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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in Korea on 07/05/2024. It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the KR10-2024-0088571 application as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 04/24/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the “a reference cell electrically connected to a first reference resistor for reading data from the memory cell or a second reference resistor for reading data from the OTP cell” must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(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 1-10 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claim 1 recites “a reference cell electrically connected to a first reference resistor for reading data from the memory cell or a second reference resistor for reading data from the OTP cell.” The specification does not have support for a reference cell electrically connected to a first reference resistor or a second reference resistor. Fig. 3 shows the reference cell RC have Reference Cell Transistor (RCT) which can be the reference transistor. Fig. 3 does not show any resistor connected to Reference Cell RC. In addition, Fig. 10 shows reference resistors Rref_M and Rref_O are part of the reference cell area, which the examiner believes that these resistors are the resistance equivalence for the reference memory cells RCT11 and RCT12. The examiner did not find any support in the specification and drawings for the claimed limitation to have a reference cell electrically connected to a first reference resistor or a second reference resistor.
Claim 18 has the same limitation. Therefore, the claim is indefinite for the same reasoning.
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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites “wherein the controller is configured to set a second reference resistance of the second reference resistor.” However, the claim did not recite any first reference resistance of the second reference resistor which creates confusion whether there second reference resistor have one or two reference resistance.
Claim 11 recites “to receive a second resistance value from a resistance distribution of the memory cells programmed to the first state and a resistance distribution of the memory cells programmed to a second state different from the first state.” According to the claim, the setting module receives a “Second resistance value” which is for the first and second state. The memory cell store data based on different resistance for the memory cell. A first resistance will correspond to a first state, and a second resistance corresponds to a second state. However, the claim have “a second resistance value” which corresponds to both the first and second state, which is unclear how the memory device will determine if the memory cell stores a first state or a second state from the same second resistance value.
Claim 11 recites the limitation "the first state" in line 11. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) and 35 U.S.C. 112(a) above. Reference Kim is the closet reference to the current invention and is used to help expedite the prosecution.
Claim(s) 1-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Kim (US 2022/0336000 A1).
Regarding claim 1-17, Kim teaches a memory device, comprising: a nonvolatile memory including a memory cell array (Fig. 17, memory array 110a); and a controller configured to control the nonvolatile memory, wherein the memory cell array includes: a memory cell including a first magnetic tunnel junction element (Fig. 17, any of the MTJs in array 110a); an OTP (One-Time-Programmable) cell including a second magnetic tunnel junction element (Fig. 17, MTJs in array 110a function as a one time programmable cell. Any of the MTJs in array 110a can be considered the OTP cell. Currently, the claim did not indicate the MTJ and OTP to have different structures); and a reference cell electrically connected to a first reference resistor for reading data from the memory cell or a second reference resistor for reading data from the OTP cell (Fig. 17, Reference cells in array 110b), wherein the controller is configured to set a second reference resistance of the second reference resistor, based on a first edge resistance value detected from a resistance distribution of OTP cells comprising the OTP cell or based on a first reference resistance of the first reference resistor (Fig. 10).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 18-20 would be allowable if rewritten 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 and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
After further search and consideration it is determined that the prior art of record neither anticipated nor renders obvious the claimed subject matter of the instant application as a whole either taken alone or in combination, in particular, prior art of record does not teach, the following limitation(s) in combination with the remaining claimed limitation:
a one-time-programmable (OTP) cell including second, third and fourth magnetic tunnel junction elements electrically connected to a second bit line, and second, third and fourth cell transistors electrically connecting a second source line and the second magnetic tunnel junction element to each other; and wherein the third and fourth magnetic tunnel junction elements are electrically isolated from the second, third and fourth cell transistors, wherein the controller includes a reference resistance setting module configured to set the second reference resistance, wherein the reference resistance setting module is configured to set the second reference resistance, based on a first edge resistance value detected from a resistance distribution of OTP cells comprising the OTP cell or based on the first reference resistance.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KHAMDAN N ALROBAIE whose telephone number is (571)270-7099. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Thursday (8AM till 6PM).
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Richard Elms can be reached at (571) 272-1869. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Khamdan N. Alrobaie/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2824
