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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 7/10/2025 has been considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, with respect to the rejection of claim 1 under Rafac (US Patent Publication Number 2018/0136541 A1) 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 Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn.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 Vetovec (US Patent Publication Number 2006/0088067 A1) in view of Marka (US Patent Publication Number 2017/01644267 A1).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action,
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, 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, 5, 12 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over by Vetovec (US Patent Publication Number 2006/0088067 A1) in view of Marka (US Patent Publication Number 2017/0164267 A1).
Vetovec teaches, as in claim 1, an optical modulator (Figs.1-4B) comprising, an assembly comprising, material1 (22) a first side (input side) configured to receive an incident light beam (26) and a second side (output side) configured to emit an output light beam (26’) based on the incident light beam (26), and a thermal management apparatus comprising a first thermally conductive material (42) in thermal contact with the first side of the assembly, assembly, wherein the first side of the assembly comprises a first side of the material (22) and the first thermally conductive material (42) is in thermal contact with the first side of the material (22), and a second thermally conductive material (42’) in thermal contact with the second side of the assembly (Fig. 4), wherein the second side of the acousto-optic assembly comprises a second side (output side) of the material (22) and the second thermally conductive material (42’) is in thermal contact with the second side of the material (22), Vetovec fails to teach an acousto-optic assembly comprising an acousto-optic material. In a related art, Marka teaches an acousto-optic assembly comprising an acousto-optic material2 (¶0028” optical shaping component includes one or more controllable devices for changing the frequency, shape, duration or power of an optical beam, such as an acousto-optical modulator (AOM), a Faraday isolator, a Pockels cell”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill of the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the optical modulator, as taught by Vetovec, with the acousto-optic material, as taught by Marka, for the purpose of providing a shaping component includes one or more controllable devices for changing the frequency, shape, duration or power of an optical beam (¶0028).
Vetovec teaches, as in claim 4, wherein the thermal management apparatus further comprises a heat sink (48a) in thermal contact with the first thermally conductive material (42) and the second thermally conductive material (42’).
Vetovec teaches, as in claim 5, the material (22) comprises a first side (right), a second side (left), a third side (bottom), and a fourth side (top), heat sink (48a) is attached to the third side (bottom) or the fourth side (top), Vetovec fails to teach acousto-optic assembly comprising an acousto-optic material. In a related art, Marka teaches an acousto-optic assembly comprising an acousto-optic material3 (¶0028 “optical shaping component includes one or more controllable devices for changing the frequency, shape, duration or power of an optical beam, such as an acousto-optical modulator (AOM), a Faraday isolator, a Pockels cell”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill of the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the optical modulator, as taught by Vetovec and Marka, with the acousto-optic material, as taught by Marka, for the purpose of providing a shaping component includes one or more controllable devices for changing the frequency, shape, duration or power of an optical beam (¶0028).
Vetovec teaches, as in claim 12, wherein the first thermally conductive material (42) is attached to the first side of the acousto-optic assembly by an adhesive or a mechanical clamp (46, ¶0031 “O-Ring”), and the second thermally conductive material (42’) is attached to the second side of the acousto-optic assembly by an adhesive or a mechanical clamp (46, ¶0031 “O-Ring”).
Vetovec teaches, as in claim 20, wherein the first thermally conductive material (42) and the second thermally conductive material (42’) are polycrystalline diamond or monocrystalline diamond (¶0030 “THC 24 include sapphire, single crystal diamond, polycrystalline diamond, yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) in a single crystal or polycrystalline form, and gallium gadolinium garnet (GGG) in a single crystal or polycrystalline form”).
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over by Vetovec (US Patent Publication Number 2006/0088067 A1) in view of Marka (US Patent Publication Number 2017/0164267 A1) and in further view of Rafac (US Patent Publication Number 2018/0136541 A1)
Vetovec and Marka fail to teach, as in claim 17, wherein the acousto-optic material comprises germanium (Ge) or gallium arsenide. In a related art, Rafac teaches wherein the acousto-optic material comprises germanium (Ge) or gallium arsenide (¶0039 “acousto-optic material 116 may be germanium (Ge) or gallium arsenide (GaAs)”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill of the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the optical modulator, as taught by Vetovec and Marka, with the acousto-optic material, as taught by Rafac, for the purpose of providing a material that is at least partially transmissive at the wavelength of the beam (¶0039).
Claim 39 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over by Vetovec (US Patent Publication Number 2006/0088067 A1) in view of Marka (US Patent Publication Number 2017/0164267 A1) and in further view of Kim (KR Patent Publication Number 19980027515 A).
Vetovec teaches, as in claim 39, an optical modulator (Figs.1-4B) comprising, an assembly comprising, material (22) a first side (input side) configured to receive an incident light beam (26) and a second side (output side) configured to emit an output light beam (26’) based on the incident light beam (26), and a thermal management apparatus comprising a first thermally conductive material (42) in thermal contact with the first side of the assembly, assembly, wherein the first side of the assembly comprises a first side of the material (22) and the first thermally conductive material (42) is in thermal contact with the first side of the material (22), and a second thermally conductive material (42’) in thermal contact with the second side of the assembly (Fig. 4), wherein the second side of the acousto-optic assembly comprises a second side (output side) of the material (22) and the second thermally conductive material (42’) is in thermal contact with the second side of the material (22). Vetovec fails to teach an acousto-optic assembly comprising an acousto-optic material. In a related art, Marka teaches an acousto-optic assembly comprising an acousto-optic material (¶0028” optical shaping component includes one or more controllable devices for changing the frequency, shape, duration or power of an optical beam, such as an acousto-optical modulator (AOM), a Faraday isolator, a Pockels cell”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill of the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the optical modulator, as taught by Vetovec, with the acousto-optic material, as taught by Marka, for the purpose of providing a shaping component includes one or more controllable devices for changing the frequency, shape, duration or power of an optical beam (¶0028).
Vetovec and Marka fail to teach, wherein the first structure is configured to reduce reflection of the incident light beam, and the second structure is configured to reduce reflection of the incident light beam. In a related art, Kim teaches an optical modulator with a first structure at the first side (input side, Abstract) and a second structure at the second side (output side , Abstract, wherein the first structure is configured to reduce reflection of the incident light beam, and the second structure is configured to reduce reflection of the incident light beam (Abstract “he anti-reflection film is formed on the light input / exit surface of the ultrasonic medium for modulating the light incident from the light source in accordance with the image signal, the anti-reflection film is provided with at least two coating films having different refractive index”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill of the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the optical modulator, as taught by Vetovec and Marka, with the first and second structures, as taught by Kim, for the purpose of providing long-term stability when used as a high-density optical recording device (Abstract).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 10, 13, 15, 16 and 37, 38 and 40 are 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.
The prior art fails to teach the limitations of claim 3 and 37, which include the second thickness is an integer multiple of one-fourth of a wavelength of the pulsed light beam.
The prior art fails to teach the limitations of claim 10 and 38, which include second index matching material between the acousto-optic material and the second thermally conductive material.
The prior art fails to teach the limitations of claim 13, which include a first thermally conductive material is in thermal contact with the first side of the acousto-optic assembly by being attached first anti-reflection coating, and the second thermally conductive material is in thermal contact with the second side of the acousto-optic assembly by being attached to the second anti-reflection coating.
Remaining claims 15 and 16 have dependency upon claim 13.
The prior art fails to teach the limitations of claim 40, which include an anti-reflection coating on at least two sides of each of the first thermally conductive material and the second thermally conductive material.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOURNEY F SUMLAR whose telephone number is (571)270-0656. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-4pm.
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JOURNEY F. SUMLAR
Examiner
Art Unit 2872
12 December 2025
/RICKY L MACK/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2872
1 ¶0003 teaches “transmissive optical components subjected to heat load and requiring cooling include crystals used in Pockels cells and glass used in Faraday rotators” Faraday Rotators are known modulators.
2 An acoustic-optical modulators inherently has an acousto-optic material.
3 An acoustic-optical modulator inherently has an acousto-optic material.