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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 02/04/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s amendments to Claim 1 have overcome prior claim rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 102 previously set forth in the Final Office action mailed on 11/04/2025. Accordingly, all previous claim rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 102 by Rho have been withdrawn.
Claims 1-2, 4-5, and 9-13 are pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
The amendment in claim 1 necessitated an updated search and a new prior art has been found (Wang et al. (US 20200301053 A1)). Wang teaches the amended claim limitation (“wherein each of the plurality of structure members includes a plurality of microstructure members, and the plurality of microstructure members corresponding to, in a direction of an incident light axis, a pixel in a pixel layer have mutually different cross-sectional shapes”) as described below. Therefore, claims 1-2, 4-5 and 9-13 stand rejected.
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, 5, 9-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Roh et al. (US 20210126035 A1; hereinafter “Roh in view of Wang et al. (US 20200301053 A1; hereinafter “Wang”).
In re claim 1, Roh discloses an optical element (figs. 1-7, 33), comprising:
a transparent layer 120 (¶112) for covering a plurality of pixels R, G, B each including a photoelectric conversion element 111, 112, 113, 114 (¶99-101, 111-113); and
a plurality of structure members NP disposed on the transparent layer 520 or in the transparent layer 520 (¶0080),
the structure members NP being arranged in a plane direction of the transparent layer 120 (¶102),
wherein the plurality of structure members NP is arranged to condense light of colors corresponding to respective pixels of the plurality of pixels into the corresponding pixels, the light of the colors being of incident light (¶0103-109),
wherein the plurality of structure members NP includes structure members NPb, NPc that have at least two mutually different cross-sectional shapes (e.g., NPb has circular cross-sectional shape and NPc has rectangular cross-sectional shape; fig. 32; ¶230).
Roh does not expressly disclose wherein each of the plurality of structure members includes a plurality of microstructure members, and the plurality of microstructure members corresponding to, in a direction of an incident light axis, a pixel in a pixel layer have mutually different cross-sectional shapes.
In the same field of endeavor, Wang discloses an optical element (fig. 4(a)-(c)) (¶52), wherein each of the plurality of structure members includes a plurality of microstructure members (e.g., in each of the plurality of structure members 42-2, 42-3, there are microstructure members having different shapes. For example, in 42-3, different shapes of rectangular, circular, parallelogram are shown, in 42-2, different shapes of squares, rectangles are shown), and
the plurality of microstructure members corresponding to, in a direction of an incident light axis, a pixel in a pixel layer have mutually different cross-sectional shapes (For example, in 42-3, different shapes of rectangular, circular, parallelogram are shown, in 42-2, different shapes of squares, rectangles are shown and each of the 42-2 and 42-3 correspond to different sampling pixels; ¶52).
It 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 to employ the teachings of Wang into the plurality of structure members NP of Roh. One would have been motivated to do the combination as Wang teaches the specific shapes, sizes and distributions of the nanostructures allow multiple scatterings and interferences of the light in the direction normal to the sensor surface (z direction) in addition to the direction parallel to the sensor surface (xy plane). This effectively increases the optical path length, encoding the light intensity to be detected with the light intensity detector with complex patterns that reveals more information of the incident light field (¶34-35). Wang further teaches the nanostructures also provide multi-modal optical sensing devices for simultaneous sensing spectral information and one or more of polarization, angle and phase information of the incident light field (¶37, 8).
In re claim 2, Roh, as modified by Wang, discloses the optical element according to claim 1.
Roh further discloses in figs. 1-7, 32, the optical element according to claim 1,
wherein each microstructure member (Roh’s structure members NPa, NPb, NPc modified by Wang’s teachings of microstructures having mutually different cross-sectional shapes corresponding to a pixel) is a columnar structure member that has a higher refractive index than a refractive index of the transparent layer 120 (¶0108), and gives incident light an optical phase delay amount corresponding to a cross-sectional shape of the microstructure member when the transparent layer 120 is viewed in a planar view (¶0103-109),
the plurality of structure members NP is arranged in accordance with an optical phase delay amount distribution for realizing the light condensing (¶0103-109), and
a cross-sectional shape of each microstructure member (Roh’s structure members NPa, NPb, NPc modified by Wang’s teachings of microstructures having mutually different cross-sectional shapes corresponding to a pixel) is a four-fold rotationally symmetrical shape (¶0124, 174).
In re claim 4, Roh, as modified by Wang, discloses the optical element according to claim 1.
Roh further discloses in figs. 1-7, 32, the optical element according to claim 1,
wherein a cross-sectional shape of each microstructure member (Roh’s structure members NPa, NPb, NPc modified by Wang’s teachings of microstructures having mutually different cross-sectional shapes corresponding to a pixel) when the transparent layer 120 is viewed in a planar view is designed, and
the plurality of structure members NP is arranged to condense light of a color corresponding to one pixel into the one pixel one of R, G, B, the light of the color being of light entering an outside of a region facing the one pixel (¶0103-109 of Rho; also see ¶52 of Wang).
In re claim 5, Roh, as modified by Wang, discloses the optical element according to claim 1.
Roh further discloses in figs. 1-7, 32, the optical element according to claim 1,
wherein the plurality of pixels includes a pixel unit that is formed with one pixel corresponding to red, two pixels corresponding to green, and one pixel corresponding to blue that are arranged in a Bayer array (fig. 2A; ¶0100), and
among the plurality of structure members NP, a plurality of structure members disposed in a region facing one of the pixels corresponding to green G in the pixel unit has an overall layout structure formed by rotating 900 an overall layout structure of a plurality of structure members disposed in a region facing another one of the pixels corresponding to green (¶0124).
In re claim 9, Roh, as modified by Wang, discloses the optical element according to claim 1.
Roh further discloses in figs. 1-7, 32, the optical element according to claim 1,
wherein the plurality of pixels includes a pixel unit that is formed with one pixel corresponding to red, two pixels corresponding to green, and one pixel corresponding to blue that are arranged in a Bayer array (fig. 2A; ¶0100),
among the plurality of structure members NP, a plurality of structure members disposed in a region facing the pixel corresponding to red R in the pixel unit has an overall layout structure in a four-fold rotationally symmetrical shape, and among the plurality of structure members NP, a plurality of structure members disposed in a region facing the pixel corresponding to blue B in the pixel unit has an overall layout structure in a four-fold rotationally symmetrical shape (Park teaches in fig. 14, ¶0174: “As described above, in the second and third regions 142 and 143 respectively corresponding to the blue pixel B and the red pixel R, the nanoposts NP may be arranged in the form of 4-fold symmetry”.).
In re claim 10, Roh, as modified by Wang, discloses the optical element according to claim 1.
Roh further discloses an imaging device (figs. 1-7, 32) comprising:
the optical element according to claim 1; and
the plurality of pixels R, G, B covered with the transparent layer 120.
In re claim 11, Roh, as modified by Wang, discloses the optical element according to claim 10.
Roh further discloses in fig. 19A, a filter layer 105 (¶0195) disposed between the plurality of pixels R, G, B and the transparent layer 120.
It 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 to employ the teachings of the embodiment shown in fig. 19A into the embodiment of figs. 1-7 such that color purity may be complemented (¶197 of Rho).
In re claim 12, Roh, as modified by Wang, discloses the optical element according to claim 10.
Roh further discloses an imaging apparatus (figs. 1-7, 22, 32) comprising:
the imaging device 1000 according to claim 10; and
a signal processing unit 2200 configured to generate an image signal on a basis of an electrical signal obtained from the imaging device (fig. 22; ¶201).
In re claim 13, Roh, as modified by Wang, discloses the optical element according to claim 10, wherein the plurality of structure members include microstructure members that have at least three mutually different cross-sectional shapes (e.g., rectangular, circular, parallelogram shown in fig. 4(b) of Wang).
Conclusion
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/NILUFA RAHIM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2893