of the N-type conductive region (see the N+ doped layer 5), a first electrode (see the positive electrode 10), and a second electrode (see the negative electrode 11), and BABA (US 20180076340 A1) teaches a first doping conductive layer (see the transparent conductive layer 15) and a second doping conductive layer (see the transparent conductive layer 17).
But, the prior art fails to explicitly teach a combination of all the claimed features including
“wherein a length of the first passivation layer along a first direction is greater than a length of the P-type conductive region along the first direction”, as claimed.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TAE-SIK KANG whose telephone number is 571-272-3190. The examiner can normally be reached on 9:00am – 5:00pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matthew T. Martin can be reached on 571-270-7871. 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). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/TAE-SIK KANG/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1728
Prosecution Insights