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 Arguments
The amendment filed 3/5/2026 has been fully considered. The amendment to claim 1 has overcome the drawing objection, which is now withdrawn.
On pages 8-9, applicant argues that the “Yang” reference describes that the configuration of the left laser source is the same configuration of the right laser source and is inconsistent with transceiver modules having different detection performances. Applicant points to paragraph [0061] of the Yang reference. First, the Yang reference was not relied upon to teach this limitation, so the argument is moot. The Keilaf reference was relied upon to teach this limitation. Second of all, Yang, in paragraph [0061], states that the laser emitter can be a device that emits laser light and can be collimated. It appears that the applicant may be referring to paragraph [0061] of a different reference, or perhaps a different paragraph in the Yang reference. Third, if applicant meant to argue that the Keilaf reference does not teach this particular limitation due to the configuration of the laser sources, this argument also would not be convincing. Transceiver modules include both transmitters and receivers, so detection performance is not solely reliant on the configuration of the laser sources themselves. Since the Keilaf teaches that the detectors can be individually controlled to modify their amplification parameters (detectors that have different levels of sensitivity have different performances), the different transceivers have different performance capabilities. The rejection is maintained because applicant has not addressed the grounds of rejection presented by the office action.
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, 3, 5-8, 17, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang (US 20200326413 A1), in view of Yang (CN 109254286 A), further in view of Keilaf (US 20190271767 A1).
Regarding Claim 1: Zhang discloses a LIDAR ([0009] “The present disclosure discloses a LiDAR device, including the laser scanning device”), comprising:
a transceiver component and a scanning component (Fig. 11 and [0081], four transceiver assemblies for the one scanning prism; Fig. 3B and [0077] there can be two extra transceiver assemblies 2’ and 3’, located right above transceiver assemblies 2 and 3 respectively),
wherein the transceiver component comprises n transceiver modules, where n is an integer and n > 1 (Fig. 11 and with four transceiver assemblies 2, 3, 4, 5; [0077] there can be four transceiver assemblies, 2, 3, and 2’ and 3’), and wherein each transceiver module comprises an emission module and a receiving module that are correspondingly arranged (Fig. 5F showing laser emitting unit 201 and laser receiving unit 202);
wherein the emission module is configured to emit an outgoing laser (Fig. 5F with the solid arrow originating from laser emitting unit 201 and directed towards object A), the receiving module is configured to receive an echo laser (Fig. 5F with the dashed lines directed towards receiving unit 202), and the echo laser is a laser returning after the outgoing laser is reflected by an object in a detection region (Fig. 5F where the dashed lines representing the echo laser have bounced off of the object A in the environment);
wherein the emission module includes a laser device module, an emission driver module, and an emission optical module ([0116] the driving device drives the laser emitting unit to emit laser light when the scanning prism is at specific positions. This means the emission module must also inherently include a laser device that can be driven by the driver to emit light; [0053] the transceiver assembly includes a lens group to collimate the laser beams going to the environment), the receiving module includes a receiving optical module ([0053] the transceiver assembly includes a lens group to collimate the signal lights which are returning from the environment), the laser device module is a laser device linear array comprising a plurality of laser devices arranged in the laser device linear array (Fig. 6A with many laser emitters emitting lasers in the assembly 2 arranged in a line),
wherein the scanning component comprises a rotation reflector ([0039] “during the rotation process of the scanning prism 1”; Fig. 7A showing the different stages of rotation of the scanning prism; [0034] “In order to clearly demonstrate technical improvements of the present disclosure, structures of well-known parts, such as a component for scanning driving, or the like, are not shown in the drawings”),
wherein the rotation reflector comprises m reflecting surfaces ([0040] “the scanning prism 1 has four scanning mirror surfaces, each of which has a normal P”), wherein m is an integer less than or equal to n, and one reflecting surface corresponds to at least one transceiver module (Fig. 11 and with four transceiver assemblies 2, 3, 4, 5; [0077] there can be four transceiver assemblies, 2, 3, and 2’ and 3’. Both these different arrangements of transceiver modules + scanning prism have a scanning prism with four sides and there are four transceiver modules);
wherein the m reflecting surfaces are configured to reflect the outgoing laser emitted by the emission module and further direct the reflected outgoing laser toward the detection region, and are also configured to reflect the echo laser and further direct the reflected echo laser toward the corresponding receiving module (Fig. 3B with transceiver modules directing light at two reflecting surfaces, and [0077], stating that there can be four transceiver assemblies, with 2’ arranged above 2 while assembly 3’ is arranged above 3. Fig. 7A).
Zhang does not disclose a detector module, receiving driver module, the detector module is a detector linear array comprising a plurality of detectors arranged in the detector linear array; wherein a number of detectors included in the detector linear array is greater than a number of laser devices included in the laser device linear array; wherein at least one of the n transceiver modules has a detection performance different from that of another transceiver module, the detection performance comprising at least one of detection distance or detection resolution, the scanning component comprises a rotation reflector configured to rotate around a rotation shaft.
Yang teaches a rotation reflector that rotates around a rotation shaft (Fig. 7 with the tetrahedral tower prism 3 that rotates around the shaft that is also connected to the scanning driver 10).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the LIDAR device disclosed by Zhang, such that the scanning prism rotates around a rotation shaft that is connected to a driver which drives the rotation of the scanning prism, as taught by Yang. This would be the use of a known technique to improve similar devices in the same way (See MPEP 2143.III KSR Rationale C) because the inventions taught by both Zhang and Yang include lidar devices with multiple transceiver modules that utilize a rotating reflector to scan the environment.
However, this combination of Zhang in view of Yang, still does not expressly teach the receiving module including a detector module, receiving driver module, the detector module is a detector linear array comprising a plurality of detectors arranged in the detector linear array; wherein a number of detectors included in the detector linear array is greater than a number of devices included in the laser device linear array, wherein at least one of the n transceiver modules has a detection performance different from that of another transceiver module, the detection performance comprising at least one of detection distance or detection resolution.
Keilaf teaches a receiving module in a transceiver module that includes a detector module, a receiving driver module, and a receiving optical module (Fig. 2B, there are three transceiver modules, and each has their own sensor 116; [0158-0159] sensor 116 has many pixels and each pixel may have a certain number of detection elements, like SPADS allocated to it. The pixel grouping is done dynamically, which means there must be a driver to drive the pixels to be activated), […] the detector module is a detector linear array comprising a plurality of detectors arranged in the detector linear array ([0108] and Fig. 4B, sensor 116 has a plurality of detectors 410 forming pixels. The sensor 116 can be a one-dimensional matrix); and wherein a number of detectors included in the detector linear array is greater than a number of devices included in the laser device linear array (Fig. 4B, the receiving unit 106 has one sensor 116 that makes up the detector module. The sensor 116 has a plurality of pixels 410. The entire transceiver unit has only one source 112 but many pixels 410); and wherein at least one of the n transceiver modules has detection performance different from that of another transceiver module, and wherein the detection performance comprises at least one of a detection distance and detection resolution ([0233] sensor 116 has many individual detectors whose amplification parameters can be individually and dynamically controlled; [0179-0180] and Fig. 7I, the allocation of pixels is done dynamically depending on the environment and what is being sensed, such traffic lights, street lights, objects, pedestrians, etc. Since each transceiver is directed towards a different portion of the environment, and since the sensitivity and resolution of the detectors is controlled based on the environment, the detection performance of the different transceiver modules will be different from each other depending on what lies in their respective fields of view).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to further modify the LIDAR device taught by Zhang and Yang, by incorporating the receiving module taught by Keilaf, which has many individual pixels in a linear detector array and where there is a driver to activate particular pixels according to a dynamic allocation scheme. By modifying the receiver modules in the transceiver modules, such that they each have a linear detector array, would mean that there are more detectors included in the detector array than a number of laser devices in the laser device linear array. This modification would allow for dynamic control over the resolution and pixel sensitivity of the LIDAR device based on different environmental factors (Keilaf, [0159-0160]).
Regarding Claim 3: Zhang, as modified by Yang and Keilaf, teaches the LIDAR according to claim 1. Keilaf further teaches wherein a plurality of the n transceiver modules having different detection performance are adapted based on the needs of the detection performance in different regions of an angle of view of the LIDAR ([0240] “processor 118 may dynamically alter an amplification parameter associated with at least some of the plurality of detection elements of sensor 116 based on a current scanning direction”).
Regarding Claim 5: Zhang, in view of Yang and Keilaf, teaches the LIDAR according to claim 1. Zhang further discloses wherein the m reflecting surfaces corresponding to the n transceiver modules are arranged adjacently (Fig. 3B, the surfaces from which the light from transceiver modules 2 and 3 are reflected are adjacent to each other; Fig. 11 the three surfaces are adjacent) and
wherein the adjacent reflecting surfaces form an angle K when being arranged, wherein
0
°
≤
K
≤
180
°
([0041] “the four space angles may be 91°, 90°, 89° and 88°, respectively, so as to facilitate the uniform distribution of the scanning lines generated by the same laser emitting unit via the reflection of the different scanning mirror surfaces”; Fig. 3B, Because the faces of the adjacent reflecting surfaces are not parallel, the angle between them must be some value in between 0 and 180 degrees).
Regarding Claim 6: Zhang, in view of Yang and Keilaf, teaches the LIDAR according to claim 1. Zhang further discloses wherein the reflecting surface is a plane, or the reflecting surface comprises a plurality of fold surfaces of reflecting regions that form different included angles with the rotation shaft ([0040] “the scanning prism 1 has four scanning mirror surfaces, each of which has a normal P” Seen in Fig. 4, they are all planar surfaces; Fig. 5F shows that the mirror surface of the rotation reflector 101 is planar while Figs. 5A-5D show the planar surface being oriented at different angles).
Regarding Claim 7: Zhang, in view of Yang and Keilaf, teaches the LIDAR according to claim 1. Zhang further discloses wherein a value of an included angle θ between the outgoing laser directed toward the rotation reflector and the rotation shaft satisfies
0
°
≤
θ
≤
90
°
(Fig. 6A, light originating from individual transmitters on the transmitter assembly 2 are all directed at different angles toward the rotation reflector; [0054] “all the laser beams of the four laser emitting units are located in the same emergent plane M, and the laser beams in the same transceiver assembly have different emission elevation angles”).
Regarding Claim 8: Zhang, in view of Yang and Keilaf, teaches the LIDAR according to claim 1. Zhang further discloses wherein the outgoing laser and the echo laser of the transceiver module are coaxially arranged (Fig. 7A shows laser light L2 and L3 of transceiver modules 2 and 3 take the same path when they are directed to and from the environment; Fig. 5F shows outgoing and echo laser sharing the same optical path).
This current combination of Zhang, Yang, and Keilaf, does not expressly teach: wherein the transceiver module further comprises a light-splitting module configured to direct a passing outgoing laser to the rotation reflector, receive the echo laser reflected by the rotation reflector, deflect the echo laser, and further direct the reflected echo laser to the corresponding receiving module.
However, Keilaf further teaches wherein the transceiver module further comprises a light-splitting module configured to direct a passing outgoing laser to the rotation reflector ([0084] “asymmetrical deflector 216 includes a reflective surface 218 (such as a mirror) and a one-way deflector 220”; Fig. 2D, light from projecting unit 102 passes through one way deflector 220 towards scanning unit and towards the environment; [0084] “The transmitted light is generated by projecting unit 102 and may travel through one-way deflector 220 to scanning unit 104 which deflects it towards the optical outlet.”), receive the echo laser reflected by the rotation reflector, deflect the echo laser, and further direct the reflected echo laser to the corresponding receiving module (Fig. 2D, reflection signals are reflected by asymmetrical deflector 216 towards sensing unit 106).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify the LIDAR system taught by Zhang, Yang, and Keilaf, by implementing the asymmetrical deflector that has a portion that is a reflective surface and another portion that is a one way deflector, as further taught by Keilaf. This would be beneficial because “typical asymmetrical deflectors such as beam splitters are characterized by energy losses, especially in the reception path, which may be more sensitive to power losses than the transmission path” (Keilaf, [0084]). However, the asymmetrical deflector taught by Keilaf is different, because it still allows the transmitted and received light share the same optical path, but only some of the received light will impinge on the one-way deflector portion, which will be directed toward the sensor with some power loss, while the rest of the received light will fall on the reflective surface with substantially zero power loss (Keilaf, [0084] and [0087]).
Regarding Claim 17: Zhang, in view of Yang and Keilaf, teaches the LIDAR according to claim 1. Yang further teaches wherein the scanning component further comprises a driver device and a transmission device (Fig. 7 with the tetrahedral tower prism 3 that rotates around the shaft that is also connected to the scanning driver 10),
wherein the driver device is provided with an output shaft (Fig. 7 with driving device 10, which has a shaft that connects to the shaft in the tetrahedral tower prism 3)
wherein the output shaft is connected to the rotation reflector through the transmission device ([0074] “a rotating structure, and the driving device is connected to the tower prism via the rotating structure”), and
wherein the output shaft of the driver drives the rotation reflector to rotate ([0076] “the driving device drives the driving rod to move, and the driving rod moves so that the tower prism mounted thereon moves, thereby enabling the tower prism to rotate along the rotation axis”).
Regarding Claim 20: Zhang discloses a LIDAR ([0009] “The present disclosure discloses a LiDAR device, including the laser scanning device”), comprising:
a transceiver component and a scanning component (Fig. 11 and [0081], four transceiver assemblies for the one scanning prism; Fig. 3B and [0077] there can be two extra transceiver assemblies 2’ and 3’, located right above transceiver assemblies 2 and 3 respectively),
wherein the transceiver component comprises n transceiver modules, where n is an integer and n > 1 (Fig. 11 and with four transceiver assemblies 2, 3, 4, 5; [0077] there can be four transceiver assemblies, 2, 3, and 2’ and 3’), and wherein each transceiver module comprises an emission module and a receiving module that are correspondingly arranged (Fig. 5F showing laser emitting unit 201 and laser receiving unit 202);
wherein the emission module is configured to emit an outgoing laser (Fig. 5F with the solid arrow originating from laser emitting unit 201 and directed towards object A), the receiving module is configured to receive an echo laser (Fig. 5F with the dashed lines directed towards receiving unit 202), and the echo laser is a laser returning after the outgoing laser is reflected by an object in a detection region (Fig. 5F where the dashed lines representing the echo laser have bounced off of the object A in the environment);
wherein the emission module includes a laser device module, an emission driver module, and an emission optical module ([0116] the driving device drives the laser emitting unit to emit laser light when the scanning prism is at specific positions. This means the emission module must also inherently include a laser device that can be driven by the driver to emit light; [0053] the transceiver assembly includes a lens group to collimate the laser beams going to the environment), the receiving module includes a receiving optical module ([0053] the transceiver assembly includes a lens group to collimate the signal lights which are returning from the environment), the laser device module is a laser device linear array comprising a plurality of laser devices arranged in the laser device linear array (Fig. 6A with many laser emitters emitting lasers in the assembly 2 arranged in a line),
wherein the scanning component comprises a rotation reflector ([0039] “during the rotation process of the scanning prism 1”; Fig. 7A showing the different stages of rotation of the scanning prism; [0034] “In order to clearly demonstrate technical improvements of the present disclosure, structures of well-known parts, such as a component for scanning driving, or the like, are not shown in the drawings”),
wherein the rotation reflector comprises m reflecting surfaces ([0040] “the scanning prism 1 has four scanning mirror surfaces, each of which has a normal P”), wherein m is an integer less than or equal to n, and one reflecting surface corresponds to at least one transceiver module (Fig. 11 and with four transceiver assemblies 2, 3, 4, 5; [0077] there can be four transceiver assemblies, 2, 3, and 2’ and 3’. Both these different arrangements of transceiver modules + scanning prism have a scanning prism with four sides and there are four transceiver modules);
wherein the m reflecting surfaces are configured to reflect the outgoing laser emitted by the emission module and further direct the reflected outgoing laser toward the detection region, and are also configured to reflect the echo laser and further direct the reflected echo laser toward the corresponding receiving module (Fig. 3B with transceiver modules directing light at two reflecting surfaces, and [0077], stating that there can be four transceiver assemblies, with 2’ arranged above 2 while assembly 3’ is arranged above 3. Fig. 7A).
Zhang does not disclose an automated driving device, comprising a driving device body and the LIDAR device is mounted at the driving device body, a detector module, receiving driver module, the detector module is a detector linear array comprising a plurality of detectors arranged in the detector linear array; wherein a number of detectors included in the detector linear array is greater than a number of laser devices included in the laser device linear array; wherein at least one of the n transceiver modules has a detection performance different from that of another transceiver module, the detection performance comprising at least one of detection distance or detection resolution, the scanning component comprises a rotation reflector configured to rotate around a rotation shaft.
However, Yang teaches the LIDAR device being mounted on an automated driving device ([0064] “As shown in FIG. 7, a structural diagram of an airborne laser radar optical scanning device having two laser sources and a tetrahedral tower prism is shown”), and that the rotation reflector rotates around a rotation shaft (Fig. 7 with the tetrahedral tower prism 3 that rotates around the shaft that is also connected to the scanning driver 10).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the LIDAR device disclosed by Zhang by implementing it on an automated device and also using a driver and a shaft to rotate the rotation reflector as taught by Yang. This would be the use of a known technique to improve similar devices in the same way (See MPEP 2143.III KSR Rationale C) because the inventions taught by both Zhang and Yang include lidar devices with multiple transceiver modules that utilize a rotating reflector to scan the environment.
However, this combination of Zhang in view of Yang, still does not expressly teach the receiving module including a detector module, receiving driver module, the detector module is a detector linear array comprising a plurality of detectors arranged in the detector linear array; wherein a number of detectors included in the detector linear array is greater than a number of devices included in the laser device linear array, wherein at least one of the n transceiver modules has a detection performance different from that of another transceiver module, the detection performance comprising at least one of detection distance or detection resolution.
Keilaf teaches a receiving module in a transceiver module that includes a detector module, a receiving driver module, and a receiving optical module (Fig. 2B, there are three transceiver modules, and each has their own sensor 116; [0158-0159] sensor 116 has many pixels and each pixel may have a certain number of detection elements, like SPADS allocated to it. The pixel grouping is done dynamically, which means there must be a driver to drive the pixels to be activated), […] the detector module is a detector linear array comprising a plurality of detectors arranged in the detector linear array ([0108] and Fig. 4B, sensor 116 has a plurality of detectors 410 forming pixels. The sensor 116 can be a one-dimensional matrix); and wherein a number of detectors included in the detector linear array is greater than a number of devices included in the laser device linear array (Fig. 4B, the receiving unit 106 has one sensor 116 that makes up the detector module. The sensor 116 has a plurality of pixels 410. The entire transceiver unit has only one source 112 but many pixels 410); and wherein at least one of the n transceiver modules has detection performance different from that of another transceiver module, and wherein the detection performance comprises at least one of a detection distance and detection resolution ([0233] sensor 116 has many individual detectors whose amplification parameters can be individually and dynamically controlled; [0179-0180] and Fig. 7I, the allocation of pixels is done dynamically depending on the environment and what is being sensed, such traffic lights, street lights, objects, pedestrians, etc. Since each transceiver is directed towards a different portion of the environment, and since the sensitivity and resolution of the detectors is controlled based on the environment, the detection performance of the different transceiver modules will be different from each other depending on what lies in their respective fields of view).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to further modify the LIDAR device taught by Zhang and Yang, by incorporating the receiving module taught by Keilaf, which has many individual pixels in a linear detector array and where there is a driver to activate particular pixels according to a dynamic allocation scheme. By modifying the receiver modules in the transceiver modules, such that they each have a linear detector array, would mean that there are more detectors included in the detector array than a number of laser devices in the laser device linear array. This modification would allow for dynamic control over the resolution and pixel sensitivity of the LIDAR device based on different environmental factors (Keilaf, [0159-0160]).
Claims 9, 11, 12, and 14-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang (US 20200326413 A1), in view of Yang (CN 109254286 A), further in view of Keilaf (US 20190271767 A1), further in view of Xiang (US 20240027587 A1).
Regarding Claim 9: Zhang, in view of Yang and Keilaf, teaches the LIDAR according to claim 1. Zhang further discloses wherein the laser device module is configured to emit the outgoing laser (Fig. 6A with many laser emitters emitting lasers in the assembly 2);
wherein the emission optical module is arranged on an optical path of the outgoing laser emitted by the laser device module, and is configured to collimate the outgoing laser ([0053] “The transceiver assembly 2 further includes a lens group (not shown) to collimate the laser beams and the signal lights”),
wherein the receiving optical module is arranged on an optical path of the echo laser reflected by the scanning component ([0053] transceiver assembly has a lens group to collimate signal lights returning from environment).
This combination of Zhang, Yang, and Keilaf does not teach: wherein the laser device linear array is arranged sparsely at two ends and densely in the middle; the receiving optical module is configured to focus the echo laser, wherein the detector module is configured to receive the echo laser focused by the receiving optical module, and wherein the detector linear array is arranged sparsely at two ends and densely in the middle.
Xiang teaches: wherein the emission optical module is arranged on an optical path of the outgoing laser emitted by the laser device module, and is configured to collimate the outgoing laser ([0093] “the plurality of lasers 11 emit a plurality of laser beams. For example, a No. 1 laser emits a detection beam, which is collimated by an optical collimation device and then irradiates towards an external object”), and wherein the laser device linear array is arranged sparsely at two ends and densely in the middle (Fig. 4A with the center having more lasers 11 and being more densely populated than the very top and very bottom of the supporting body, lasers 11 are arranged linearly on supporting body 1; [0092] “the lasers are distributed densely in the middle part of the supporting body 1, and are distributed sparsely in the upper and lower parts of the supporting body 1.”);
wherein the receiving optical module is arranged on an optical path of the echo laser reflected by the scanning component and is configured to focus the echo laser ([0095] “the Lidar may further comprise an optical receiving device (e.g., optical receiving device 4) such as a focusing lens (assembly)”),
wherein the detector module is configured to receive the echo laser focused by the receiving optical module ([0096] “Reflected light off an external object passes through the optical receiving device and then is received by the detectors”),
wherein the detector linear array is arranged sparsely at two ends and densely in the middle ([0095] “The quantity of the detectors may be the same as that of the lasers 11. The detectors may be disposed symmetrical to the lasers about a mid-vertical plane of a line connecting the center of the optical collimation device to the center of the optical receiving device”; it is understood that because the detectors are arranged symmetrically to the lasers, the detectors are arranged densely in the middle and sparsely at the ends the same way the lasers are arranged).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify the LIDAR system taught by Zhang, Yang, and Keilaf, such that the lasers and detectors are arranged more sparsely at the ends and densely in the center and are accompanied with optical units that collimate outgoing light and focus incoming light onto the detectors, as taught by Xiang. This is beneficial because a higher density of central laser beams can improve resolution of the LIDAR device (Xiang, [0092]).
Regarding Claim 11: Zhang, in view of Yang, Keilaf, and Xiang, teaches the LIDAR according to claim 9. Zhang further discloses wherein the emission driver module is connected to the laser device module, and is configured to drive and control the laser device module to work ([0116] “Under the control of the driving device, the transceiver assembly 2 may drive the laser emitting unit of the first transceiver assembly to start emitting the emergent light when the scanning prism is rotated to the position A, and stop driving the laser emitting unit of the first transceiver assembly to emit the emergent light when the scanning prism is rotated to the position C”).
Regarding Claim 12: Zhang, in view of Yang, Keilaf, and Xiang, teaches the LIDAR according to claim 9. Zhang further discloses wherein the emission driver module is respectively connected to laser device modules in the n emission modules, and is configured to drive and control each laser device module to work ([0116] “Under the control of the driving device, the transceiver assembly 2 may drive the laser emitting unit of the first transceiver assembly to start emitting the emergent light when the scanning prism is rotated to the position A, and stop driving the laser emitting unit of the first transceiver assembly to emit the emergent light when the scanning prism is rotated to the position C”; [0053] “In the transceiver assembly 2, a plurality of laser emitting units and the same number of laser receiving units as the laser emitting units may be provided”; it is understood that in the present embodiment, where transceiver assemblies contain a plurality of laser emitting and receiving units, that when the driving device of transceiver assembly 2 drives the emitting units to start emitting light, this includes all of the laser emitting units instead of just one out of the plurality of the laser emitting units. This conclusion is supported by Fig. 8A and [0067]: “Further, FIG. 8A is a schematic view of the scanning lines of the transceiver assembly 2 in the case where four laser emitting units are provided”).
Regarding Claim 14: Zhang, in view of Yang, Keilaf, and Xiang, teaches the LIDAR according to claim 9. Keilaf further teaches: wherein the receiving driver module is connected to the detector module, and is configured to drive and control the detector module to work ([0240] “processor 118 may dynamically alter an amplification parameter associated with at least some of the plurality of detection elements of sensor 116 based on a current scanning direction”; [0241] various triggers may be used for controlling amplification parameters based on detections from previous cycles, location information, and predicted ranges for example).
Regarding Claim 15: Zhang, in view of Yang, Keilaf, and Xiang, teaches the LIDAR according to claim 9. Keilaf further teaches: wherein the receiving driver module is respectively connected to detector modules in the n receiving modules, and is configured to drive and control each detector module to work ([0240] “processor 118 may dynamically alter an amplification parameter associated with at least some of the plurality of detection elements of sensor 116 based on a current scanning direction”; [0244] “processor 118 may assign different groups of detection elements to different pixels associated with sensor 116 such that a first pixel associated with a first object located at a first distance from the LIDAR system is assigned with fewer detection elements than a second pixel associated with a second object located at a second distance from the LIDAR system greater than the first distance.” Because the processor allocates individual detection elements to the pixels of the sensor, the processor is connected to the detector modules in all the receiving modules).
Regarding Claim 16: Zhang, in view of Yang, Keilaf, and Xiang, teaches the LIDAR according to claim 9. Zhang further discloses wherein the laser device module comprises A laser devices arranged in the linear array, wherein A is an integer and A≥1 (Fig. 6A, the four lasers are in a linear array).
In this current combination, Keilaf further teaches wherein the detector module comprises
k
×
A
detectors arranged in the linear array, wherein k is an integer and k≥1 (Fig. 4B, the receiving unit 106 has one sensor 116 that makes up the detector module. The sensor 116 has a plurality of pixels 410. The entire transceiver unit has only one source 112 but many pixels 410; [0108] The sensor 116 can be a one-dimensional matrix. If each detector module has multiple detectors, then there are k x A detectors).
Claims 10 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang (US 20200326413 A1), in view of Yang (CN 109254286 A), further in view of Keilaf (US 20190271767 A1), further in view of Xiang (US 20240027587 A1), further in view of Pacala (US 20240418833 A1).
Regarding Claim 10: Zhang, in view of Yang, Keilaf, and Xiang, teaches the LIDAR according to claim 9. However, they do not expressly teach wherein the emission optical module is a telecentric lens, and wherein the telecentric lens is configured to respectively collimate each beam of outgoing lasers emitted by the laser device module, and deflect the outgoing lasers toward a central optical axis of the telecentric lens.
However, Pacala teaches the use of a telecentric lens for collimating outgoing lasers in Fig. 10 and paragraph [0168]: “the Tx-side bulk imaging optic 1030 is telecentric on the VCSEL side of the lens, i.e., in a ray diagram of the system, all the chief rays entering anywhere within the aperture of the bulk imaging optic 1030 leave the lens travelling parallel to each other.”
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify the LIDAR system taught by Zhang, Yang, Keilaf, and Xiang by replacing the lens group that collimates the light disclosed by Zhang, with the telecentric lens taught by Pacala. This is advantageous because “the optics capture substantially all light produced by the emitter array, even light that is emitted from the emitters on the outer edges of the array. Without the telecentric design, light captured by the outer emitters may be reduced, scattered or refracted in an undesirable manner because of their highly oblique angle of incidence” (Pacala, [0168]).
Regarding Claim 13: Zhang, in view of Yang, Keilaf, and Xiang, teaches the LIDAR according to claim 9. However, they do not expressly teach wherein the receiving optical module is a telecentric lens, and wherein the telecentric lens is configured to focus the echo laser and enable each beam of echo lasers to be perpendicular to the detector linear array during incidence.
However, Pacala teaches this use of a telecentric lens to focus echo lasers onto the detector in Fig. 10 and with [0172]: “the bulk imaging optics module 1060 is telecentric on the detector side of the system,” where the imaging optics module 1060 focuses light onto the sensors of sensor array 1052.
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify the LIDAR system taught by Zhang, Yang, Keilaf, and Xiang by replacing the lens group that focuses echo lasers onto the detectors taught by Xiang, with the telecentric lens taught by Pacala. This is advantageous because it can “avoid the non-idealities in the image plane in a manner similar to the TX side, as described above” (Pacala, [0172]).
Claim 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang, in view of Yang, further in view of Keilaf, further in view of Hehl (DE 202017107043 U1), and further in view of Engberg (US 10324170 B1). Zhang, in view of Yang and Keilaf, teaches the LIDAR according to claim 5. However, they do not expressly teach wherein when K is 0°, the adjacent reflecting surfaces are arranged in parallel, and are front and back surfaces of the rotation reflector, and the front and back surfaces of the rotation reflector are configured to implement scanning, to form two angles of view.
Hehl teaches a system with a polygon scanner that has a face which has two different reflective surfaces, parallel to each other, on this face (Figs. 8a-d, with the mirror facet 34 of the scanning polygon 20 having a separate surface with different reflectivity 34a).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the scanner such that each ‘face’ of the scanner has more than one reflecting surface on it, as taught by Hehl. This would be beneficial because having a modified mirror facet which has a different reflectivity can allow for distinguishing between scan positions and which mirror face a pulse/beam was incident on (Hehl, [0050-0051])
However, this combination still does not teach that adjacent reflecting surfaces are front and back surfaces of the rotation reflector to form two angles of view.
Engberg teaches adjacent reflecting surfaces arranged in parallel, and being front and back surfaces of the rotation reflector (Col. 19, lines 24-28: “not every surface of the rotatable polygon mirror oriented toward the scan mirrors 204-1 and 204-2 is reflective (e.g., the rotatable polygon mirror can be a flat substrate with reflective surfaces on the front and back sides)”) forming two angles of view (Fig. 5 showing two eyes, or fields of view, 160-1 and 160-2).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the scanner in the LIDAR system taught by Zhang, Yang, Keilaf, and Hehl such that the reflector has a front and back reflective side that forms two angles of view, as taught by Engberg. Since Hehl teaches a ‘face’ of a reflector having two reflective surfaces of different reflectivity, this could still satisfy the requirement of having at least three reflecting surfaces as necessitated by claim 1. This would be a simple substitution of one type of rotating reflector having four sides configured to direct laser light, for a two-sided reflector with only the front and back sides being configured to direct laser light, to obtain the predictable result of directing light to scan an environment (See MPEP 2141.III KSR Rationale B).
Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang, in view of Yang, further in view of Keilaf, and further in view of Wiebking (US 20080252958 A1). Zhang, in view of Yang and Keilaf, teaches the LIDAR according to claim 5. However, they do not expressly teach wherein when K is 180°, the adjacent reflecting surfaces are arranged in parallel, the rotation reflector is formed by splicing two reflecting surfaces, and the reflecting surfaces each have different reflectivity.
However, Wiebking teaches parallel reflecting surfaces in a lidar scanner (Fig. 3 which shows: “a two-sided reflector 1″ according to the invention comprising two different reflection elements” [0058]).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify the rotating reflector taught by Zhang and Yang, such that the scanner has surfaces with different reflectivity as taught by Wiebking. This would be beneficial because when two reflection elements have different reflection behavior, a signal having the same wavelength and/or intensity can be used depending on the measurements (Wiebking, [0060]). This increases the dynamic range because highly reflective targets that are far away can be detected using the more reflective surface, and close range targets can be detected with the less reflective side to avoid saturating the detector, and this can be done without modifying the signal wavelength or intensity (Wiebking, [0060]).
However, Zhang, Yang, Keilaf, and Wiebking do not teach that the reflecting surfaces are on the same “face” of the scanner. In other words, this combination does not teach that the angle between the surfaces is 180 degrees.
However, a further embodiment of Keilaf teaches a system where three different transceiver assemblies scan respective portions of the field of view, all of them being reflected by the same “face” of the scanner (Fig. 2B, each of the three transceiver units scans a different field of view, 120A, 120B, or 120C. They are all scanned using the same “face” of the scanner 104).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the architecture of the LIDAR scanning system taught by Zhang, Yang, Keilaf and Wiebking, such that one “face” of the scanner can be used by different transceivers to scan their different fields of view as taught by this further embodiment of Keilaf. Having this one “face” have different reflective surfaces corresponding to their respective transceivers is beneficial because different fields of view may require different amounts of light flux allocated to them for accurate detection, as illustrated by Keilaf in Fig. 5B. This figure illustrates that the central region requires high light flux while adjacent regions only require default or low light flux (Keilaf, [0142]). As described above, using different reflectivity surfaces can improve dynamic range. This modification would be motivated by a different design incentive because it would still accomplish the desired outcome of scanning different portions of the field of view with different amounts of light flux. “Known work in one field of endeavor may prompt variations of it for use in either the same field or a different one based on design incentives or other market forces if the variations are predictable to one of ordinary skill in the art” (MPEP 2141.III KSR Rationale F).
Conclusion
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/ISABELLE LIN BOEGHOLM/Examiner, Art Unit 3645
/YUQING XIAO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3645
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