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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on December 20, 2025 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s Amendment filed December 20, 2025 has been fully considered and entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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 of this title, 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 13-15, 17, 18 and 21-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Onaka (US 2018/0254832 A1) in view of Frolov et al. (WO 2004/072691 A2), further in view of Jiang (CN 107533196 A).
Regarding claims 13 and 17, Onaka discloses an optical transposer (916 in Figs. 1A-1B) comprising: a first waveguide (“optical fiber” connected to 923), wherein a first end of the first waveguide connects to the doped fiber in an optical amplifier (923); a second waveguide (“optical fiber” connected to 915), wherein a first end of one of the second waveguide connects to a photonic circuit (915); a third waveguide (“optical fiber” connected to 921), wherein a first end of one of the third waveguide connects to the output end of a pump laser (921); and a wavelength division multiplexer (922), wherein the second waveguide is multiplexed with the third waveguide into the first waveguide (paragraph 0048).
Still regarding claims 13 and 17, Onaka teaches the claimed invention except for an optical splitter. Frolov discloses a planar lightwave circuit (606 in Fig. 6; paragraph 0048); an optical splitter (620) supported by the PLC and connected to a laser output fiber (609) into which a pump laser (605) emits pump light comprising a first wavelength, wherein an input end of the optical splitter is configured to receive the pump light having the first wavelength and wherein output ends of the optical splitter are configured to carry divided pump light at the first wavelength (splitter 620 is a “power splitter”). Frolov further discloses a plurality of first (621, 622), second (607, 608) and third (waveguides connected to output of 620) waveguides defined by the PLC and a plurality of multiplexers (618, 619) wherein one of the plurality of second waveguides is multiplexed with one of the plurality of third waveguides into one of the plurality of first waveguides, respectively. Since both of the inventions relate to optical devices, one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have found it obvious to use an optical splitter as disclosed by Frolov in the device of Onaka for the purpose of processing multiple beams or wavelengths in a compact, robust device.
Still regarding claims 13 and 17, the proposed combination of Onaka and Frolov teaches the claimed invention except for a plurality of mode conversion structures. Jiang discloses a plurality of mode conversion structures (651 in Fig. 6; 751 in Fig. 7) disposed between a plurality of waveguides (610) and a photonic circuit (620) and configured to transform a mode size of each of the waveguides to a mode size of the photonic circuit. Jiang further discloses the diameters of the mode conversion structures are tapered such that a diameter of the plurality of waveguides is reduced to a diameter suitable to the photonic integrated circuit. Since all of the inventions relate to optical devices, one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have found it obvious to use a plurality of mode conversion structures as disclosed by Jiang in the device of the proposed combination of Onaka and Frolov for the purpose of improving coupling efficiency. Further, one of ordinary skill in the art would find it obvious for the mode conversion structures to be supported by the PLC in order to form a compact, robust device.
Regarding claim 14, Onaka discloses the wavelength division multiplexer (922) comprises a first terminal, a second terminal, and a third terminal, wherein the first terminal connects to a second end of the first waveguide which connects to the doped fiber (932); the second terminal connects to a second end of the second waveguide from the photonic circuit (915); the third terminal connects to the third waveguide from the laser (921); and wherein the third waveguide comprises a first signal having a second wavelength, and wherein the first fiber comprises a second signal, wherein the second signal is an amplified first signal, and wherein the second signal comprises the second wavelength (923 is an amplifying fiber which produces a second signal, and the wavelength is not disclosed as changing).
Regarding claim 15, Onaka discloses the first waveguide is doped in Fig. 1B and paragraph 0111.
Regarding claim 18, the proposed combination of Onaka, Frolov and Jiang teaches the claimed invention except for specifically stating a second pump laser. However, additional/second pump lasers are ubiquitous in the art of optical signals, and Frolov discloses a second pump waveguide in Fig. 1, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use a second pump laser at the first wavelength in order to provide redundancy or increased pump power.
Regarding claim 21, Jiang in view of the rejection above, further discloses the plurality of mode conversion structures comprise one or more grooves or fiber array interfaces (661 in Fig. 6) configured to transform the mode size of each of the second waveguides to the mode size of the photonic circuit.
Regarding claims 22 and 23, Frolov in view of the rejection above, further discloses one or more passive optical circuit elements (623, 624) configured to enable manipulation of the emitted light from the pump laser and the optical transposer is further configured for optical isolation, filtering, and/or polarization management (paragraph 0048 describes how light emitted from the pump laser 605 passes through pump-kill filters 623, 624).
Regarding claim 24, the proposed combination of Onaka, Frolov and Jiang teaches the claimed invention except for specifically stating optical signals received by the optical transposer from the photonic circuit via the plurality of second waveguides are directed to the optical amplifier via the plurality of first waveguides; and optical signals received by the optical transposer from the optical amplifier via the plurality of first waveguides are directed to the photonic circuit via the plurality of second waveguides. However, pump and signal light that can travel in opposite directions to form a backward pumped amplifier are ubiquitous in the art of optical signals, as such, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have optical signals received by the optical transposer from the photonic circuit via the plurality of second waveguides are directed to the optical amplifier via the plurality of first waveguides; and optical signals received by the optical transposer from the optical amplifier via the plurality of first waveguides are directed to the photonic circuit via the plurality of second waveguides in order to increase the versatility of the device.
Regarding claim 25, Frolov in view of the rejection above, further discloses a substrate (606) forming the PLC comprising one of glass, quartz, fused silica, and plastics in paragraph 0048.
Regarding claim 26, Frolov in view of the rejection above, further discloses the PLC is two-dimensional in Fig. 6.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments, see pages 9-12, with respect to claims have been considered but are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHRIS H CHU whose telephone number is (571)272-8655. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Fri 9AM-5PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Uyen-Chau Le can be reached on 571-272-239797. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Any inquiry of a general or clerical nature should be directed to the Technology Center 2800 receptionist at telephone number (571) 272-1562.
Chris H. Chu
/CHRIS H CHU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874 January 21, 2026