DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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 7, 14 and 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 7 recites the limitation “wherein said via has a diameter of less than 400 nm and greater than 5 nm” in line 2.
Claim 14 recites the limitation “wherein said via has a diameter of less than 400 nm and greater than 5 nm” in line 2.
Claim 20 recites the limitation “wherein said via has a diameter of less than 400 nm and greater than 5 nm” in line 2.
However, there is lack of proper antecedent basis for “said via” in the claims.
Changing dependency of claim 7 from claim 1 to claim 2; dependency of claim 14 from claim 8 to claim 9; and dependency of claim 20 from claim 15 to claim 16 consecutively may provide proper antecedent basis.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-6, 8-13 and 15-19 are allowed over prior art of record.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Prior art of record neither anticipates 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 “wherein said second level is overlaid by a first isolation layer; and a connective path from said plurality of transistors to said plurality of first metal layers,” as recited in claims 1, 8 and 15 respectively.
Claims 2-6, 9-13 and 16-19 are also allowed as being directly dependent of the allowed independent base claim.
Claims 7, 14 and 12 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure Atwood et al. (US 2003/0227041), Yu et al. (US 2008/0124845) and Lee (US 2009/0325343) also disclose 3D semiconductor device.
Correspondence
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BROOK KEBEDE whose telephone number is 571-272-1862. The examiner can normally be reached Monday Friday 8:00 AM 5:00 PM.
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/BROOK KEBEDE/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2894
/BK/
February 7, 2026
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