Technology area: Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics
13 pending office actions • 11 art units • 13 examiners • 0 of 13 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 15 patents granted in the last 365 days
Onto Innovation Inc. has 13 pending office actions in Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics. The matters are assigned to 13 examiners across 11 art units, showing broad distribution with some repeated art-unit coverage.
KIDWELL, KAITLYN ELIZABETH is the busiest examiner, with 1 pending matter. No examiner has a larger allocation in the supplied data, so portfolio management should emphasize consistent technical framing and application-specific response development.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 2 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date; the rest are excluded from the tile counts.
Difficulty is derived from the rejection statutes on the most recent pending office action. §101-driven and multi-statute cases are graded Hard; §112-only and obviousness-type double-patenting cases are graded Easy; everything else is Medium. "Unknown" means we have not yet parsed a statute for that office action.
| Bucket | Cases |
|---|---|
| §101 + other | 2 (15%) |
| §103 only | 7 (54%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 4 (31%) |
How the docket's pending cases split across USPTO tech-center bands.
Manual office-action response work runs about 10 hours per case. The time-saved bands below show what IP Author's prosecution pipeline typically delivers — a conservative 20% on the low end, 35% in the middle, 50% on the high end.
| Examiner | Apps on this docket | Allow rate | Interview lift |
|---|---|---|---|
| KIDWELL, KAITLYN ELIZABETH | 1 | 76.5% | +22.6% |
| ASFAW, MESFIN T | 1 | 83.1% | +13.9% |
| GEISEL, KARA E | 1 | 75.2% | +18.2% |
| GRAVES, TIMOTHY P | 1 | 81.1% | +15.2% |
| FABIAN JR, ROBERTO | 1 | 71.0% | +28.5% |
| LEE, ERIC D | 1 | 81.5% | +19.3% |
| BESLER, CHRISTOPHER JAMES | 1 | 68.6% | +41.0% |
| HALL, ELIZABETH MARY CAMPBEL | 1 | 69.0% | +8.3% |
| DAVIS, CYNTHIA L | 1 | 71.4% | +30.2% |
| MARINI, MATTHEW G | 1 | 60.6% | +21.9% |
Cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate of 80%+ where the difficulty is Easy or Medium. The top 1 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19042393 | FIDUCIAL PATTERN ALIGNMENT TECHNIQUES | ASFAW, MESFIN T | — |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 6 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18522038 | STAGE ACTUATOR PARTICLE SHIELD | BESLER, CHRISTOPHER JAMES | 46d |
| 19071685 | VARIABLE WAVELENGTH INTERFEROMETRY | KIDWELL, KAITLYN ELIZABETH | — |
| 18851340 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PERFORMING CHARACTERIZATION OF A SAMPLE USING MULTI-WAVELENGTH LASER ACOUSTICS | GRAVES, TIMOTHY P | — |
| 18574554 | PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT OF SEMICONDUCTOR SUBSTRATE TOOLS | LEE, ERIC D | — |
| 18466932 | Parameter Aggregation and Normalization for Manufacturing Tools | DAVIS, CYNTHIA L | — |
| 18358495 | LOG FILE AGGREGATOR AND DATA VISUALIZATION FOR SEMICONDUCTOR CONTROL SYSTEMS | MARINI, MATTHEW G | — |
Cases in front of an examiner whose interview lift is 10 percentage points or more — i.e. interviewed cases historically resolve more favorably than non-interviewed ones. The top 8 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18522038 | STAGE ACTUATOR PARTICLE SHIELD | BESLER, CHRISTOPHER JAMES | 46d |
| 19071685 | VARIABLE WAVELENGTH INTERFEROMETRY | KIDWELL, KAITLYN ELIZABETH | — |
| 19042393 | FIDUCIAL PATTERN ALIGNMENT TECHNIQUES | ASFAW, MESFIN T | — |
| 18954038 | SURFACE INSPECTION USING LASER TRIANGULATION | GEISEL, KARA E | — |
| 18851340 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PERFORMING CHARACTERIZATION OF A SAMPLE USING MULTI-WAVELENGTH LASER ACOUSTICS | GRAVES, TIMOTHY P | — |
| 18784611 | TRANSIENT ELLIPSOMETRY WITH ASYNCHRONOUS OPTICAL SAMPLING | FABIAN JR, ROBERTO | — |
| 18574554 | PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT OF SEMICONDUCTOR SUBSTRATE TOOLS | LEE, ERIC D | — |
| 18466932 | Parameter Aggregation and Normalization for Manufacturing Tools | DAVIS, CYNTHIA L | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 2877 | 3 |
| 2882 | 1 |
| 2855 | 1 |
| 2851 | 1 |
| 3726 | 1 |
| 2872 | 1 |
| 2857 | 1 |
| 2853 | 1 |
| 2188 | 1 |
| 2671 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19071685 | VARIABLE WAVELENGTH INTERFEROMETRY | KIDWELL, KAITLYN ELIZABETH | 2877 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Mar 05, 2025 |
| 19042393 | FIDUCIAL PATTERN ALIGNMENT TECHNIQUES | ASFAW, MESFIN T | 2882 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jan 31, 2025 |
| 18954038 | SURFACE INSPECTION USING LASER TRIANGULATION | GEISEL, KARA E | 2877 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Nov 20, 2024 |
| 18851340 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PERFORMING CHARACTERIZATION OF A SAMPLE USING MULTI-WAVELENGTH LASER ACOUSTICS | GRAVES, TIMOTHY P | 2855 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 26, 2024 |
| 18784611 | TRANSIENT ELLIPSOMETRY WITH ASYNCHRONOUS OPTICAL SAMPLING | FABIAN JR, ROBERTO | 2877 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jul 25, 2024 |
| 18574554 | PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT OF SEMICONDUCTOR SUBSTRATE TOOLS | LEE, ERIC D | 2851 | §102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Dec 27, 2023 |
| 18522038 | STAGE ACTUATOR PARTICLE SHIELD | BESLER, CHRISTOPHER JAMES | 3726 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | 46d | Pending | Nov 28, 2023 |
| 18475684 | BLUR REDUCTION TECHNIQUES FOR SEMICONDUCTOR INSPECTION | HALL, ELIZABETH MARY CAMPBEL | 2872 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 27, 2023 |
| 18466932 | Parameter Aggregation and Normalization for Manufacturing Tools | DAVIS, CYNTHIA L | 2857 | §101§102§103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Sep 14, 2023 |
| 18358495 | LOG FILE AGGREGATOR AND DATA VISUALIZATION FOR SEMICONDUCTOR CONTROL SYSTEMS | MARINI, MATTHEW G | 2853 | §101§103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jul 25, 2023 |
| 18339973 | MULTIPLE SOURCES OF SIGNALS FOR HYBRID METROLOGY USING PHYSICAL MODELING AND MACHINE LEARNING | COTHRAN, BERNARD E | 2188 | §103 | Non-Final OA | — | Pending | Jun 22, 2023 |
| 18170792 | DEFECT DETECTION IN MANUFACTURED ARTICLES USING MULTI-CHANNEL IMAGES | FELIX, BRADLEY OBAS | 2671 | §103 | Non-Final OA | 23d overdue | Pending | Feb 17, 2023 |
| 18062112 | DYNAMIC MODELING FOR SEMICONDUCTOR SUBSTRATE DEFECT DETECTION | DULANEY, KATHLEEN YUAN | 2666 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Dec 06, 2022 |
IP Author helps IP teams respond to office actions faster with AI-generated responses, examiner analytics, and prosecution intelligence.
Start Free TrialOnto Innovation Inc. has 13 pending office actions as of October 2026, spread across 11 art units and 13 examiners.
Kaitlyn Elizabeth Kidwell has the most, with 1 of Onto Innovation Inc.'s pending office actions.
Mostly Semiconductors, Circuits & Optics (USPTO Tech Center 2800), based on where its pending office actions are examined.
