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
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 2/4/26 has been entered. Claims 1-14 remain pending.
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 Proir 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 1-7 and 11-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xin (US 12153233 B1, cited previously) in view of Baumheinrich (US 20220102583 A1, cited previously)
Regarding claim 1, Xin teaches a flat panel display (Fig. 5 to 10) comprising: a display panel 40 including a display area (regarding the display area, see claim 6 of Xin and:
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having a first surface area; the display panel including a light emitting element layer (see Abstract, Fig.1 and see in Xin: Optical component 40 may be, for example, a display having an array of pixels each of which has a respective independently controlled light source such as light source 42) a first meta-lens 48 (Extending throughout the semiconduction layer 82) having an area corresponding to the first surface area; a transparent layer 54 disposed on the first meta-lens and having a first thickness corresponding to a focal length of the first meta-lens (d is the thickness of the transparent layer in Xin as give below in the focal length relationship:
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a viewing area (area covered by the second metalens in Fig.7 for example) having a second surface area smaller than the first surface area (since area of second metalens is smaller than the lower first metalens layer in Fig.8), the viewing area defined on an upper surface of the transparent layer; and a second meta-lens 50 disposed on the upper surface of the transparent layer to correspond to the viewing area; the display area provides light to the first meta-lens.
Regarding: the first meta-lens provides condensed and deflected light to the second meta-lens;
the deflected light from the first meta lens is already shown in Fig.5; and further Xin discloses: Nanostructures 32, which may sometimes be referred to as optical elements or light-scattering structures (that teaches deflection).
Further regarding the first meta-lens provides condensed light, throughout Xin, the first metal lens element 32 is disclosed as:
whereas light in cone 60 that falls outside of cone 62 is collimated by nanostructures 32 in lens 48. And
As shown by nanostructure 32 of FIG. 2D, may be rings with different profiles to form a metalens (or, if desired a Fresnel lens), etc
Nanostructures 32 may be patterned to produce desired phase changes for light passing through the lens (e.g., phase changes that cause the nanostructures to form a lens element of a desired focal length). The graph of FIG. 2B shows an illustrative phase change that may be exhibited for light traveling through the lens of FIG. 2A as a function of radial distance R from the center of the lens of FIG. 2A.
(32) By varying the size and shape of nanostructures 32, the nanostructure pitch of nanostructures 32, the angular orientation of nanostructures 32, the material of nanostructures 32, and/or other nanostructure characteristics as a function of position within a nanostructure layer, desired optical properties can be implemented (e.g., nanostructures 32 can be configured to alter the phase, amplitude, and/or polarization of one or more wavelengths of light passing through nanostructures 32 as desired to form a metalens element). In this way, a thin metalens with a desired focal lens, desired polarization properties, and other desired optical properties can be obtained. As an example, nanostructures 32 may, as shown in FIG. 2B, implement a radially varying phase change that forms a lens of a desired focal length
4 . A top view of an illustrative metalens formed from an array of nanostructures 32 is shown in FIG. 2F. As shown in FIG. 2F, the metalens may implement a ring-type phase change pattern, where the amount of phase change at each location is determined by the pillar attributes (dimensions, size, shape, etc.) at that location.
5.A first phase change from 2η to near 0 is implemented in the center of the lens using rings of a first period. A second phase change from 2π to near zero is implemented in the outer portion of the lens using rings of a second period.
Within the center of the lens of FIG. 2H, the lens exhibits a first 2π phase shift. Further 2π phase shifts may be implemented using concentric rings.
Therefore, since Xin teaches the first lens to collimate light, behave like a Fresnel lens and the remaining disclosure as mentioned in 1.-5. above, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to use the first meta lens to condense light in order to optimally collimate it to the second meta lens array.
Although Xin teaches all the structural features as claimed, it does not explicitly and verbatim ably disclose: wherein an image from the display area is reduced into the viewing area, and wherein a resolution of the image from the display area is increased at the viewing area.
However, regarding “wherein an image from the display area is reduced into the viewing area “Xin discloses a narrower output cone in:
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And regarding “wherein a resolution of the image from the display area is increased at the viewing area “ Xin discloses:
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Therefore, since all the functional limitations are already disclosed in Xin, and also from the above disclosure of Xin, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to result in the functional limitations as claimed in the device of Xin in order to optimize the fine pixel pitch for the display pixels.
Xin does not teach: a first metal lens disposed on the color filter layer covering the display area.
Baumheinrich discloses meta lens involving displays ([02225], [2267]) wherein a color filter is formed on the light emitting devices ([1436], also see various colored filters in [0094], [1419], [1425], [2060]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to use a color filter in combination with the light emitting devices, such that the first meta lens is formed on it, from the teachings of Baumheinrich in order to achieve the desired colors (Baumheinrich: [0094]).
Regarding claim 2, Xin view of Baumheinrich teaches a flat panel display, wherein the first meta-lens converts incident light from the display area to emit output light directed to the viewing area, and wherein the second meta-lens converts the output light provided in the viewing area into parallel light, and emits the parallel light directed to outside (from Fig.5 to 10 of Xin).
Regarding claim 3, Xin view of Baumheinrich teaches a flat panel display, wherein the output light is formed by focusing and deflecting the incident light corresponding to the first surface area to the second surface area, and wherein the parallel light is formed by maintaining the output light corresponding to the second surface area in parallel with same area (from Fig.5 to 10 of Xin and the same structure results in the same function as claimed).
Regarding claim 4, Xin view of Baumheinrich teaches a flat panel display, wherein the display panel includes a plurality of pixels arrayed in the display area with a NxM matrix manner, where N and M are natural numbers, and wherein a plurality of pixel viewing areas are arrayed in the viewing area with the NxM matrix manner corresponding to the pixels (from the teachings of Xin: In a light-emitting component such as a display, light from each display pixel may be collimated using the metalens in that pixel. In a light-detecting component such as an image sensor, light being sensed by each image sensor pixel may be focused onto the photodetector of that pixel using the metalens in the pixel AND the pixels may be overlapped by lenses. For example, a display may have a pixel array in which each display pixel of the array is overlapped by a respective lens AND (17) The lenses in an optical component may be formed using metasurfaces. Metasurface lenses, which may sometimes be referred to as metalenses, may, for example, overlap pixels in a display AND For example, a display with an array of multielement metalenses may use the multielement metalenses to efficiently collimate light emitted by each pixel of the display while maintaining a desired fine pixel pitch for the display pixels).
Regarding claim 5, wherein each pixel has a pixel size, wherein the first meta-lens includes a plurality of first unit meta-lenses allocated to each pixel, wherein each pixel viewing area has a pixel viewing size smaller than the pixel size, and wherein the second meta-lens includes a plurality of second unit meta-lenses allocated to each pixel viewing area:
Xin teaches: I) In a light-emitting component such as a display, light from each display pixel may be collimated using the metalens in that pixel. In a light-detecting component such as an image sensor, light being sensed by each image sensor pixel may be focused onto the photodetector of that pixel using the metalens in the pixel,
II) in claim 13 of Xin, it explicitly discloses: A display system, comprising: an array of pixels each having a respective light-emitting device; and an array of multielement metalenses each overlapping a respective pixel in the array of pixels, wherein at least one metalens element in the array of multielement metalenses)
AND
III) In: The metalens design of FIG. 5 also avoids placing the nanostructure layers too far from light source 42, which could necessitate overly enlarging the lateral size of the metalens elements and thereby necessitate enlarging the pixel pitch by an undesirable amount.
Regarding claim 6, Xin view of Baumheinrich teaches the second meta-lens converts the incident light to emit as the parallel light but does not explicitly teach: each of the first unit meta- lenses corresponds one-to-one with each of the second unit meta-lenses, respectively, wherein the first unit meta-lens provides incident light from the pixel corresponding to the first unit meta-lens to the pixel viewing area allocated to the second unit meta-lens corresponding to the first unit meta-lens.
However, Xin in view of Baumheinrich (in Xin) discloses: In a light-emitting component such as a display, light from each display pixel may be collimated using the metalens in that pixel OR a display with an array of multielement metalenses may use the multielement metalenses to efficiently collimate light emitted by each pixel of the display while maintaining a desired fine pixel pitch for the display pixels OR The array of lenses may, for example, overlap a corresponding array of display pixels or sensor pixels OR Lenses may be stacked to form stacked multielement lenses. Each multielement lens may overlap a respective optical component (e.g., a display pixel or sensor pixel) OR Optical component 40 may be, for example, a display having an array of pixels each of which has a respective independently controlled light source such as light source 42 OR For example, display 14 may include a red display formed from red pixels with red light sources 42 overlapped by metalenses 30 configured to collimate red light, may include a green display formed from green pixels with green light sources 42 overlapped by metalenses 30 configured to collimate green light, and may include a blue display formed from blue pixels with blue light sources 42 overlapped by metalenses 30 configured to collimate blue light OR
(5) The metalenses may be multielement metalenses. A multielement metalens may have a first metalens element formed from a first layer of nanostructures and a second metalens element formed from a second layer of nanostructures. The lens elements may be spaced apart in the vertical dimension and may be aligned with each other and overlap in the horizontal dimensions (e.g., the footprints of the lens elements may overlap when viewed from above). Light sources may be provided on a semiconductor surface and metalens nanostructures may be formed on an opposing surface of the semiconductor.
AND
6. The optical component defined in claim 1 wherein the light source is configured to form a display pixel.
13. A display system, comprising: an array of pixels each having a respective light-emitting device; and an array of multielement metalenses each overlapping a respective pixel in the array of pixels, wherein at least one metalens element in the array of multielement metalenses has nanostructures of a first refractive index separated by material of a second refractive index and wherein a third material of a third refractive index overlaps the at least one metalens element.
Therefore, from the above disclosure of Xin in view of Baumheinrich (in Xin), it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to use overlapping first and second metalenses corresponding to each light emitting pixel in order to efficiently collimate light.
Regarding claim 7, Xin in view of Baumheinrich does not explicitly teach : each of the pixels includes at least three sub-pixels, and wherein each pixel viewing area includes at least three sub viewing areas corresponding to the at least three sub-pixels, however Xin in view of Baumheinrich teaches (in Xin): For example, display 14 may include a red display formed from red pixels with red light sources 42 overlapped by metalenses 30 configured to collimate red light, may include a green display formed from green pixels with green light sources 42 overlapped by metalenses 30 configured to collimate green light, and may include a blue display formed from blue pixels with blue light sources 42 overlapped by metalenses 30 configured to collimate blue light and it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to use sub-pixels corresponding to the colors as disclosed in Xin view of Baumheinrich above in order to form a full color image.
Regarding claim 11, Xin in view of Baumheinrich teaches a flat panel display, wherein the display panel further includes: a driving element layer (TFT) disposed on a substrate; and a planarization layer 115/118 covering the driving element layer; wherein the light emitting element layer 120a disposed on the planarization layer.
Regarding claim 12, Xin in view of Baumheinrich teaches a flat panel display, wherein the light emitting element layer includes: a first electrode disposed in each of the plurality of pixels arrayed in the NxM matrix manner on the planarization layer; an emission layer on the first electrode; and a second electrode on the emission layer as covering the plurality of pixels (112,120, 114 and pixels throughout in Baumheinrich).
Regarding claim 13, Xin in view of Baumheinrich teaches a flat panel display, wherein the color filter layer includes a plurality of color filters allocated to the plurality of pixels (130 in Fig. 1 of Baumheinrich).
Regarding claim 14, Xin in view of Baumheinrich teaches the invention set forth in claim 1 above, but is silent regarding the first meta-lens has an area greater than the display area, and wherein the second meta-lens has an area greater than the viewing area. However, since each element is already disclosed in Xin in view of Baumheinrich, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to make adjustable the size of the layers such that the first meta-lens has an area greater than the display area, and wherein the second meta-lens has an area greater than the viewing area, by routine experimentation, in order to optimize the collimated output light.
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xin (US 12153233 B1) in view of Baumheinrich (EP 3648171 A2) and further in view of Park (KR 20210101117 A)
Regarding claim 10, Xin in view of Baumheinrich teaches the invention set forth in claim 1 above, but is silent regarding the transparent layer has a refractive index smaller than the first meta-lens and the second meta-lens.
Park teaches: The plurality of first and second nanostructures NS may be made of a material having a refractive index greater than that of the protective layer 11 and it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to use the material as disclosed in Park, in the device of Xin in view of Baumheinrich in order to reduce loss of light during transmission of light from the above layers.
Claims 8 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xin (US 12153233 B1) in view of Baumheinrich (EP 3648171 A2) and further in view of Kress (US 20210405255 A1)
Regarding claim 8, Xin in view of Baumheinrich teaches the invention set forth in claim 7 above, but does not explicitly teach: each of the sub-pixels has a sub pixel size, wherein the first unit meta-lens includes a first sub meta-lens allocated to each sub-pixel, wherein each sub viewing area includes a sub viewing size smaller than the sub pixel size, and wherein the second unit meta-lens includes a second sub meta-lens allocated to each sub viewing area.
Kress discloses meta-lens within a sub-pixel, and wherein Xin view of Baumheinrich already teaches the size of the viewing area and the pixel sizes, whereas Kress teaches meta-lenses within a sub-pixel such that each of the sub-pixels has a sub pixel size, wherein the first unit meta-lens includes a first sub meta-lens allocated to each sub-pixel and it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to form each sub viewing area includes a sub viewing size smaller than the sub pixel size, and wherein the second unit meta-lens includes a second sub meta-lens allocated to each sub viewing area, by routine experimentation as the main concept of the sizes of the viewing area, pixels and the meta-lens are already disclosed in the prior art, in order to optimize the collimated output light.
Regarding claim 9, Xin in view of Baumheinrich and Kress teaches the first sub meta-lenses correspond to one-to-one with the second sub meta-lenses, wherein the first sub meta-lens provides incident light from the sub-pixel corresponding to the first sub meta-lens to the sub viewing area allocated to the second sub meta-lens corresponding to the first sub meta-lens, and wherein the second sub meta-lens converts the incident light to emit parallel light (from the teachings of Xin in view of Baumheinrich and Kress of the parallel beams formed with the pixels, therefore results in analogous output for the sub-pixels/sub-viewing area).
Other art
US 20200081294 teaches first and second metalenses correspond to each other or they overlap with each other.
Response to Arguments
The arguments filed by the Applicant on 2/4/26 is acknowledged, however they are not found to be persuasive.
Applicant has made the following arguments:
On page 3 of the Remarks, Applicant argues that Xin does not teach “"a viewing area having a second surface area smaller than the first surface area, the viewing area defined on an upper surface of the transparent layer; and a second meta-lens disposed on the upper surface of the transparent layer to correspond to the viewing area."
The arguments are not found to be persuasive for the following reasons:
As already replied to, in the previous office action, for example, Xin discloses in Fig. 8,7,6 and 5, the upper width is smaller than the lower width of the meta-lenses.
Further even more, Xin discloses, the diameter of lens 50 is smaller than 48 in:
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Further, Applicant argues that:
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The arguments are not found to be persuasive because Baumheinrich does not disclose just one-color filter.
In turn Baumheinrich discloses multiple colors, and not just one-color filter, in [0094], [1419], [1425], [2060].
Further, an additional prior art US 20200225487 A1 teaches multiple stacked meta-lenses in Fig.2, and regarding the amended portion of claim 1, it also teaches [0016]: the plurality of first microlenses form a shrinked virtual image of the display surface of the display and [0017]: The plurality of first microlenses can be positive lenses, and the plurality of first microlenses form a shrinked real image on the side of the second array of microlenses opposite to the first array of microlenses.
Previously response to arguments:
Applicant has argued that a viewing area (area covered by the second meta-lens in Fig.7 for example) having a second surface area smaller than the first surface area, is not shown in Xin. The arguments are not found to be persuasive since this feature is shown in Fig.8 of Xin. wherein the meta lenses are smaller in area. This also corresponds to VPL in instant Fig.1 of Applicant’s invention.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Fatima Farokhrooz whose telephone number is (571)-272-6043. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday- Friday, 9 am - 5 pm. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner’s Supervisor, James Greece can be reached on (571) 272-3711.
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/Fatima N Farokhrooz/
Examiner, Art Unit 2875