Detailed Office 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 .
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 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.
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 of this title, 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Independent Claims 1, 22, and 23
Independent claims 1, 22, and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hadij-ElHouati et al. (Distributed Bragg deflector coupler for on-chip shaping of optical beams, Opt. Express 27, 33180-33193, 2019 November 11; “Hadij-ElHouati”) in view of Melati et al. (Compact and Low Crosstalk Echelle Grating Demultiplexer on Silicon-On-Insulator Technology. Electronics, 2019 June 18, 8, 687; “Melati”).
Regarding independent claim 1, Hadij-ElHouati discloses in figure 1 and related text, for example, Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text, embodiments of beam deflecting configurations and related methods which use, “[B]lazed sidewall gratings in silicon-on-insulator waveguides to implement a sidewall-grating distributed Bragg deflector (sidewall grating deflector, SGD) and develop an efficient Floquet-Bloch mode design procedure for shaping the diffracted beams at will.” Hadij-ElHouati, 1. Introduction and Abstract. (“In integrated optical circuits light typically travels in waveguides which provide both vertical and horizontal confinement, enabling efficient routing between different parts of the chip. However, for a variety of applications, including on-chip wireless communications, steerable phased arrays or free-space inspired integrated optics, optical beams that can freely propagate in the horizontal plane of a 2D slab waveguide are advantageous. Here we present a distributed Bragg deflector that enables well controlled coupling from a waveguide mode to such a 2D on-chip beam. The device consists of a channel waveguide and a slab waveguide region separated by a subwavelength metamaterial spacer to prevent uncontrolled leakage of the guided mode. A blazed grating in the waveguide sidewall is used to gradually diffract light into the slab region. We develop a computationally efficient strategy for designing gratings that generate arbitrarily shaped beams. As a proof-of-concept we design, in the silicon-on-insulator platform, a compact x75 Gaussian beam expander and a partial beam deflector. For the latter, we also demonstrate a prototype device with experimental results showing good agreement with our theoretical predictions. We also demonstrate via a rigorous simulation that two such couplers in a back-to-back configuration efficiently couple light, suggesting that these devices can be used as highly directive antennas in the chip plane.”).
Hadij-ElHouati – Figure 1
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Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text
2. Deflector geometry and operation principle
The geometry of the device is illustrated in Fig. 1. Light that enters through a silicon wire fundamental TE mode is coupled to a Gaussian beam vertically confined in the slab free propagation region (FPR). The key part of the device is the diffractive SGD, which is composed of quasi-periodic diffractive elements of period _ (slowly varying with z) that progressively couple the Si-wire TE fundamental mode (with effective refractive index nwire) to the vertically confined mode radiating with angle _m into the FPR slab. The grating equation for this geometry is as follows: …where nwire is the effective index of the silicon wire waveguide mode, nslab is the effective index of the FPR slab (nslab = 2.97 for the in-plane polarization and silicon thickness of 260 nm) and m is the diffraction order. Approximate values of these parameters are as follows: near-normal radiation of the ...1st diffraction order (_...1 = ...5_) at _0 = 1.55 _m, for a value of nwire _ 2.55 would require a pitch value on the order of _ _ 551 nm. Then, the radiation angle of the 0th order beam coupled to the FPR would be _0 = asin¹nwirenslabº _ 59_.
3.2. Sidewall waveguide grating design
At this point, WSWG and Wadapt have been optimized such that the 0th-order leakage losses and transition losses from the SWG slab to the FPR slab are negligible. Now, the geometry of the waveguide core (Wg) and the blazed trenches (_ and ) will be designed to yield the targeted radiation strength _¹zº for the ...1st diffraction order, while simultaneously maintaining constant Floquet-Bloch modal effective index (for a constant radiation angle along the grating) and achieving optimal efficiency.
The radiation strength is mainly controlled by the etch ratio . To confirm this, we use a typical grating blazing angle of _ = 45_ [19] and study the radiation strength as a function of the trench etch ratio and the width Wg. The radiation strength is plotted in Fig. 5, according to which it mainly depends on the trench etch ratio , while the waveguide width Wg has a minor impact on the radiation strength. Thus, we will use the value of yielding the desired radiation strength while optimizing the remaining parameters (_ and Wg ) for efficiency _. In this work, the efficiency (_) of a diffractive element is defined as the fraction of the radiated power that enters the FPR slab as the order -1. At the same time, our goal is to minimize the p
Further regarding claim1, Hadij-ElHouati does not explicitly disclose a method that comprises: providing a single-beam side deflector comprising: a channel waveguide, a target film waveguide, a substrate on which the channel and target film waveguides are supported, and a cladding covering the channel and target film waveguides; and inputting an optical signal with a working wavelength and polarization in the channel waveguide; wherein: the channel waveguide comprises a periodic disturbance with period Λ and has an effective refractive index nSUBb corresponding to a fundamental Floquet-Bloch mode for the working wavelength and polarization; the target film waveguide has an effective refractive index nSUBs for a direction of propagation parallel to the channel waveguide; the substrate has a refractive index nSUBa; the cladding has an effective refractive index nSUBc; wherein the effective refractive indexes of the channel and target film waveguides, the effective refractive indexes of the cladding and of the substrate, the periodicity Λ and the working wavelength λ are all related to one another such that they satisfy the single-beam diffraction conditions
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for light diffracted by the channel waveguide to be captured by the target film waveguide, preventing diffraction towards the cladding and the substrate.
However, Melati discloses in figure 1, and related figures and text, for example, Melati – Selected Text, embodiments of compact Echelle grating demultiplexers, and related methods.
Melati – Figure 1
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Melati – Selected Text
2. Design and Simulation of the Echelle Grating Demultiplexer
We consider here an echelle grating in a classical Rowland mounting (see Figure 1a). Light from a fully-etched input waveguide laterally diverges in a silicon slab waveguide and illuminates a concave grating. The waveguides are adiabatically widened in order to reduce the diffraction angle spread and hence the grating length and optical aberration effects, as discussed below. The grating diffracts the light backward in the slab and produces an image of the input light on a plane where output waveguides are located—here the edge of the slab just below the input waveguide … Different wavelengths produce images at different positions.
The phase relation required to obtain constructive interference between the light reflected by adjacent grating facets determines the angle of the reflected light beam ' with respect to the grating normal according to the scalar grating equation: …
4. Conclusions
We have presented an ultra-compact echelle grating demultiplexer on silicon-on-insulator technology for the optical O-band. …. The compact dimensions allowed reducing the phase errors, improving both channel crosstalk and performance repeatability. We believe that the reported device represents a useful building block for improving the compactness and scalability of components for future short and medium reach optical networks.
Consequently, in light of Melati’s disclosure of ultra-compact echelle grating demultiplexers, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Hadij-ElHouati’s embodiments to disclose: providing a single-beam side deflector comprising: a channel waveguide, a target film waveguide, a substrate on which the channel and target film waveguides are supported, and a cladding covering the channel and target film waveguides; and inputting an optical signal with a working wavelength and polarization in the channel waveguide; wherein: the channel waveguide comprises a periodic disturbance with period Λ and has an effective refractive index nSUBb corresponding to a fundamental Floquet-Bloch mode for the working wavelength and polarization; the target film waveguide has an effective refractive index nSUBs for a direction of propagation parallel to the channel waveguide; the substrate has a refractive index nSUBa; the cladding has an effective refractive index nSUBc; wherein the effective refractive indexes of the channel and target film waveguides, the effective refractive indexes of the cladding and of the substrate, the periodicity Λ and the working wavelength λ are all related to one another such that they satisfy the single-beam diffraction conditions
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for light diffracted by the channel waveguide to be captured by the target film waveguide, preventing diffraction towards the cladding and the substrate; Hadij-ElHouati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text; Melati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Melati – Selected Text; because the resulting configurations and methods would facilitate ‘improving the compactness and scalability of components for future short and medium reach optical networks’ characterized by reduced phase errors and channel crosstalk. Melati, 4. Conclusions.
Regarding independent claims 22 and 23, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Hadij-ElHouati in view of Melati’s embodiments, as applied in the rejection of claim 1, to disclose:
22. A device comprising a single-beam side deflector, the single-beam side deflector comprising: a channel waveguide for receiving an input optical signal, comprising a periodic disturbance with period Λ; a target film waveguide, having an effective refractive index nSUBs for a direction of propagation parallel to the channel waveguide; a substrate on which the channel and target film waveguides are supported and having a refractive index nSUBa; a cladding covering the channel and target film waveguides and having a refractive index nSUBc; wherein the direction with which the −1 order of diffraction is diffracted within the target film waveguide forms an angle θ with respect to the direction normal to the direction of propagation within the channel waveguide, θ being greater than arcsin(max{nSUBa,nSUBc}/nSUBs) for light diffracted by the channel waveguide to be captured by the target film waveguide preventing diffraction towards the cladding and the substrate. Hadij-ElHouati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text; Melati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Melati – Selected Text.
23. A device comprising a single-beam side deflector, the single-beam side deflector comprising: a channel waveguide, for receiving an input optical signal, comprising a periodic disturbance with period Λ and having an effective refractive index nSUBb corresponding to a fundamental Floquet-Bloch mode; a target film waveguide, having an effective refractive index nSUBs which is greater than the effective refractive index nSUBb of the Floquet-Bloch mode to be propagated in the channel waveguide; an auxiliary film waveguide intercalated between the channel waveguide and the target film waveguide and having an effective refractive index nSUBaux in a direction of propagation parallel to the channel waveguide less than the effective refractive index nSUBb of the Floquet-Bloch mode to be propagated in the channel waveguide; a substrate on which the channel and target film waveguides are supported and having a refractive index nSUBa; a cladding covering the channel and target film waveguides and having a refractive index nSUBc; wherein the direction with which the −1 order of diffraction is diffracted within the target film waveguide forms an angle θ with respect to the direction normal to the direction of propagation within the channel waveguide, θ being greater than arcsin(max{nSUBa, nSUBc}/nSUBs) for light diffracted by the channel waveguide to be captured by the auxiliary film waveguide, preventing diffraction towards the cladding and the substrate; wherein the auxiliary film and target film waveguides are located so as to allow the direct transfer of power from the auxiliary film waveguide to the target film waveguide; wherein the auxiliary film waveguide has a width configured to prevent the direct transfer of power from the channel waveguide to the target film waveguide. Hadij-ElHouati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text; Melati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Melati – Selected Text.
because the resulting configurations and methods would facilitate ‘improving the compactness and scalability of components for future short and medium reach optical networks’ characterized by reduced phase errors and channel crosstalk. Melati, 4. Conclusions.
Dependent claims 2-3, 5-6, 13, 15-21, and 24-28
Dependent claims 2-3, 5-6, 13, and 15-21, as dependent upon claim 1, and dependent claims 24-28, as dependent upon claim 11, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hadij-ElHouati et al. (Distributed Bragg deflector coupler for on-chip shaping of optical beams, Opt. Express 27, 33180-33193, 2019 November 11; “Hadij-ElHouati”) in view of Melati et al. (Compact and Low Crosstalk Echelle Grating Demultiplexer on Silicon-On-Insulator Technology. Electronics, 2019 June 18, 8, 687; “Melati”), as applied in the rejection of independent claims 1, 22, and 23.
Regarding dependent claims 2-3, 5-6, 13, and 15-21, as dependent upon claim 1, and dependent claims 24-28, as dependent upon claim 11, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Hadij-ElHouati in view of Melati’s embodiments, as applied in the rejection of independent claims 1, 22, and 23, to disclose:
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the target film waveguide is formed by a subwavelength grating, SWG, metamaterial made up of a plurality of sections of a core material and a plurality of sections of a cover material, respectively arranged alternately in a periodic manner with a period less than the wavelength of a light propagated through said region. Hadij-ElHouati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text; Melati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Melati – Selected Text.
3. The method according claim 1, wherein the single-beam side deflector further comprises an auxiliary film waveguide intercalated between the channel waveguide and the target film waveguide wherein the effective refractive index nSUBs is greater than the effective refractive index nSUBb of the Floquet-Bloch mode to be propagated in the channel waveguide; wherein the auxiliary film waveguide has an effective refractive index nSUBaux in a direction of propagation parallel to the channel waveguide less than the effective refractive index nSUBb of the Floquet-Bloch mode to be propagated in the channel waveguide; wherein the effective refractive indexes of the channel and auxiliary film waveguides, the refractive indexes of the cladding and of the substrate the periodicity Λ, and the working wavelength λ are all related to one another such that they satisfy the single-beam diffraction conditions ? ?indicates text missing or illegible when filed for light diffracted by the channel waveguide to be captured by the auxiliary film waveguide, preventing diffraction towards the cladding and the substrate; wherein the auxiliary film and target film waveguides are located so as to allow the direct transfer of power from the auxiliary film waveguide to the target film waveguide; and wherein the auxiliary film waveguide has a width configured to prevent the direct transfer of power from the channel waveguide to the target film waveguide. Hadij-ElHouati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text; Melati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Melati – Selected Text.
5. The method according to claim 3, wherein the deflector further comprises a modal adaptation structure between the auxiliary film waveguide and the target film waveguide to promote the transmission of power from the auxiliary film waveguide to the target film waveguide. Hadij-ElHouati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text; Melati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Melati – Selected Text.
6. The method according to claim 3, wherein the auxiliary film waveguide is formed by a subwavelength grating, SWG, metamaterial made up of a plurality of sections of a core material and a plurality of sections of a cover material, respectively arranged alternately in a periodic manner with a period less than the wavelength of a light propagated through said region. Hadij-ElHouati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text; Melati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Melati – Selected Text.
13. The method according to claim 1, wherein providing the single-beam side deflector comprises: providing a concatenation of sections of single-beam side deflectors; wherein the sections are concatenated in the direction of propagation of the optical signal through the channel waveguide, and a geometry of the channel waveguide is configured to shape at least one of an amplitude a phase of a diffracted wave, the single-beam radiation condition being maintained in each section. Hadij-ElHouati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text; Melati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Melati – Selected Text.
15. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises: providing a modulator along the channel waveguide the deflector to modify the effective refractive index of the channel waveguide by means of one or more of thermo-optic modulators, electro-optic modulators, plasma dispersion modulators, or electro-acoustic modulators; and dynamically controlling, by means of the modulator provided, an angle used to diffract the single beam in the target film waveguide. Hadij-ElHouati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text; Melati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Melati – Selected Text.
16. The method according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of concatenated modulator sections are provided along the direction of propagation of the channel waveguide, each of said modulator sections having an electronic control signal for modifying at least one of an attenuation and an effective refractive index of the respective modulator section. Hadij-ElHouati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text; Melati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Melati – Selected Text.
17. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises: providing a wavelength multiplexer/demultiplexer; wherein at least one optical signal is input in the multiplexer/demultiplexer; wherein the multiplexer/demultiplexer comprises: the single-beam side deflector provided; a curved support on which the deflector is arranged for generating a beam which is focused inside the target film waveguide of the deflector; and a plurality of receiver channel waveguides located at points of the target film waveguide in which the diffracted beam is focused for different wavelengths, such that by changing the working wavelength, the beam is predominantly focused in one of the receiver waveguides capturing the light. Hadij-ElHouati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text; Melati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Melati – Selected Text.
18. The method according to claim 15, which further comprises: providing a wavelength multiplexer/demultiplexer; wherein at least one optical signal is input in the multiplexer/demultiplexer; wherein the multiplexer/demultiplexer comprises: the single-beam side deflector provided; a curved support on which the deflector is arranged for generating a beam which is focused inside the target film waveguide of the deflector; and a plurality of receiver channel waveguides located at points of the target film waveguide in which the diffracted beam is focused for different wavelengths, such that by changing the working wavelength, the beam is predominantly focused in one of the receiver waveguides capturing the light; and wherein the method further comprises: dynamically controlling at least one of an attenuation and an effective refractive index of the channel waveguide. Hadij-ElHouati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text; Melati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Melati – Selected Text.
19. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises: providing an optical antenna feeder; wherein the at least one optical signal is input in the feeder; wherein the feeder comprises: the single-beam side deflector provided; and a diffraction grating etched on the target film waveguide of the deflector; wherein the deflector and the diffraction grating are arranged for a generated beam to strike the diffraction grating. Hadij-ElHouati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text; Melati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Melati – Selected Text.
20. The method according to claim 19, wherein a combined actuation on the working wavelength and on a control signal of the modulator of the single-beam side deflector allows simultaneous control of the two beam pointing angles. Hadij-ElHouati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text; Melati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Melati – Selected Text.
21. The method according to claim 19, wherein the feeder further comprises a curved support on which the single-beam deflector is arranged, the curved support having a focusing or defocusing curve for focus adjustment and collimation of a beam diffracted by the deflector. Hadij-ElHouati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text; Melati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Melati – Selected Text.
24. The device according to claim 22, comprising: a plurality of the single-beam side deflectors as sections that are concatenated, wherein: the sections are concatenated in the direction of propagation of the signal through the channel waveguide, and a geometry of the channel waveguide is configured to shape at least one of an amplitude and a phase of a diffracted wave, the single-beam radiation condition being maintained in each section. Hadij-ElHouati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text; Melati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Melati – Selected Text.
25. The device according to claim 22, further comprising: a modulator along the channel waveguide to modify the effective refractive index of the channel waveguide by means of one or more of thermo-optic modulators, electro-optic modulators, plasma dispersion modulators, or electro-acoustic modulators; wherein the deflector is configured for dynamically controlling, by means of the modulator provided, an angle used to diffract the single beam in the target film waveguide. Hadij-ElHouati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text; Melati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Melati – Selected Text.
26. The device according to claim 25, comprising a plurality of concatenated modulator sections along the direction of propagation of the channel waveguide, each of said modulator sections having an electronic control signal for modifying at least one of an attenuation and an effective refractive index of the respective modulator section. Hadij-ElHouati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text; Melati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Melati – Selected Text.
27. The device according to claim 22, further comprising a curved support on which the deflector is arranged for generating a beam which is focused inside the target film waveguide of the deflector; a plurality of receiver channel waveguides located at points of the target film waveguide in which the diffracted beam is focused for different wavelengths, such that by changing the working wavelength, the beam is predominantly focused in one of the receiver waveguides capturing the light; said output waveguides have an orientation that forms an angle θ with respect to the straight line normal to the curved support at the point where half of the diffracted total power has been diffracted, such that by changing the working wavelength, the beam is predominantly focused in one of the receiver waveguides capturing the light; said angle θ is greater than arcsin(max{nSUBa,nSUBc}/nSUBs). Hadij-ElHouati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text; Melati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Melati – Selected Text.
28. The device according to claim 22, further comprising a diffraction grating etched on the target film waveguide of the deflector; wherein the deflector and the diffraction grating are arranged for a generated beam to strike the diffraction grating. Hadij-ElHouati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Hadij-ElHouati – Selected Text; Melati, figure 1 and related figures and text, for example, Melati – Selected Text.
because the resulting configurations and methods would facilitate ‘improving the compactness and scalability of components for future short and medium reach optical networks’ characterized by reduced phase errors and channel crosstalk. Melati, 4. Conclusions.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PETER RADKOWSKI whose telephone number is (571)270-1613. The examiner can normally be reached on M-Th 9-5. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Thomas Hollweg, can be reached on (571) 270-1739. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
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/PETER RADKOWSKI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874