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 .
This Office Action is in response to amendments and remarks filed November 10, 2025. Claims 1-20 are currently pending. Claims 7-14 are currently withdrawn from consideration since they are drawn to non-elected Invention II.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-6 and 15-20 have been considered but are moot in view of new grounds of rejection as set forth below in view of Yun et al. (US 20210126030) and Yun et al. (US 20210124179).
In response to the Applicant’s arguments that the new limitation of splicing at least two columnar structures together is a method/process of making/manufacture. Since the elected claims are drawn to an apparatus, as long as a reference has smaller columnar structures and larger columnar structures of the same material, then how those structures are made, for example splicing columnar structures does not hold weight in the claim.
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, 2, 4-6, 15, 16 and 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yun et al. (US 20210126030 herein after Yun ‘030) in view of Yun et al. (US 20210124179 herein after Yun ‘179).
Re claims 1 and 15: Yun ‘030 teaches an electronic device, wherein the electronic device comprises an image sensor (fig. 1-8), wherein the image sensor comprises a surface (130), a substrate (120), and an optical-to-electrical converter (110) (see fig. 8), wherein: the surface (130) comprises a plurality of subunits (131, 132, 133, 134), each subunit of the plurality of subunits comprises an array of a plurality of columnar structures (131a, 132a, 133a, 134a), at least two columnar structures of a first subunit (131, 132, 133 or 134) of the plurality of subunits (131, 132, 133, 134) are spliced together (131a, 132a, 133a, 134a, see in figure 4, 5 and 6, the structures 131a, 132a, 133a, 134a correspond to a square, some of the structures seem to be joined together to from larger rectangular structures in each of the subunit, example in figure 5 shows a cut section A-A’ that shows structures 133a are formed from two square 133a and 134a is formed from 12 squares of 134a, also the Examiner would like to note that the specific limitation of splicing two structures together is a method/process of making/manufacture, since this claim is drawn to an apparatus then this limitation of splicing/spliced holds no weight, since Yun shows a binary structure includes smaller and larger columnar structures, how the larger columnar structures are formed does not hold weight), arrays in the surface (130) are arranged on top of the substrate (120) (see fig. 8), the substrate (120) is disposed on a surface of the optical-to-electrical converter (110) (see fig. 8), the surface (130) comprises at least two media with different refractive indexes (paragraph 81 and 82), the optical-to-electrical converter (110) comprises an array for optical-to-electrical conversion (111, 112, 113, 114) (see fig. 1, 2, 3 and 8), the array of the optical-to-electrical converter (111, 112, 113, 114) is divided into a plurality of color units (red, blue, green and a second green/white, cyan, magenta, yellow), each color unit of the plurality of color units comprises at least four color regions (red, blue, green and a second green/white, cyan, magenta, yellow), each color unit of the plurality of color units (red, blue, green and a second green/white, cyan, magenta, yellow) corresponds to one of the plurality of subunits (131, 132, 133, 134, see fig. 4, four subunits, each with a specific wavelength), the surface (130) is configured to refract incident light and transmit, through the substrate (120), refracted light to a corresponding color region in the array of the optical-to-electrical converter (111, 112, 113, 114) (see fig. 1, 2, 3 and 8), and each subunit of the plurality of subunits refracts incident light and transmits, through the substrate (120), refracted light to a color region in a corresponding color unit (111, 112, 113, 114) (see fig. 1, 2, 3 and 8), but does not explicitly state the surface is a metasurface. Yun ‘179 teaches an image sensor (paragraph 2), wherein the image sensor comprises a meta-surface (130) (paragraph 84, a meta-surface is a two-dimensional array of subwavelength optical elements that manipulate electromagnetic waves, fig. 14). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to use sub-wavelength optical elements in the surface of Yun ‘030 for a metasurface similar to Yun ‘179 in order to ensure wavelength separation and focus to a corresponding optical to electrical converter while maintaining a compact design providing for improved color image sensing.
Re claims 2 and 16: Yun ‘030 as modified by Yun ‘179 teaches the electronic device, wherein a color filtering structure (Yun ‘030, 105) is disposed between the optical-to-electrical converter (Yun ‘030, 111, 112, 113, 114) and the substrate (Yun ‘030, 120) (Yun ‘030, fig. 8 and 22), the color filtering structure (Yun ‘030, 105) is divided into a plurality of color filtering regions (Yun ‘030, paragraph 136 and 137), each color filtering region of the plurality of color filtering regions (Yun ‘030, 105) covers one corresponding color region (Yun ‘030, see fig. 8 and 22), and a color corresponding to the color region is same as a color that passes through a color filtering region covering the color region (Yun ‘030, paragraphs 136 and 137, fig. 8 and 22).
Re claims 4 and 18: Yun ‘030 as modified by Yun ‘179 teaches the electronic device, wherein light of a plurality of spectrum bands corresponding to the plurality of color regions comprises one or more of green, red, blue, or infrared light (Yun ‘030, paragraph 75 and 76).
Re claim 5 and 19: Yun ‘030 as modified by Yun ‘179 teaches the electronic device, wherein a material of the meta-surface comprises one or more of titanium dioxide, gallium nitride, or silicon carbide (Yun ‘030, paragraph 82).
Re claim 6 and 20: Yun ‘030 as modified by Yun ‘179 teaches the electronic device, wherein colors corresponding to each color unit of the plurality of color units (Yun ‘030, 111, 112, 113, 114) comprise at least two same colors (Yun ‘030, paragraph 75, green), and the plurality of columnar structures (Yun ‘030, 131a, 132a, 133a, 134a) comprised in the subunit corresponding to each color unit of the plurality of color units form an angularly symmetric shape (Yun ‘030, see fig. 4, 7 and 9-12, paragraph 93-102).
Claim(s) 3 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yun et al. (US 20210126030 herein after Yun ‘030) in view of Yun et al. (US 20210124179 herein after Yun ‘179) as applied to claims 2 and 16 above, and further in view of Yokogawa (US 20140146207).
Re claims 3 and 17: Yun ‘030 as modified by Yun ‘179 teaches the electronic device, wherein a color filtering structure (Yun ‘030, 105) is disposed between the optical-to-electrical converter (Yun ‘030, 111, 112, 113, 114) and the substrate (Yun ‘030, 120) (Yun ‘030, fig. 8 and 22), the color filtering structure (Yun ‘030, 105) is divided into a plurality of color filtering regions (Yun ‘030, paragraph 136 and 137), each color filtering region of the plurality of color filtering regions (Yun ‘030, 105) covers one corresponding color region (Yun ‘030, see fig. 8 and 22), and a color corresponding to the color region is same as a color that passes through a color filtering region covering the color region (Yun ‘030, paragraphs 136 and 137, fig. 8 and 22), but does not specifically teach wherein a lens is disposed between each color filtering region of the plurality of color filtering regions and the substrate. Yokogawa teaches an electronic device (fig. 1, 8 and 9), wherein a lens (501) is disposed between each color filtering region of the plurality of color filtering regions (508) and a substrate (507) (fig. 8 and 9). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to include a lens similar to Yokogawa with the structure of Yun ‘030 as modified by Yun ‘179 in order to further guide the light from the meta-surface to a desired color region and corresponding opto-electric conversion unit providing for more color separation and efficient light detection.
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.
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/JENNIFER D BENNETT/Examiner, Art Unit 2878