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 .
Summary
This is the response to the Amendment/Requester for Reconsideration filed on 07/06/2026.
Claims 1-2, 5-6 and 8 remain pending in the application with claim 2 is withdrawn from consideration.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 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 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Berry et al. (WO2022/174049) in view of Chatterjee et al. (US 2011/0094577).
Addressing claim 1, Berry discloses a composite transport layer (fig. 1), comprising a transition layer 140, a hole transport layer 180, and a buffer layer 190 sequentially stacked along a light incident direction (hv arrow in fig. 1), wherein
a preparation material of the transition layer 140 is tin oxide [0037];
a preparation material of the hole transport layer 180 is NiOx, CuSCN or copper oxide [0065]; and
a preparation material of the buffer layer 190 is nickel nitride [0048] that satisfies the claimed NiaEbNcOd when b = 0 and d = 0.
Berry is silent regarding the preparation material for the transition layer is the claimed materials.
Chatterjee discloses conductive oxide film for photovoltaic devices; wherein, the conductive oxide film is copper doped tin oxide or nickel doped tin oxide [0036].
At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, one with ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to modify the composite transport layer of Berry by substituting the known tin oxide material of the transition layer 140 with the known copper doped tin oxide or nickel doped tin oxide material disclosed by Chatterjee in order to obtain a conductive metal oxide layer with high electron mobility (Chatterjee, [0033]), high carrier concentration (Chatterjee, [0034]) and high transparency (Chatterjee, [0038]) that improves the photoelectric conversion efficiency of the photovoltaic cell. The nickel doped tin oxide or copper doped tin oxide transition layer of Berry in view of Chatterjee satisfies the claimed NixAySizSnmOn or CuxAySizSnmOn formula when the subscripts y and z are zero with the preparation material includes tin.
Regarding the limitation “the composite transport layer is arranged … conformal contact with the perovskite light-absorbing layer”, the claim is drawn to the composite transport layer as recited in line 1 as “A composite transport layer”. The aforementioned limitation “the composite transport layer is arranged … conformal contact with the perovskite light-absorbing layer” is drawn to the location at which the composite transport layer is positioned that does not structurally differentiate the claimed composite transport layer from that of the prior art.
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Berry et al. (WO2022/174049) in view of Chatterjee et al. (US 2011/0094577) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Li et al. (CN106098801 with provided machine English translation).
Addressing claim 5, Berry discloses the thickness of the hole transport layer 180 is 2 to 100 nm [0044] that falls within the claimed range. Chatterjee discloses the thickness of the transition layer is 10 nm to 500 nm [0037] that overlaps with the claimed range. Berry and Chatterjee are silent regarding the thickness of the buffer layer 190 in the claimed range.
Li discloses a conductive layer for photovoltaic cell made of metal nitride [0010] that is made of nickel nitride [0019] similarly to that of Berry; wherein, the thickness of the nickel nitride layer is between 10-50 nm [0020] that falls within the claimed range.
At the time of the effective filing date of the invention, one with ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to modify the composite transport layer of Berry by perform routine experimentation with the thickness of the nickel nitride layer in the range disclosed by Li in order to optimize the ohmic contact and reduction in resistance of the photovoltaic cell (Li, [0010]); therefore, one would have arrived at the claimed thickness of the metal nitride buffer layer when perform routine experimentation with the thickness of the nickel nitride layer in the range disclosed by Li in order to optimize the ohmic contact and reduction in resistance of the photovoltaic cell.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6 and 8 are allowed for reasons stated in previous Office Action.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 07/06/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. The Applicants argued that claim 1 has been amended to include all features of claim 6 and therefore is allowable. The argument is not persuasive because claim 1 is drawn to a composite transport layer; whereas, claim 6 is drawn to a perovskite solar cell, which are different products. The limitation “the composite transport layer … in conformal contact with the perovskite light-absorbing layer”, as incorporated into claim 1, does not structurally differentiate the claimed composite transport layer from that of the prior art since it is drawn to the location at which the composite transport layer is positioned without further structurally limit the claimed composite transport layer of claim 1. For the reason above, Examiner maintains the position that claim 1 is obvious based on the teaching of Berry and Chatterjee and claim 5 remains rejected as dependent of claim 1.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BACH T DINH whose telephone number is (571)270-5118. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Friday 8:00 - 4:30 EST.
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/BACH T DINH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1726 07/13/2026
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