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 .
Claims 1-4, 6-20 are currently pending and examined below.
Response to amendment
This is a Non-Final Office action in response to applicant's remarks/arguments filed on 04/21/2026.
Status of the claims:
Claims 1, 8, 12 and 18 have been amended.
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks pages 6-8, filed 04/21/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-4, 6-20 under 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 Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn.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 Carlson et al. (US 3448458 A) necessitated by the claim amendment.
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.
Claims 1-4, 6, 10-16, 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dussan et al. (US 20200333587 A1, “Dussan”) in view of Carlson et al. (US 3448458 A, “Carlson”), and Warren et al. (US 3038077 A. “Warren”).
Regarding claim 1, Dussan teaches a beam scanning device (Figs. 1B, 15, 17. See also, claim 1), comprising:
a first scanner mirror (Figs. 15, 17, para 112, 115-116, MEMS 1 (1522)) that receives a beam of light generated by a light source (Claims 1-2), and steers the beam of light through a reflection mechanism (Figs. 15, 17 para 113-115, reflector 1510. See also, claim 2);
a second scanner mirror (Figs. 15, 17 para 112, 114, 117, MEMS 1 (1524)) that receives the beam of light from the reflection mechanism (para 117 and claim 2).
Dussan fails to explicitly teach
wherein a first number of faces of the first scanner mirror corresponds to a target number of scans per second of a predetermined scanning pattern;
wherein a second number of faces of the second scanner mirror corresponds to the target number of scans per second of the predetermined scanning pattern;
a set of gears coupled to the first scanner mirror and the second scanner mirror that when driven rotate the first scanner mirror and the second scanner mirror at predetermined speeds; and
an actuator that rotates the set of gears, the first scanner mirror, and the second scanner mirror at the predetermined speeds, causing the beam of light to reflect across the first and second scanner mirrors in the predetermined scanning pattern.
However, Carlson teaches wherein a first number of faces of the first scanner mirror corresponds to a target number of scans per second of a predetermined scanning pattern; wherein a second number of faces of the second scanner mirror corresponds to the target number of scans per second of the predetermined scanning pattern (Carlson teaches a sequential dual-polygon scanning arrangement in which a laser beam is directed onto mirror faces of a first polygon mirror 150, and the vertically scanning beam from the first polygon mirror is then directed through lenses 152 and 153 onto a second polygon mirror 154. Carlson teaches that first polygon mirror 150 may contain, for example, 20 mirror faces and may be rotatively driven by an air motor at 180,000 rpm to produce rapid vertical scanning motion for the laser beam. See Carlson, Fig. 6, col 5: lines 1-14. Carlson further teaches that second polygon mirror 154 is rotatively mounted for horizontal rotation and is coordinated with the rotation of first polygon mirror 150 to produce slower horizontal sweeping movement for the scanning motion. See Carlson, Fig. 6, col 5: lines 15-21. Carlson also teaches the claimed predetermined scanning pattern. Specifically, Carlson teaches that each face of second polygon mirror 154 sweeps the beam to form a scanning raster across the optical field, that each successive mirror face shifts the scanning raster to the next row, and that one revolution of second polygon mirror 154 produces as many rows as there are mirror faces on the polygon. See Carlson, Fig. 6, col 5: lines 22-33. Carlson further teaches that the mirror may be programmed to automatically sweep across successive character positions in a row and then shift to the first character position of the next row, thereby producing a predetermined raster scanning pattern. See Carlson, Figs. 5-6, col 4: lines 63-75).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Dussan’s first and second scanner mirrors to include 2 rotating polygon scanner mirrors having respective selected numbers of faces, as taught by Carlson, because Dussan already teaches first and second scanner mirrors arranged in a sequential optical path through a reflection mechanism to define a scan pattern, and Carlson teaches a sequential dual-polygon scanning arrangement in which a laser beam is directed from a first polygon mirror to a second polygon mirror to form a predetermined raster scanning pattern. Carlson further teaches that the first polygon mirror may have a selected number of faces and that each face of the second polygon mirror sweeps the beam to form a raster, with one revolution producing as many rows as there are mirror faces. Thus, applying Carlson’s known polygon-mirror scanning structure to Dussan’s first and second scanner mirrors would have been a predictable implementation choice to obtain a desired/target scan rate and predetermined scanning pattern.
Dussan, in view of Carlson still fails to explicitly teach but Warren teaches a set of gears (Figs. 1, 3 col 2: lines 42-44, gears 19, 21) coupled to the first scanner mirror and the second scanner mirror that when driven rotate the first scanner mirror and the second scanner mirror at predetermined speeds (Figs. 1, 3 col 2: lines 42-61); and
an actuator (Figs. 1, 3 col 4: lines 22-30, motor 25) that rotates the set of gears, the first scanner mirror, and the second scanner mirror at the predetermined speeds, causing the beam of light to reflect across the first and second scanner mirrors in the predetermined scanning pattern (Figs. 1, 3, col 2: lines 56-61, col 4: lines 22-30 and claim 2).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify Dussan in view of Warren to include a gear train and actuator (e.g. electric motor) to drive the first and second scanning mirrors. Mechanical drive trains were well known for providing synchronized and repeatable motion between multiple rotating elements. One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to apply such gearing to the optical scanning mirrors of Warren in order to ensure stable and repeatable angular velocities necessary for generating a reliable scanning pattern.
Regarding claim 2, Dussan, as modified in view of Carlson and Warren, teaches the beam scanning device of claim 1, wherein the first and second scanner mirrors scan the beam of light in the same plane (Dussan, Figs. 15, 17. See also, para 118-119).
Regarding claim 3, Dussan, as modified in view of Carlson and Warren, teaches the beam scanning device of claim 1, wherein the reflection mechanism comprises a mirror (Dussan, Figs. 15, 17, para 112, this ellipsoidal reflector can be the single reimaging mirror used by the system. See also, claim 1) that rotates a scanned plane of the beam of light emitted from the first scanner mirror orthogonal to a scanning plane of the second scanner mirror (Dussan, Figs. 15, 17 para 113).
Regarding claim 4, Dussan, as modified in view of Carlson and Warren, teaches the beam scanning device of claim 1, wherein the actuator is one of a stepper motor, a servo motor, or an electric motor (Warren, Figs. 1, 7, Col 2: lines 55-56, electric motor) with a speed control device (Warren, Col 2: lines 55-61 and col 4: lines 20-25 and claims 2, it would have been obvious to have a speed control device to constantly and uniformly rotating the mirrors).
Regarding claim 6, Dussan, as modified in view of Carlson and Warren, teaches the beam scanning device of claim 1, wherein the actuator further comprises an encoder or a position sensor that monitors and regulates a rotational speed of the actuator (Warren, col 2: lines 57-61, claims 2 and 22, it is obvious to have an encoder that maintains the rotational speed of the motor 25 at a constant speed to constantly and uniformly rotate the mirrors).
Regarding claim 10, Dussan, as modified in view of Carlson and Warren, teaches the beam scanning device of claim 1, wherein the beam of light output is output from the beam scanning device and scans an external object in the predetermined scanning pattern (Dussan, figs. 15, 17, para 118. See also, para 39).
Regarding claim 11, Dussan, as modified in view of Carlson and Warren, teaches the beam scanning device of claim 1, wherein the predetermined scanning pattern is a two- dimensional scanning pattern (Dussan, figs. 15, 17, para 118. See also, para 108, 111).
Regarding claim 12, Dussan teaches time-of-flight (ToF) light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system (para 3. See also, figs. 1-2), comprising:
a light source that emits a beam of light for a predetermined duration (Para 40-44, laser source. See also, Fig. 15, para 115, source 1500);
a beam scanner (Figs. 15, 17, para 115. See also, fig.1b), comprising:
a first scanner mirror (Figs. 15, 17, para 112, 115-116, MEMS 1 (1522)) that reflects the beam of light generated by the light source (Figs. 1, 17 para 115 “Upstream from the reflector 1510 we insert a lens 1502, which focuses the light emitted from the source 1500…”. See also, claims 1-2), and steers the beam of light through a reflection mechanism (Figs. 15, 17 para 113-115, reflector 1510. See also, claim 2);
a second scanner mirror (Figs. 15, 17 para 112, 114, 117, MEMS 1 (1524)) that receives the beam of light from the reflection mechanism;
a range detector (Fig. 1b, para 38, receiver 104) that receives the beam of light responsive to the beam of light reflecting off an object in an external environment.
Dussan fails to explicitly teach
wherein a first number of faces of the first scanner mirror corresponds to a target number of scans per second of a predetermined scanning pattern;
wherein a second number of faces of the second scanner mirror corresponds to the target number of scans per second of the predetermined scanning pattern;
a set of gears coupled to the first scanner mirror and the second scanner mirror that when driven rotate the first scanner mirror and the second scanner mirror at predetermined speeds; and
an actuator that rotates the set of gears, the first scanner mirror, and the second scanner mirror at the predetermined speeds, causing the beam of light to reflect across the first and second scanner mirrors in the predetermined scanning pattern.
However, Carlson teaches wherein a first number of faces of the first scanner mirror corresponds to a target number of scans per second of a predetermined scanning pattern; wherein a second number of faces of the second scanner mirror corresponds to the target number of scans per second of the predetermined scanning pattern (Carlson teaches a sequential dual-polygon scanning arrangement in which a laser beam is directed onto mirror faces of a first polygon mirror 150, and the vertically scanning beam from the first polygon mirror is then directed through lenses 152 and 153 onto a second polygon mirror 154. Carlson teaches that first polygon mirror 150 may contain, for example, 20 mirror faces and may be rotatively driven by an air motor at 180,000 rpm to produce rapid vertical scanning motion for the laser beam. See Carlson, Fig. 6, col 5: lines 1-14. Carlson further teaches that second polygon mirror 154 is rotatively mounted for horizontal rotation and is coordinated with the rotation of first polygon mirror 150 to produce slower horizontal sweeping movement for the scanning motion. See Carlson, Fig. 6, col 5: lines 15-21. Carlson also teaches the claimed predetermined scanning pattern. Specifically, Carlson teaches that each face of second polygon mirror 154 sweeps the beam to form a scanning raster across the optical field, that each successive mirror face shifts the scanning raster to the next row, and that one revolution of second polygon mirror 154 produces as many rows as there are mirror faces on the polygon. See Carlson, Fig. 6, col 5: lines 22-33. Carlson further teaches that the mirror may be programmed to automatically sweep across successive character positions in a row and then shift to the first character position of the next row, thereby producing a predetermined raster scanning pattern. See Carlson, Figs. 5-6, col 4: lines 63-75).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Dussan’s first and second scanner mirrors to include 2 rotating polygon scanner mirrors having respective selected numbers of faces, as taught by Carlson, because Dussan already teaches first and second scanner mirrors arranged in a sequential optical path through a reflection mechanism to define a scan pattern, and Carlson teaches a sequential dual-polygon scanning arrangement in which a laser beam is directed from a first polygon mirror to a second polygon mirror to form a predetermined raster scanning pattern. Carlson further teaches that the first polygon mirror may have a selected number of faces and that each face of the second polygon mirror sweeps the beam to form a raster, with one revolution producing as many rows as there are mirror faces. Thus, applying Carlson’s known polygon-mirror scanning structure to Dussan’s first and second scanner mirrors would have been a predictable implementation choice to obtain a desired/target scan rate and predetermined scanning pattern.
Dussan, in view of Carlson still fails to explicitly teach but Warren teaches a set of gears (Figs. 1, 3 col 2: lines 42-44, gears 19, 21) coupled to the first scanner mirror and the second scanner mirror that when driven rotate the first scanner mirror and the second scanner mirror at predetermined speeds (Figs. 1, 3 col 2: lines 42-61); and
an actuator (Figs. 1, 3 col 4: lines 22-30, motor 25) that rotates the set of gears, the first scanner mirror, and the second scanner mirror at the predetermined speeds, causing the beam of light to reflect across the first and second scanner mirrors in the predetermined scanning pattern (Figs. 1, 3, col 2: lines 56-61, col 4: lines 22-30 and claim 2).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify Dussan in view of Warren to include a gear train and actuator (e.g. electric motor) to drive the first and second scanning mirrors. Mechanical drive trains were well known for providing synchronized and repeatable motion between multiple rotating elements. One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to apply such gearing to the optical scanning mirrors of Warren in order to ensure stable and repeatable angular velocities necessary for generating a reliable scanning pattern.
Regarding claim 13, Dussan, as modified in view of Carlson and Warren, teaches the ToF LIDAR system of claim 12, wherein the first and second scanner mirrors scan the beam of light in the same plane (Dussan, Figs. 15, 17. See also, para 118-119).
Regarding claim 14, Dussan, as modified in view of Carlson and Warren, teaches the ToF LIDAR system of claim 12, wherein the reflection mechanism comprises a mirror (Dussan, Figs. 15, 17, para 112, this ellipsoidal reflector can be the single reimaging mirror used by the system. See also, claim 1) that rotates a scanned plane of the beam of light emitted from the first scanner mirror to be orthogonal to a scanning plane of the second scanner mirror (Dussan, Figs. 15, 17 para 113).
Regarding claim 15, Dussan, as modified in view of Carlson and Warren, teaches the ToF LIDAR system of claim 12, wherein the actuator is one of a stepper motor, a servo motor, or an electric motor (Warren, Figs. 1, 7, Col 2: lines 55-56, electric motor) with a speed control device (Warren, Col 2: lines 55-61 and col 4: lines 20-25 and claims 2, it would have been obvious to have a speed control device to constantly and uniformly rotating the mirrors).
Regarding claim 16, Dussan, as modified in view of Carlson and Warren, teaches the ToF LIDAR system of claim 12, wherein the actuator further comprises an encoder or a position sensor that monitors and regulates a rotational speed of the actuator (Warren, col 2: lines 57-61, claims 2 and 22, it is obvious to have an encoder that maintains the rotational speed of the motor 25 at a constant speed to constantly and uniformly rotate the mirrors).
claims 18- 20 will be rejected under the same rational as claims 12-14.
Claims 7-8, 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dussan in view of Carlson, Warren and Caleb Chung (US 20140352493 A1, “Chung”).
Regarding claim 7, Dussan, as modified in view of Carlson and Warren, fails to explicitly teach the beam scanning device of claim 1, wherein a first subset of the set of gears have a first predetermined gear ratio, and a second subset of the set of gears have a second predetermined gear ratio different from the first predetermined gear ratio; and wherein the first scanner mirror is rotated responsive to actuation of the first subset and the second scanner mirror is rotated responsive to actuation of the second subset.
However, Chung teaches a multiple output transmission in which a single drive motor drives a central drive gear which is coupled to multiple idler gears and multiple output gears. The output gears are arranged in layers (stacked turntables), each layer idler gears selectively engaging with output gears based on indexed positions (Figs. 1-3, para 34-36, 57-62). Chung further teaches that output gears can be of different sizes, thus yielding different gear rations for different output shafts (Para 44-48).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify the scanning device of Dussan to employ the multiple output gear of subsets of Chung so that the first scanner mirror is driven via one subset (one output gear/gear path) and the second scanner mirror via another (different output gear/path), thereby rotating at different predetermined gear ratios, such a combination would be a predictable mechanical engineering adaption to achieve differential rotational speeds.
Regarding claim 8, Dussan, as modified in view of Carlson and Warren, and Chung, fails to explicitly teach the beam scanning device of claim 7, wherein the second predetermined gear ratio is greater than the first predetermined gear ratio (Chung teaches in para 44-48 “…… the number and spacing of output gears…. can be selected to provide a different ratio of gears……can be selected to provide a different ratio of gear teeth compared to respective idler gear….” so selective one ratio greater than the other one is a routine optimization).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to configure the second gear ratio greater than the first gear ratio as taught by Chung (Figs. 1-3, para 44-48), in order to one mirror at a higher angular velocity relative to the other mirror. Doing so enables the system to generate a 2D raster scanning pattern where the “fast-axis” mirror sweeps rapidly to provide horizontal resolution while the “slow axis” mirror sweeps more slowly to provide vertical deflection.
Thus, one of ordinary skill would have been motivated to use a greater ratio for the second gear subset to achieve a higher scanning speed on one axis, consistent with common Lidar and beam scanning practices, with a reasonable expectation of success.
Regarding claim 17, Dussan, as modified in view of Carlson and Warren, fails to explicitly teach the ToF LIDAR system of claim 12, wherein a first subset of the set of gears have a first predetermined gear ratio, and a second subset of the set of gears have a second predetermined gear ratio different from the first gear ratio; and wherein the first scanner mirror is rotated responsive to actuation of the first subset and the second scanner mirror is rotated responsive to actuation of the second subset. However, Chung teaches a multiple output transmission in which a single drive motor drives a central drive gear which is coupled to multiple idler gears and multiple output gears. The output gears are arranged in layers (stacked turntables), each layer idler gears selectively engaging with output gears based on indexed positions (Figs. 1-3, para 34-36, 57-62). Chung further teaches that output gears can be of different sizes, thus yielding different gear rations for different output shafts (Para 44-48).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to modify the scanning device of Dussan to employ the multiple output gear of subsets of Chung so that the first scanner mirror is driven via one subset (one output gear/gear path) and the second scanner mirror via another (different output gear/path), thereby rotating at different predetermined gear ratios, such a combination would be a predictable mechanical engineering adaption to achieve differential rotational speeds.
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dussan in view of Carlson, Warren and Hughes et al. (US 20190310351 A1, “Hughes”).
Regarding claim 9, Dussan, as modified in view of Carlson and Warren, fails to explicitly teach but Hughes teaches the beam scanning device of claim 1, wherein the first scanner mirror and the second scanner mirror rotate such that the beam of light completes the predetermined scanning pattern in at a rate of about 10 Hz (Para 95).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to configure the mirror drive system to operate at a scanning frequency of about 10 Hz. Adjusting the rotational speed of scanning mirrors to achieve a desired scan pattern rate is a result effective variable, since the scan frequency directly affects the refresh rate and coverage of the generate scan. Lidar and optical scanning in the art routinely disclose operating within the 1-20Hz for effective environment mapping and object detection (Hughes para 95 discloses fixe or dynamically adjustable scan rate). One of ordinary skill would have motivated to select a frequency around 10 Hz as a balance between system responsiveness and mechanical stability, ensuring sufficient temporal resolution for dynamic scenes without exceeding the durability limits of the mirrors and actuators.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Mueller et al. (US 20210286172 A1), teaches substrate perforation system & method using polygon mirror(s)
Hanks et al. (US 20070070170 A1), teaches Device and Method for Optical Scanning
Capey et al. (WO 9721131 A2), teaches scanning system
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/JEMPSON NOEL/Examiner, Art Unit 3645
/YUQING XIAO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3645
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