NCC NANO, LLCDownload PDFPatent Trials and Appeals BoardDec 4, 20202019005880 (P.T.A.B. Dec. 4, 2020) Copy Citation UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE United States Patent and Trademark Office Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS P.O. Box 1450 Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450 www.uspto.gov APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE FIRST NAMED INVENTOR ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO. 14/540,639 11/13/2014 KURT A. SCHRODER NCC.001007A 3096 124676 7590 12/04/2020 Russell Ng PLLC 8729 Shoal Creek Blvd., Suite 100 Austin, TX 78757 EXAMINER TRAN, THIEN S ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 3761 NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE 12/04/2020 ELECTRONIC Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding. The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication. Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the following e-mail address(es): stephanie@russellnglaw.com PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE ____________ BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD ____________ Ex parte KURT A. SCHRODER, STEVEN C. McCOOL, and DOUGLAS K. JACKSON ____________ Appeal 2019-005880 Application 14/540,6391 Technology Center 3700 ____________ Before GEORGE R. HOSKINS, BRANDON J. WARNER, and ERIC C. JESCHKE, Administrative Patent Judges. JESCHKE, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL STATEMENT OF THE CASE Appellant2 seeks review, under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a), of the Examiner’s decision, as set forth in the Final Office Action dated January 15, 2019, and 1 We rendered a prior decision on appeal in this application on May 29, 2018, in Appeal No. 2016-002858. 2 Appellant is the Applicant listed on the Application Data Sheet, NCC Nano, LLC. See Application Data Sheet (filed Nov. 13, 2014). The Application was assigned to NCC Nano, LLC, according to an assignment recorded with the Office on April 22, 2015. In the Appeal Brief, Novacentrix Corporation is identified as the assignee and the real party in interest. Appeal Br. 3. Appeal 2019-005880 Application 14/540,639 2 as further explained in the Advisory Action dated March 26, 2019, rejecting claims 1–10 and 12–16.3 We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). We reverse. BACKGROUND The disclosed subject matter relates “to an apparatus for providing transient thermal profile processing for thin films on a moving substrate.” Spec. 2:12–13. Claim 1, the sole independent claim on appeal, is reproduced below, with emphasis added: 1. An apparatus for curing a thin film on a moving substrate, said apparatus comprising: a conveyance system for moving said thin film mounted on said substrate; a flashlamp controller for modifying pulse widths of multiple pulses to generate a specific waveform that controls temperatures of a first side and a second side of said substrate in a time scale according to a specific thermal profile such that said temperatures of said first and second sides of said substrate are different, wherein said flashlamp controller includes a waveform generator; and 3 Although claim 11 is listed as rejected in the Office Action Summary (Final Act. 1) and in the lead paragraph to this Rejection (id. at 2), we are unable to discern where the Examiner addresses the language recited in claim 11 in the body of the Rejection. See id. at 2–7; Appeal Br. 7 (arguing that “none of the cited references discloses the claimed specific thermal profile that is expressed in temperature as a function of time and depth of said thin film and substrate, as recited in Claim 11”). As such, we do not consider claim 11 to be subject to a rejection for review. Appeal 2019-005880 Application 14/540,639 3 an encoder that sends control signals to said waveform generator to generate said specific waveform; and a flashlamp for providing an electromagnetic pulse according to shapes and timing of said specific waveform, wherein said electromagnetic pulse is utilized to cure said thin film while said thin film is being moved in relation to said flashlamp. REFERENCES The Examiner relies on the following references: Name Reference Date Flicstein US 5,221,561 Issued June 22, 1993 Timans US 2003/0183612 A1 Published Oct. 2, 2003 Ott US 2006/0021975 A1 Published Feb. 2, 2006 Govek US 2006/0174508 A1 Published Aug. 10, 2006 Kusuda US 2009/0067823 A1 Published Mar. 12, 2009 Pope US 2009/0181184 A1 Published July 16, 2009 Schroder ’419 WO 2006/071419 A2 Published July 6, 2006 Zhenhua CN 2012298004 Published April 29, 2009 REJECTIONS 1. Claims 1, 2, 8, and 12 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Govek, Timans, and Kusuda.5 2. Claims 3–7 and 10 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Govek, Timans, Kusuda, and Schroder ’419.6 4 The Examiner relies on only a translation of the abstract of this Chinese patent publication. See, e.g., Final Act. 10. The translation was added to the file history on March 20, 2015. 5 Although the Examiner lists claim 11 in Rejection 1, we do not consider claim 11 to be subject to a rejection for review. See supra note 3. 6 The Examiner relies on Schroder ’419 in Rejection 2 but states to Appeal 2019-005880 Application 14/540,639 4 3. Claim 9 stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Govek, Timans, Kusuda, and Zhenhua. 4. Claims 13 and 14 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Govek, Timans, Kusuda, and Flicstein. 5. Claim 15 stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Govek, Timans, Kusuda, and Ott. 6. Claim 16 stands rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as unpatentable over Govek, Timans, Kusuda, and Pope. DISCUSSION Rejection 1 – Claims 1, 2, 8, and 12 Independent claim 1 recites, among other limitations, “an encoder that sends control signals to [a] waveform generator to generate [a] specific waveform.” Appeal Br. 9 (Claims App.). For this, as well as the “waveform generator” recited immediately prior, the Examiner relied on Kusuda: K[u]suda discloses the flashlamp controller (Figs 1, 5, 6, controller 3, [¶] 0031) includes a waveform generator (Fig 6, pulse generator 31, waveform setter 32, [¶] 0052, [¶] 0055); and encoder (Fig 6, input unit 33, [¶] 0055) that sends control signals to said waveform generator to generate said specific waveforms (Figs 7-9, various pulse waveforms shown) for processing the thin film is known in the art. Final Act. 6 (emphasis added). Appellant states that, in paragraph 55, cited by the Examiner as to the recited “encoder,” Kusuda discloses that the identified “encoder,” input unit 33, “may be any of various known input equipment such as a keyboard, a “us[e] Schroder (US 2008/0020304) as an English language equivalent for Schroder (WO2006071419).” Final Act. 7. Appeal 2019-005880 Application 14/540,639 5 mouse, or a touch panel.” Appeal Br. 6 (quoting Kusuda ¶ 55). According to Appellant, this “explanation does not [address] the claimed encoder that ‘sends control signals to said waveform generator to generate said specific waveform’” as required by the limitation at issue. Id. In the Answer, the Examiner does not discuss this argument. See Ans. 3–6. We are persuaded by Appellant’s argument that input unit 33 in Kusuda does not satisfy the requirement for “an encoder that sends control signals to said waveform generator to generate said specific waveform.” In a discussion of Appellant’s Figure 2, the Specification provides this description of the encoder: As shown, flashlamp controller 130 includes an encoder 210, an arbitrary waveform generator 220, a thermal simulator 225, and control computer 160. User initially inputs thin film stack properties 240 and desired processing level 250 into flashlamp controller 130. After receiving inputs, such as conveyance speed, from conveyance system 110 (from Figure 1) and additional system limits 270, encoder 210 provides trigger signals to computer which sends signals to arbitrary waveform generator 220 at appropriate times for curing thin films located on conveyance system 110. Spec. 9:24–30 (emphasis added). Figure 2 is reproduced below: Appeal 2019-005880 Application 14/540,639 6 Figure 2 is a “block diagram of a flashlamp controller within the thermal processing apparatus from Figure 1.” Spec. 5:11–12. Although input unit 33 in Kusuda would seem capable of providing the initial “inputs” discussed in the description of Figure 2 above (Spec. 9:27), the Examiner has not adequately explained how input unit 33 would send “control signals” to the identified “waveform generator”— i.e., pulse generator 31 and waveform setter 32 together—as recited in the limitation at issue. See Final Act. 6. The paragraph of Kusuda relied on by the Examiner supports this understanding of the function of input unit 33, stating that “waveform setter 32 sets a pulse-signal waveform, based on the contents of input from the input unit 33, and the pulse generator 31 generates a pulse signal with that waveform.” Kusuda ¶ 55 (emphasis added). Thus, we do not sustain the rejection of claim 1, or of claims 2, 8, and 12, which depend from claim 1. Rejections 2 through 6 – Claims 3–7, 9, 10, and 13–16 Claims 3–7, 9, 10, and 13–16 each depend from claim 1. Appeal Br. 9–10 (Claims App.). The Examiner’s added reliance on Schroder ’419 (in Rejection 2), Zhenhua (in Rejection 3), Flicstein (in Rejection 4), Ott (in Rejection 5), and Pope (in Rejection 6) does not remedy the deficiencies in the rejection based on Govek, Timans, and Kusuda, discussed above (see supra Rejection 1). Thus, for the same reasons discussed above, we do not sustain the rejections of claims 3–7, 9, 10, and 13–16. CONCLUSION We reverse the Examiner’s rejection of claims 1–10 and 12–16 under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a). Appeal 2019-005880 Application 14/540,639 7 DECISION SUMMARY In summary: Claims Rejected 35 U.S.C. § Reference(s)/Basis Affirmed Reversed 1, 2, 8, 12 103(a) Govek, Timans, Kusuda 1, 2, 8, 12 3–7, 10 103(a) Govek, Timans, Kusuda, Schroder ’419 3–7, 10 9 103(a) Govek, Timans, Kusuda, Zhenhua 9 13, 14 103(a) Govek, Timans, Kusuda, Flicstein 13, 14 15 103(a) Govek, Timans, Kusuda, Ott 15 16 103(a) Govek, Timans, Kusuda, Pope 16 Overall Outcome 1–10, 12–16 REVERSED Copy with citationCopy as parenthetical citation