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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, with respect to the rejections of claim 16 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground of rejection is made in view of Kim (US Patent Publication Number 2020/0227632 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 16-19 and 26-28 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim (US Patent Publication Number 2020/0227632 A1) in view of Ahmed (US Patent Publication Number 2020/0127169 A1).
Kim teaches, as in claim 16, a system comprising (100): a phase change material (120) configured to reversibly transform between a first state and a second state ((¶0011 “under electrical control of an active layer comprising a phase transition material that transitions from a semiconducting state to a semimetallic state”) upon a triggering event (¶0011 “under electrical control ”) and interfacing a dielectric material (110 , ¶0031 “the layers (110) and (140) can be made of, or include, any one or a combination of … silicon (Si)”) on a first surface of the phase change material (120) and a plasmonic material (140, ¶0031 “the layers (110) and (140) can be made of, or include, any one or a combination of …Gold”) on an opposing second surface of the phase change material (120), a dielectric material (110)on the first surface of the phase change material (120). Kim fails to teach wherein the dielectric material is arranged in an array of nano-scatterers. In a related art, Ahmed teaches a system (¶0030 “a selective mirror (also referred to as a meta-mirror”) wherein the dielectric material is arranged in an array of nano-scatterers (¶0032 “array or grid of dielectric nanoparticles 210 forms a subwavelength dielectric grating”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill of art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the system with the phase change material, as taught by Kim, with the dielectric material is arranged in an array of nano-scatterers, as taught by Ahmed, for the purpose of providing a dielectric grating that operates as selective mirror that reflects blue light wavelengths but allows other wavelengths to pass through the grid/grating (¶0032).
Kim teaches, as in claim 17, wherein the array nano-scatters have a period ranging from 100 nm to 1000 nm. In a related art, Ahmed teaches wherein the array nano-scatters have a period ranging from 100 nm to 1000 nm (¶0047 “nanoparticles… period of ˜350-700 nm”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill of art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the system with the phase change material, as taught by Kim and Ahmed, with the period of the nano-scatterers, as taught by Ahmed, for the purpose of providing a dielectric grating that operates as selective mirror that reflects blue light wavelengths but allows other wavelengths to pass through the grid/grating (¶0032).
Kim teaches, as in claim 18, wherein the array nano-scatters have a radius ranging from 10 nm to 500 nm. In a related art, Ahmed teaches wherein the array nano-scatters have a radius ranging from 10 nm to 500 nm1 (¶0047 “nanoparticles (e.g., dielectrics) with diameters of ˜100-200 nm”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill of art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the system with the phase change material, as taught by Kim and Ahmed, with the radius of the nano-scatterers, as taught by Ahmed, for the purpose of providing a dielectric grating that operates as selective mirror that reflects blue light wavelengths but allows other wavelengths to pass through the grid/grating (¶0032).
Kim teaches, as in claim 19, wherein the phase change material (120) is selected from the group consisting of a material comprising germanium, antimony, and tellurium (¶0013 “GeSbTes (e.g., a ternary compound of germanium, antimony, and tellurium”).
Kim teaches, as in claim 26, wherein the dielectric material (110) is selected from the group consisting of silicon (¶0031 “the layers (110) and (140) can be made of, or include, any one or a combination of … silicon (Si)”).
Kim teaches, as in claim 27, wherein the plasmonic material (140) is a metal selected from a group consisting of gold (¶0031 “the layers (110) and (140) can be made of, or include, any one or a combination of …Gold”).
Kim teaches, as in claim 28, wherein the plasmonic material (140) is a material selected from a group consisting of indium tin oxide (0031 “the layers (110) and (140) can be made of, or include, any one or a combination of … indium tin oxide”).
Claim 44 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim (US Patent Publication Number 2020/0227632 A1) in view of Ahmed (US Patent Publication Number 2020/0212022 A1; Hereinafter “Ahmed 022”).
Kim teaches, as in claim 44, a system (100) comprising: an array of meta-atoms positioned over a plasmonic substrate (140, ¶0031 “the layers (110) and (140) can be made of, or include, any one or a combination of …Gold”) wherein each meta-atom (see 11A) comprises a dielectric (110, ¶0031 “the layers (110) and (140) can be made of, or include, any one or a combination of … silicon (Si)”) positioned over a phase change material (120), Kim fails to teach a dielectric nanodisk. In a related art, Ahmed 022 teaches a system comprising an array of meta-atoms (880) a dielectric nanodisk (804, ¶0064 “nanoparticles composed of high refractive-index dielectric materials, e.g., Silicon”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill of art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the system with the phase change material, as taught by Kim, with the dielectric nanodisks, as taught by Ahmed 022, for the purpose of providing a way to o avoid Ohmic losses (¶0063).
Claim 59 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim (US Patent Publication Number 2020/0227632 A1) in view of Akselrod (US Patent Publication Number 2018/0240653 A1).
Kim teaches, as in claim 59, a method for manufacturing a system comprising: providing a plasmonic substrate (140, ¶0031 “the layers (110) and (140) can be made of, or include, any one or a combination of …Gold”), depositing a phase change material (120) over the plasmonic substrate (140), depositing a dielectric material (110 , ¶0031 “the layers (110) and (140) can be made of, or include, any one or a combination of … silicon (Si)”) over the phase change material (120), Kim fails to teach exposing, through etching, at least a portion of the phase change material and plasmonic substrate, and forming, through etching, the dielectric material into an array of pillars. In a related art, Akselrod teaches a method for manufacturing a system comprising exposing, through etching, at least a portion of the phase change material 2(¶0079 “move the GST from all areas except inside the pillar cores”) and plasmonic substrate (¶0091 “to expose the titanium layer”), and forming, through etching, the dielectric material into an array of pillars (¶0091 “etching the a-Si layer with the patterned hard mask to form a nano-scale gap of a high aspect ratio between the a-Si pillars in the a-Si layer”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill of art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified the method for manufacturing a system, as taught by Kim, with the etching process, as taught by Akselrod, for the purpose of providing good thermal stability and environmental stability (¶0056).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1, 10-15 and 29-40 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter
The prior art fails to simultaneously teach all the limitations of claim 1 which includes, the phase change material is further configured to transform to one or more intermediate states the first state and the second state wherein each of the one or more intermediate states comprises a refractive index different than the first and second refractive indices.
Regarding claims 10-15 and 29-40 have dependency upon independent claim 1.
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
28 February 2026
/RICKY L MACK/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2872
1 Therefore, the radius would be 50nm-100nm.
2 The phase change material is exposed in the areas of the pillar cores
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