Ex Parte Do et al

Patent Trial and Appeal BoardAug 14, 2017

12757750 (P.T.A.B. Aug. 14, 2017)

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. 12/757,750 04/09/2010 Byung Tai Do 2515.0023 DIV 3377 112165 7590 08/16/2017 STATS ChipPAC/PATENT LAW GROUP: Atkins and Associates, P.C. 55 N. Arizona Place, Suite 104 Chandler, AZ 85225 EXAMINER PARKER, JOHN M ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER 2816 NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE 08/16/2017 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): main@plgaz.com PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07) UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD Ex parte BYUNG TAI DO, HEAP HOE KUAN, and SENG GUAN CHOW Appeal 2016-008490 Application 12/757,750 Technology Center 2800 Before TERRY J. OWENS, JEFFREY T. SMITH, and GRACE KARAFFA OBERMANN, Administrative Patent Judges. OWENS, Administrative Patent Judge. DECISION ON APPEAL STATEMENT OF THE CASE The Appellants appeal under 35 U.S.C. § 134(a) from the Examiner’ rejection of claims 1—30. We have jurisdiction under 35 U.S.C. § 6(b). The Invention The Appellants claim a semiconductor device. Claim 21 is illustrative: 21. A semiconductor device, comprising a plurality of stacked semiconductor die each including: an organic material deposited around a peripheral region of the semiconductor die; a plurality of conductive vias formed through the organic material; and Appeal 2016-008490 Application 12/757,750 an interconnect structure formed over the conductive vias or the semiconductor die. Ikeno Lee The References US 5,135,891 Aug. 4, 1992 US 2005/0104181 A1 May 19, 2005 The Rejection Claims 1—30 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 over Lee in view of Ikeno. OPINION We reverse the rejection. We need address only the independent claims (1,7, 19, 21 and 26). Those claims require conductive vias formed through organic material deposited in a peripheral region of a semiconductor die. Lee discloses a wafer stack structure comprising equal-size first (21), second (31) and third (41) device chips having peripheral vias (25, 35, 45) which align when the device chips (21,31, 41) are stacked flflf 34, 58; Figs. 3, 6). “Each via within vias 25, 35 and 45 may be an interconnection path through device chips 21, 31 and 41, respectively, formed by conductive material that fill[s] a hole which may be vertically bored through the device chips 21, 31 and 41” (| 34). The first device chip (21)’s device region (22) occupies the entire device chip (21) such that its input/output (I/O) pads (24) coincide with the vias (25) flflf 33, 35; Fig. 3). The second (31) and third (41) device chips’ device regions (32, 42) are smaller than those device chips such that the vias (35, 45) are in a peripheral region (33, 43) and are electrically connected to the device region (32, 42)’s I/O pads by rerouting lines (36, 46) flflf 34—36; Fig. 3). “The first peripheral region 33 and the 2 Appeal 2016-008490 Application 12/757,750 second peripheral region 43 may contain no internal circuitry, similar to scribe lanes” (136) and “may be formed as an extension of the scribe lanes” (id.). Ikeno makes a color filter array having uniform spectral transmission characteristics by applying a layer of photoresist (11) to a surface containing a scribe line (3) such that the photoresist (11) completely fills the scribe line (3), selectively hardening the photoresist (11) in the scribe line (3), removing the photoresist (11) outside the scribe line (3) to form a flat surface, forming a uniform-thickness photosensitized gelatin film (9) on the flat surface, patterning that film, and dyeing each of the gelatin patterns (10c) to form the color filter array (col. 3,11. 9-13; col. 4,11. 8—37; Figs. 4A-4G). Due to the photoresist (11) filling the scribe line (3) to form a flat surface,“[tjhere is no difference in thickness between the patterns 10c in the vicinity of and far away from the scribe line 3” (col. 4,11. 31—33). The photoresist (11) then can be removed from the scribe line (3) (col. 4,11. 38— 42). The Examiner finds that “[t]he combination of Ikeno with Lee teaching the use of an organic resin peripheral region on the chip would lead to ensuring a uniform size for all dies during processing [Ikeno, column 2, lines 40-44]” (Ans. 14). Establishing a prima facie case of obviousness requires an apparent reason to modify the prior art as proposed by the Examiner. See KSR Int 7 Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 418 (2007). The Examiner does not establish that Ikeno’s disclosure of filling a scribe line with photoresist to enable formation of a uniform-thickness gelatin pattern for a color filter array would have provided one of ordinary skill in the art with an apparent 3 Appeal 2016-008490 Application 12/757,750 reason to use the photoresist to provide size uniformity to Lee’s semiconductor dies. Nor does the Examiner explain how one of ordinary skill in the art would have done so. Accordingly, we reverse the rejection. DECISION/ORDER The rejection of claims 1—30 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 over Lee in view of Ikeno is reversed. It is ordered that the Examiner’s decision is reversed. REVERSED 4