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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 March 17, 2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, filed March 17, 2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-5 and 18-19 under 35 USC 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 Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn.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 a newly discovered reference. Further, a new 112(b) rejection is made as a result of the amendment of claims 30-33.
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 30, and claims 31-33 dependent on it, are 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.
The clause “wherein a light coupling unit optically coupled to one end of the second power amplification stage, wherein the light coupling unit comprises an optical Traffic Access Point (TAP) that provides network traffic monitoring of an output of the multiple-stage optical amplification device” appears incomplete, and appears to be an element of apparatus amongst steps of a method. Therefore, this part of the claim is indefinite. Clarification and correction are required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 1-4, 18, and 30-33 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Delavaux et al. (US 6,583,925) in view of Lei et al. "An extended L-band EDFA using C-band pump wavelength", 2020 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC), and further in view of Fatehi et al. (US 5,673,142).
With regard to claim 1, Delavaux disclose (see 4th col. lines 9-36 & Fig. 4 reproduced below) a multiple stage optical amplification device, comprising:
a first power amplification stage (Er-Yb codoped fiber 31) receiving seed laser light (Pin) and outputting first amplified laser light;
a second power amplification stage (Er-Yb codoped fiber 33) receiving the first amplified laser light and outputting a second amplified laser light; and
a single optical power pump (38) coupled to the second power amplification stage, the second power amplification stage being configured to amplify the first amplified laser light to generate the second amplified laser light, wherein a first portion of pump power provided by the optical power pump is deliverable to the first power amplification stage to amplify the seed laser light.
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Note: the clause “in a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) scanning system” in the preamble merely constitutes intended use. The intended use does not serve to patentably distinguish the claimed structure over that of the reference. See MPEP § 2111.02.
Delaveaux does not specifically disclose that a power gain of the first power amplification stage is less than a power gain of the second power amplification stage. However, in the same field of endeavor, Lei teaches a two-stage optical amplification device (Fig. 3a) comprising: a first power amplification stage EDF1 receiving seed laser light (from L-band tunable laser) and outputting first amplified laser light; a second power amplification stage (EDF2) receiving the first amplified laser light and outputting a second amplified laser light. The power gain of the first stage and the combined gain (for a signal passing through first stage and second stage) is shown in Fig. 3b, upper graph. A typical example is that at a wavelength of 1590 nm, the single stage gain is about 10 dB while the combined gain is about 24 dB. Therefore, one would conclude that the gain contributed by the second stage is the difference 24 dB – 10 dB = 14 dB, which was greater than that of the first stage at the same wavelength, or said differently, the power gain of the first amplification stage was less than a power gain of the second amplification stage. Lei teaches that the particular configuration of gains for the two stages was desirable to reduce the noise figure in the amplified signal while still achieving a gain above 20 dB (Conclusion). Therefore, it would have been desirable for one skilled in the art, e. g. an optical engineer, before the effective filing date of the application, to choose a gain of the first stage amplifier to be less than the gain of the second stage amplifier, in the multi-stage amplifier of Delavaux.
Neither of Delavaux nor Lei disclose a light coupling unit optical coupled to one end of the second power amplification stage, wherein the light coupling unit comprises an optical Traffic Access Point that provides network traffic monitoring of an output of the multiple-stage optical amplification device. However, in the same field of endeavor, Fatehi et al. teach a two stage optical amplifier (Fig. 3), with a first power amplification stage (44) receiving seed laser light and outputting first amplified laser light, a second power amplification stage (48) receiving the first amplified laser light and outputting a second amplified laser light, and a light coupling unit (50 & 52) optical coupled to one end of the second power amplification stage. The light coupling unit comprises a monitor that monitors a fraction of the outgoing signals to ensure that each channel (of a particular wavelength) meets specifications (1st col. lines 30-39). It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the application, for one skilled in the art, e. g. an optical engineer, to configure the light coupling unit taught by Fatehi, in the multiple stage optical amplification device of Delavaux as modified by Lei, to monitor faults in and performance of the network (1st col. lines 30-39).
With regard to claim 30, Delavaux discloses (see 4th col. lines 36-46) a method performed by a multiple stage optical amplification device for performing optical amplification, the method comprising:
receiving seed laser light;
generating, by a single optical power pump, pump laser light to provide pump power;
amplifying, by a first power amplification stage, the seed laser light using a first portion of the pump power to generate a first amplified laser light;
amplifying, by a second power amplification stage, the first amplified laser light using a second portion of the pump power to generate a second amplified laser light, wherein the first portion of the pump power is delivered from the second power amplification stage to the first power amplification stage to amplify the seed laser light.
Delaveaux does not specifically disclose that a power gain of the first power amplification stage is less than a power gain of the second power amplification stage. However, in the same field of endeavor, Lei teaches a two-stage optical amplification device (Fig. 3a) comprising: a first power amplification stage EDF1 receiving seed laser light (from L-band tunable laser) and outputting first amplified laser light; a second power amplification stage (EDF2) receiving the first amplified laser light and outputting a second amplified laser light. The power gain of the first stage and the combined gain (for a signal passing through first stage and second stage) is shown in Fig. 3b, upper graph. A typical example is that at a wavelength of 1590 nm, the single stage gain is about 10 dB while the combined gain is about 24 dB. Therefore, one could conclude that the gain contributed by the second stage is the difference 24 dB – 10 dB = 14 dB, which was greater than that of the first stage at the same wavelength, or said differently, the power gain of the first amplification stage was less than a power gain of the second amplification stage. Lei teaches that the particular configuration of gains for the two stages was desirable to reduce the noise figure in the amplified signal while still achieving a gain above 20 dB (Conclusion). Therefore, it would have been desirable for one skilled in the art, e. g. an optical engineer, before the effective filing date of the application, to choose a gain of the first stage amplifier to be less than the gain of the second stage amplifier, in the method of operating the multi-stage amplifier of Delavaux.
Neither of Delavaux nor Lei disclose a light coupling unit optical coupled to one end of the second power amplification stage, wherein the light coupling unit comprises an optical Traffic Access Point that provides network traffic monitoring of an output of the multiple-stage optical amplification device. However, in the same field of endeavor, Fatehi et al. teach a two stage optical amplifier (Fig. 3), with a first power amplification stage (44) receiving seed laser light and outputting first amplified laser light, a second power amplification stage (48) receiving the first amplified laser light and outputting a second amplified laser light, and a light coupling unit (50 & 52) optical coupled to one end of the second power amplification stage. The light coupling unit comprises a monitor that monitors a fraction of the outgoing signals to ensure that each channel (of a particular wavelength) meets specifications (1st col. lines 30-39). It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the application, for one skilled in the art, e. g. an optical engineer, to include a step of the coupling light at one end of the second power amplification stage, and monitoring an output of the multiple-stage optical amplification device as taught by Fatehi, in the multiple stage optical amplification device of Delavaux as modified by Lei, to monitor faults in and performance of the network (1st col. lines 30-39).
With regard to claim 2, the amplifier further comprises a fiber-based delivering medium (Delavaux, optical fiber with pump filter 48); and a first light coupling (44) unit optically coupled to: the seed laser light, a first (left) end of the first power amplification stage (31), and a first end of the fiber-based delivering medium, wherein the first portion of pump power is deliverable to the first power amplification stage via the first light coupling unit and the fiber-based delivering medium.
With regard to claim 3, the amplifier further comprises a second light coupling unit (46) optically coupled to: a second end of the first power amplification stage (right end of 31), a first end of the second power amplification stage (left end of 34), and a second end of the fiber-based delivering medium (48), wherein the first portion of pump power is deliverable to the first power amplification stage further via the second light coupling unit.
With regard to claim 4, the amplifier further of Delavaux comprises a third light coupling unit (40) coupled to: a second end of the second power amplification stage (right end of 34), and the optical power pump, wherein the pump power provided by the optical power pump is deliverable to the second power amplification stage via the third light coupling unit.
With regard to claim 18, the first power amplification stage and second power amplification stage comprise doped fiber media (Delavaux, 4th col. lines 11-14).
With regard to claim 31, the seed laser light and pump laser light are combined and delivered to the first power amplification stage with the coupler (44).
With regard to claim 32, the seed laser light is delivered to the first end of the first power amplification stage (Delavaux, left end of power amplification stage (31), and delivering a first portion of the pump laser light corresponding to the first portion to a second (right) end of the first power amplification stage, (via second power amplification stage 34).
With regard to claim 33, the first amplified laser light is delivered to a first (left) end of the second power amplification stage (Delavaux, at coupler 46) and the pump laser light is delivered to a second (right) end (at coupler 40) of the second power amplification stage.
Claim(s) 5 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Delavaux, Lei, and Fatehi as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Pan (US 5,892,781).
Delavaux discloses a plurality of light coupling units (40, 44 & 46) to optically couple the first power amplification stage, the second power amplification stage, and the optical power pump from one another. Delavaux further discloses that the couplers for residual pump power applied to the second power amplification stage are wavelength division multiplexer (WDM, 2nd col. lines 44-49), and further discloses optical isolators: (36) between the first amplification stage and the second amplification stage (4th col. lines 25-28), at the signal input (42) (4th col. lines 38-40), and at the signal output (49) (5th col. lines 1-6). These isolators may be disposed in the optical path to prevent ASE and other undesired wavelengths from being coupled in the amplifying stages and the pump laser. None of Delavaux, Lei, or Fatehi specifically disclose that the WDM and the isolator in at least one, or in all, of the coupling units comprises an (integrated) assembly.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Pan teaches an optical amplifier (see Fig. 1A) comprising integrated WDM coupler/isolators (14) and (15) at each end of an amplification stage (13), for respectively receiving and transmitting a signal light, combining with a pump light, and reflecting undesired light (4th col. lines 30-46). Choosing the integrated assembly comprising an isolator and WDM taught by Pan as at least one of the couplers in the optical amplifier of Delavaux as modified by Lei and Fatehi would have resulted in the claimed invention before the effective filing date of the application. It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art, e. g. an optical engineer, to make this choice for compactness and reducing the number of fiber sections needed to assemble the device.
Note that the citations made herein are done so for the convenience of the applicant; they are in no way intended to be limiting. The prior art should be considered in its entirety.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed on March 17, 2026 has been considered by the Examiner.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to ERIC L BOLDA whose telephone number is 571-272-8104. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F from 8:30am to 5pm.
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/ERIC L BOLDA/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3645
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