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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 3 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Scope of Limitation “maintain a cut-off frequency based on a range” is unclear. It is unclear what does it mean “maintain a cut off frequency based on a range of reflection distances of the lidar sensor device”. Cut off frequency does not depend on distance. Specification talks about cut off frequency in [0050] which is much narrower than the limitation and The cut off frequency is placed on loss 3db.
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, 14 and claims bellow are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 US 20190227150 A1 in view of D2 US 10255528 B1.
Regarding claims 1, 14 D1 teaches
14. A method comprising:
receiving, at a high-pass filter circuitry block(216), a signal generated by a photodetector(208) of a lidar device[0003], wherein the lidar device is configured to detect objects within a range of distances;(inherent )
attenuating a first portion of the signal below a cutoff frequency using the high-pass filter circuitry block, wherein the first portion of the signal comprises frequencies corresponding to optical back reflections present on the lidar device; and(inherent for band pass filter , unwanted signals no mater of the source bellow frequency will be rejected)
passing a second portion of the signal above the cutoff frequency using the high-pass filter circuitry block, wherein the second portion of the signal corresponds to light detected by the photodetector as reflected back to the lidar device from a target object. (inherent for band pass filter , unwanted signals no mater of the source bellow frequency will be rejected)
Although D1 teaches the bandpass filter as noted by Applicant band pass filter located prior to the detector and it is hardware band pass filter and therefore does not teach but D2 teaches
receive a signal generated by a photodetector of a lidar sensor device based on light received at the photodetector;(col 7 line 50-67)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art at the time of filing to modify teachings by D1 with teaching by D2 in order to further denoise the data.
2. The apparatus of Claim 1, wherein the high-pass filter circuitry is configured to allow another higher-frequency portion of the signal to pass, wherein the other higher-frequency portion of the signal corresponds to light reflected from an object targeted by the lidar sensor device.(inherent bandpass filter allows desired frequencies for lidar)
9. The apparatus of Claim 1, wherein the lidar sensor device comprises a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) to implement at least the photodetector, an emitter, and a controller of the lidar device, and the optical back reflections comprise on-chip optical back reflections from optical components of the PIC. (fig. 10 )
10. The apparatus of Claim 9, wherein the high-pass filter circuitry is on a same die as the PIC. (fig. 10)
11. The apparatus of Claim 9, wherein the high-pass filter circuitry is on a same package as the PlC. (fig. 10)
Claim(s) 6, 7, 15 16 and claims bellow are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 and D2.
Regarding claim 6, 7, 15, 16 D1 teaches
16, 7 A system comprising:
a lidar sensor chip comprising(fig. 10)
a laser;(202)
a photodetector(218); and
one or more waveguides;(212)(220)
high-pass filter(216) circuitry to filter an output of the photodetector to remove noise associated with on-chip optical back reflections within the lidar sensor chip and generate a filtered version of the output; and
amplifier (218)
but does not teach
16, 6, 7, 15 amplifier circuitry to amplify the filtered version of the output.
Although amplifier 218 in prior art is placed before filter 216 it is within of knowledge of one of ordinary skills in the art to add another amplifier or replace the positions of the amplifier and filter as it brings to the predictable result obtaining amplified filtered signal.
5. The apparatus of Claim 2, wherein the high-pass filter circuitry comprises a three-stage resistor-capacitor (RC) filter. (obvious well known filter type)
8. The apparatus of Claim 6, wherein the high-pass filter circuitry comprises a first high pass filter and the apparatus further comprises a second high pass filter to filter an output of the amplifier circuitry to further attenuate the lower frequency portion of the signal. (obvious design choice to introduce coarse and fine filtering)
12. The apparatus of Claim 9, wherein the high-pass filter circuitry is on a different die or package as the PIC and is coupled to the PIC by an interface to receive the signal from the PIC. (obvious design choice)
13. The apparatus of Claim 1, wherein the lidar device comprises a coherent lidar device.(abstract laser is coherent light source)
17. The system of Claim 16, wherein the lidar sensor chip comprises a photonic integrated chip and the laser is implemented using silicon photonics. (fig. 10)
18. The system of Claim 16, further comprising: second high-pass filter circuitry to further filter an amplified output of the amplifier circuitry to remove noise associated with the on-chip optical back reflections; and second amplifier circuity to amplify an output of the second high-pass filter circuitry. (obvious design choice to introduce coarse and fine filtering and signal processing)
19. The system of Claim 16, further comprising a processor to process the filtered version of the output. (inherent lidar device)
20. The system of Claim 16, wherein the high-pass filter circuitry is included on a same package with the lidar sensor chip or the amplifier circuitry.(fig. 10)
Claim(s) 3 and claims bellow are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 and D2 further in view of D3 US 20200225333 A1.
D1 or D2 does not teach but D3 teaches
3. The apparatus of Claim 2, wherein the high-pass filter circuitry is configured to maintain a cut-off frequency based on a range of distances of the lidar sensor device.(band pass filter is set and stays the same for any range and therefore it maintains the cutoff frequency)[0063]
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art at the time of filing to modify teachings by D1 with teaching by D3 in order to suppress signals which are interpreted as telecommunication signals[0063]
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to HOVHANNES BAGHDASARYAN whose telephone number is (571)272-7845. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 7am - 5 pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Isam Alsomiri can be reached at 5712726970. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/HOVHANNES BAGHDASARYAN/Examiner, Art Unit 3645