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 .
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 allowance or after an Office action under Ex Parte Quayle, 25 USPQ 74, 453 O.G. 213 (Comm'r Pat. 1935). 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, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 01/22/2026 has been entered.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 01/22/2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 1-7, 14, 15, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Swanson (Pub. No.: 2014/0376001) in view of Shen et al. (Pub. No.: US 2020/0250532).
Consider claim 1, Swanson discloses a sensor system for diffuse reflectance monitoring of tissue (Abstract, optical photonic phased array for scanning a biomedical specimen used in conjunction with a swept-source OCT system), the sensor system comprising:
one or more integrated photonic silicon or silicon nitride broadband transceiver circuits for multi-wavelength diffuse reflectance tissue monitoring (paragraph [0158], Fig. 27, transceivers coupled into a photonic phased array wherein wide-band grating couplers made silicon nitride are used to direct (couple) light off of the PIC and into circulator(s)),
wherein the one or more transceiver circuits includes a transmitter photonic integrated circuit (PIC), the transmitter PIC comprising an optical phased array (OPA) the OPA (claim 7, photonic integrated circuit (PIC) including an optical phased array) comprising a steering mechanism to steer transmitted light across the tissue (paragraph [0191]).
Swanson does not specifically disclose an optical splitter optically coupled to a free propagation region, FPR and wherein the steering mechanism comprising phrase shifters.
Shen discloses an optical splitter optically coupled to a free propagation region, FPR (paragraph [0556], a waveguide optical splitter that couples a guided mode wherein an optical coupler couples a guided mode of the optical fiber to a free-space propagation mode, see paragraph [0238]) and wherein the steering mechanism comprising phrase shifters (paragraph [0537], generator 1404 that includes phase shifters wherein generator can be configured to generate images of tissues or cells associated with at least one of diseases of humans, see paragraph [0119]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to replace optical splitter as disclosed by Swanson with the optical splitter as taught by Shen to modify the weights of the neural network (Shen, paragraph [0537]).
Consider claim 2, Swanson discloses wherein the OPA comprises: An optical splitter configured to receive light from one of the one or more coherent light sources and to split the light into a plurality of splitter output waveguides (paragraph [0039], Fig. 28, waveguide splitters); and the steering mechanism (paragraph [0191]);
wherein the optical splitter output waveguides are configured to generate a combined optical output beam of the transmitter PIC and wherein the PIC produces a statistically uncorrelated speckle pattern reflecting from the tissue when the output beam is steered over the surface of the tissue by the steering mechanism (paragraph [0211).
Consider claim 3, Swanson discloses wherein the optical splitter comprises one or more of: an optical splitter, star coupler, and/or a 1xM MMI (paragraph [0136]).
Consider claim 4, Swanson discloses wherein the steering mechanism comprises phase shifters (paragraph [0178]).
Consider claim 5, Swanson discloses wherein the steering mechanism comprises wavelength tuning (paragraph [0148]).
Consider claim 6, Swanson discloses wherein the steering mechanism comprises delay lines (paragraph [0180]).
Consider claim 7, Swanson discloses a MEMS mirror wherein the OPA is configured to steer the beam in a first axis and the MEMS mirror is configured to steer the beam in a second axis orthogonal to the first axis, such that the surface can be scanned in two dimensions (paragraph [0004]).
Consider claim 14, Swanson discloses wherein the one or more integrated photonic silicon or silicon nitride broadband transceiver circuits comprise a receiver PIC in addition to the transmitter PIC (paragraph [0211], Fig. 38(a)).
Consider claim 15, Swanson discloses wherein the receiver PIC (paragraph [0211], Fig. 38(a), optical system PIC that contains a quadrature receiver (DB I/Q RX)) is located on a separate chip from the transmitter PIC (paragraph [0211], Fig. 38(a), light reflected from the probe modules, phase array channel and reference channels is coupled back into the optical system PIC).
Consider claim 17, Swanson discloses a transmitter PIC (paragraph [0211], Fig. 38(a), light reflected from the probe modules, phase array channel and reference channels is coupled back into the optical system PIC) comprising:
one or more integrated photonic silicon or silicon nitride broadband transmitter circuits for multi-wavelength diffuse reflectance tissue monitoring (paragraph [0158], Fig. 27, transceivers coupled into a photonic phased array wherein wide-band grating couplers made silicon nitride are used to direct (couple) light off of the PIC and into circulator(s)),
wherein the transmitter PIC comprises an optical phased array (OPA) (claim 7, photonic integrated circuit (PIC) including an optical phased array) the OPA comprising a steering mechanism to steer transmitted light across the tissue (paragraph [0191]).
Swanson does not specifically disclose the steering mechanism comprising a plurality of phrase shifters.
Shen discloses the steering mechanism comprising a plurality of phrase shifters (paragraph [0537], generator 1404 that includes phase shifters wherein generator can be configured to generate images of tissues or cells associated with at least one of diseases of humans, see paragraph [0119]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to replace optical splitter as disclosed by Swanson with the optical splitter as taught by Shen to modify the weights of the neural network (Shen, paragraph [0537]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8-13 and 16 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.
Regarding claim 8, the prior art fails to disclose the combined optical output beam of the transmitter PIC is generated within a free propagating region, FPR.
Regarding claim 11, the prior art fails to disclose wherein the transmitter PIC further comprises a reflection reduction mechanism.
Regarding claim 16, the prior art fails to disclose wherein the receiver PIC is a photodiode.
Regarding claims 9, 10, 12 and 13, due to dependency of objected claims, these claims are objected to.
Claims 18-21 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art of record fails to disclose a plurality of lasers, each laser of the plurality of lasers operating at a wavelength that is different from the wavelength of the others.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GERALD JOHNSON whose telephone number is (571)270-7685. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8am-5pm EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Carey Michael can be reached at (571)270-7235. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/Gerald Johnson/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3797