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 .
Response to Amendment
The Examiner acknowledges the amended claims 1, cancellation of claim 8 as well as new claims 20-23.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 2-4, filed 05/21/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Chang and Clayton.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/01/2021 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
Previous rejection has been withdrawn.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(d):
(d) REFERENCE IN DEPENDENT FORMS.—Subject to subsection (e), a claim in dependent form shall contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and then specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to incorporate by reference all the limitations of the claim to which it refers.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, fourth paragraph:
Subject to the following paragraph [i.e., the fifth paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112], a claim in dependent form shall contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and then specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to incorporate by reference all the limitations of the claim to which it refers.
Claim 21 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(d) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, 4th paragraph, as being of improper dependent form for failing to further limit the subject matter of the claim upon which it depends, or for failing to include all the limitations of the claim upon which it depends.
Limitation in claim 21 “the pump laser is optically coupled to the microresonator to provide the optical input” is the same as in claim 20, see page 4.
Applicant may cancel the claim(s), amend the claim(s) to place the claim(s) in proper dependent form, rewrite the claim(s) in independent form, or present a sufficient showing that the dependent claim(s) complies with the statutory requirements.
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.
Claim(s) 1-4, 17, 19-22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chang (NPL Nature Communications 2020; vol. 11; page 1331. Publication access March 12 2020; cited in the IDS) in the view of Clayton (US Patent US-20030026312-A1), hereinafter Clayton.
Regarding claim 1, Chang teaches an integrated laser and non-linear device (Fig. 1a waveguide AlGaAsOI integrated with a pump laser, see page 7 paragraph 2) comprising:
a silicon substrate having a silicon-dioxide SiO2 layer (Fig. 1a AlGaAsOI waveguide where substrate is Si having SiO2 layer);
a nonlinear device fabricated in the SiO2 layer (Fig. 1 a AlGaAs waveguide is a nonlinear device, abstract & Device design in page 2),
wherein the nonlinear device comprises a semiconductor waveguide having a thickness of 360 nm to 450 nm (page 3 states “the AlGaAs layer thickness is set to be 400 nm”) and
a waveguide width of between 600 nm and 800 nm (Fig. 1c waveguide widths used from 600nm-800nm, page 3 paragraph 1) selected based on a material of the semiconductor waveguide to provide anomalous group velocity dispersion (GVD) in the 1.53 mm to 1.57 mm C-band frequency (Fig. 1c GVD plot comprises 1.53mm to 1.57mm C band frequency, see page 3 paragraph 1),
wherein the nonlinear device comprises AlxGa1-xAs, where 0<x<1 (Fig. 1a waveguide is Al0.2Ga0.8As, also see Device design), is selected to vary the bandgap between 1.42 eV and 2.16 eV to avoid two photon absorption (TPA) in the C-band (see page 2 Device design);
a pump laser coupled to the non-linear device (page 7 paragraph 2 stated the use of a pump laser to generate the comb; hence, it is inherent that the pump laser is coupled to the non-linear device in Fig. 1a), and
wherein in response to an optical input provided by the monolithically-mounted pump laser the non-linear device generates distinct and equidistant frequency lines in the C-band (Fig. 4 comb generated at the C-band, see page 2 Device design section) in response to the input optical frequency provided by the pump laser (page 7 paragraph 2 stated the use of a pump laser to generate the comb).
Chang fails to teach a monolithically-mounted pump laser epitaxially realized in III-V material and being coupled on the same silicon substrate.
However, Clayton teaches a monolithically-mounted pump laser (Fig. 2 pump laser 404 is monolithically integrated to common substrate 406, see [0042]) epitaxially realized in III-V material (Fig. 2 pump laser 404 is epitaxially growth which includes InGaAsP, see [0056] and step formation in Figs 4-6) and coupled to a waveguide on the same substrate (Fig. 2a waveguide 410’ is coupled to pump laser 404 on the same substrate 406, see [0043]). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to prior to the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Chang’s device with a pump laser epitaxially realized in III-V material as taught by Clayton because having a pump laser epitaxially realized in III-V material would allow to achieve high output power, while providing the single chip semiconductor benefits of small size, high efficiency, and mechanical simplicity (from Clayton see paragraph [009]).
Regarding claim 2, Chang’s modified device teaches the monolithically integrated laser and non-linear device of claim 1, wherein the nonlinear device is a resonator (Fig. 2d ring resonator, see abstract AlGaAs resonator & page 4 Characterization of microresonators section).
Regarding claim 3, Chang’s modified device teaches the monolithically integrated laser and non-linear device of claim 1, wherein the nonlinear device is a waveguide (Fig. 1a wavguide AlGaAs).
Regarding claim 4, Chang’s modified device teaches the monolithically integrated laser and non-linear device of claim 1, wherein the nonlinear device includes one or more of a frequency comb generator (Fig. 4 Frequency comb), stimulated Brillouin effect, Raman effect, second harmonic generator, and/or optical parametric oscillator.
Regarding claim 17, Chang’s modified device teaches the monolithically integrated laser and non-linear device of claim 1, wherein the semiconductor waveguide has a thickness of between 350 nanometers (nm) and 450 nm (page 3 states “the AlGaAs layer thickness is set to be 400 nm”).
Regarding claim 19, Chang’s modified device teaches the monolithically integrated laser and non-linear device of claim 17, wherein the non-linear device is comprised of Alo.2Gao.8As (Fig. 1a waveguide Al0.2Ga0.8As) to generate a frequency comb output in the C-band 1530 nm to 1565 nm (Fig. 4a comb frequency output is between 15030nm-1565nm in the C-band, see page 2 Device design).
Regarding claim 20, Chang teaches an integrated laser and non-linear device (Fig. 1a waveguide AlGaAsOI integrated with a pump laser, see page 7 paragraph 2), comprising:
a semiconductor/dielectric substrate (Fig. 1 a AlGaAsOI waveguide where substrate is Si having SiO2);
a nonlinear device fabricated on the semiconductor/dielectric substrate (Fig. 1 a AlGaAs waveguide is a nonlinear device, abstract),
wherein the nonlinear device comprises a microresonator (Fig. 2d micro-ring resonator) including a nonlinear waveguide (page 2 paragraph 5 states “we make a key step in this direction by demonstrating compact micro-ring resonators in the AlGaAson-insulator (AlGaAsOI)… The waveguides are fully etched”);
a pump laser (a pump laser was used to generate the combs in Fig. 4, see page 7 paragraph 2) optically coupled to the microresonator to provide an optical input thereto (Fig. 4a shows the optical efficiency of the AlGaAsOI being pump at 36mW; see page 4 paragraph 5, using a pump laser, see page 7 paragraph 2; hence, pump laser is coupled to microresonator in Fig. 2d to provide an optical input);
wherein the nonlinear waveguide is formed in a silicon dioxide SiO2 insulating layer disposed on a silicon substrate (Fig. 1 a AlGaAsOI waveguide where substrate is Si having SiO2);
wherein the nonlinear waveguide comprises AlxGa1-xAs, where 0<x<1 (Fig. 1a waveguide is Al0.2Ga0.8As), having a bandgap between about 1.42 eV and about 2.16 eV selected to avoid two-photon absorption (see page 2 Device design section) at C-band wavelengths -1.53 mm to 1.57 mm- (from page 2 Device design section “to avoid two photon absorption (TPA) at the two most important telecom bands (1310 and 1550 nm)”) ; and
wherein the microresonator is configured to generate a frequency comb (Fig. 4a comb @ 1 THz-36mW) comprising a plurality of equidistant optical frequency lines in response to the optical input from the pump laser (Fig. 4a comb shows equidistant optical frequency lines at 36mW pump by pump laser, see page 7 paragraph 2).
Chang’s fails to teach a pump laser fabricated on the same semiconductor/dielectric substrate monolithically integrated with the non-linear device.
However, Clayton teaches a monolithically-mounted pump laser (Fig. 2 pump laser 404 is monolithically integrated to common substrate 406, see [0042]) epitaxially realized in III-V material (Fig. 2 pump laser 404 is epitaxially growth which includes InGaAsP, see [0056] and step formation in Figs 4-6) and coupled to a waveguide on the same substrate (Fig. 2a waveguide 410’ is coupled to pump laser 404 on the same substrate 406, see [0043]). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to prior to the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Chang’s device with a pump laser epitaxially realized in III-V material as taught by Clayton because having a pump laser epitaxially realized in III-V material would allow to achieve high output power, while providing the single chip semiconductor benefits of small size, high efficiency, and mechanical simplicity (from Clayton see paragraph [009]).
Regarding claim 21, Chang’s modified device teaches the monolithically integrated laser and non-linear device of claim 20, wherein the pump laser is optically coupled to the microresonator to provide the optical input (Fig. 4a shows the optical efficiency of the AlGaAsOI being pump at 36mW; see page 4 paragraph 5, using a pump laser, see page 7 paragraph 2; hence, pump laser is coupled to microresonator in Fig. 2d to provide an optical input).
Regarding claim 22, Chang’s modified device teaches the monolithically integrated laser and non-linear device of claim 20, wherein the microresonator has a quality factor (Q) greater than or equal to 106 (page 4 paragraph 3 sates “The intrinsic quality factor is measured to be ∼1.53 × 106”).
Claim(s) 23 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chang (NPL Nature Communications 2020; vol. 11; page 1331. Publication access March 12 2020; cited in IDS) in the view of Clayton (US Patent US-20030026312-A1), as per claim 20, in further view of Liang (US Patent US-8605760-B2), hereinafter Liang.
Regarding claim 23, Chang’s modified device teaches the monolithically integrated laser and non-linear device of claim 20.
Chang’s modified device fails to teach a phase tuner configured to control optical phase for self-injection locking.
However, Laing teaches a phase tuner configured (Fig. 1 phase rotator 2) to control optical phase for self-injection locking (Fig. 1 phase rotator 2 controls the phase of the feedback light beam 1b to the laser 1 to ensure a desired phase for the injection locking, see column 6 lines 56-64).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to prior to the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify Chang’s device in the view of Clayton with a phase tuner as taught by Liang because it would allow to controls the phase of the feedback light beam to ensure a desired phase for the injection locking (from Liang column 6 lines 56-64).
Conclusion
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/FERNANDA ADRIANA CAMACHO ALANIS/Examiner, Art Unit 2828
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