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 Amendment
Examiner acknowledges amending of specification, claims 1, 3, 6-7, 9 and cancellation of claims 5, 8. All claim objections withdrawn or rendered moot. Examiner acknowledges amending of drawings and specification. Drawing objections withdrawn. Specification objection erroneous and withdrawn.
Response to Arguments
Applicant argues Turunen does not disclose a light source which is a longitudinal multimode source, and the spatial shaping module comprises at least one first diffraction grating, configured to transform said first electric field into said second electric field formed by a sum of N components, N>2, wherein said N components of said second electric field are characterized by non-collinear wavevectors and result from the diffraction by said at least one first diffraction grating of said N spectral components of said first electric field” (Remarks pgs. 12-14).
Examiner agrees. New art is used to replace Turunen and reject claims 1, 9 (Lapchuk US-20100014141-A1).
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS), submitted on 02/19/2026, is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the IDS is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Interpretation
For claim 9, “substantially” is interpreted to mean “with a margin that is less than and/or greater than 10%, for example, 5%, of the respective value”, consistent with instant application specification pg. 5 lines 10-15.
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 6, 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Killi (WO-2019063662-A2, machine translation “Killi_English” cited and included herewith) in view of Xu (EP-3101463-A1, machine translation “Xu_English1” cited and included herewith) and Oulianov (US-20200209640-A1) and Lapchuk (US-20100014141-A1).
Regarding claim 1, Killi discloses a system for generating high peak power laser pulses (fig. 1) comprising: a light source for emitting initial laser pulses (fig. 1 light source 24 emits laser pulses, lines 244-247); a fiber-based device for conveying laser pulses, comprising at least one first multimode fiber with a single core (fig. 1 fiber 4 conveys pulses, 4 comprises multimode fiber with single core, lines 290-293); a diffractive optical element and an optical system both arranged upstream of the fiber-based device (fig. 1 diffractive optical element 7 and optical system 8 arranged upstream of 4, lines 406-409), and configured to generate, from each of said initial laser pulses, a laser pulse at the input of the fiber-based device (fig. 1, 7 and 8 configured to generate laser pulse at input 10 of 4, lines 406-413), wherein the spatial intensity distribution of each of said laser pulses on an input face of said first multimode fiber comprises a low spatial frequency "top hat" type component summed with a high spatial frequency component resulting from speckle type interference (fig. 3a distribution has low spatial frequency “top hat" and high spatial frequency speckle interference, lines 302-326, 357-372).
Killi does not disclose the pulses being nanosecond pulses.
Xu discloses treatment of a surface with nanosecond laser pulses (lines 17-31).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to make the pulses nanosecond pulses to increase peak power of pulse and improve device function for annealing/eliminating defects (Xu lines 27-31).
Killi, as modified, does not disclose a spatial shaping module, arranged upstream of the fiber-based device, configured to transform a first electric field into a second electric field formed by a sum of N components that are at least partially spatially incoherent with one another, N >2, such that the contrast of the high spatial frequency component resulting from speckle type interference is limited compared to an initial contrast defined without said spatial shaping module.
Oulianov discloses a spatial shaping module/quartz crystal wedge depolarizer placed immediately before an imaging lens (fig. 2a spatial shaping module 43a+b+47 placed immediately before imaging lens 44 (analogous to Killi optical system 8), 0043-0045), configured to transform a first electric field into a second electric field formed by a sum of N components that are at least partially spatially incoherent with one another, N > 2 (fig. 3 shows at least 2 incoherent output polarizations, output (second) electric field different from input (first) electric field, 0044-0045), such that the contrast of the high spatial frequency component resulting from speckle type interference is limited compared to an initial contrast defined without said spatial shaping module (fig. 2a 43a+b+47 limits speckle, 0006).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the Oulianov depolarizing homogenizer w/ quartz depolarizer in the manner required by claim 1 to improve homogeneity and help reduce speckle effect (Oulianov 0006, 0045-0046).
Modified Killi does not disclose wherein said light source is a longitudinal multimode source configured to emit said first electric field, wherein said first electric field comprises a plurality of N spectral components, wherein said spatial shaping module comprises at least one first diffraction grating, configured to transform said first electric field into said second electric field formed by a sum of N components, N>2, and wherein said N components of said second electric field are characterized by non-collinear wave vectors and result from the diffraction by said at least one first diffraction grating of said N spectral components of said first electric field.
Lapchuk discloses a scanning display apparatus with a longitudinal multimode source emitting first electric field with plurality of spectral components, with diffraction grating that transforms first electric field into second electric field with a sum of N components, N > 2, with N components non-collinear and result from diffraction by diffraction grating of first electric field (fig. 8 multimode source 200 with plurality of spectral components, grating on 255 diffracts first electric field (before 255) and changes to second electric field (after 255) with non-collinear components, and N > 2 before and after 255, 0107-0111).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add diffraction grating in the manner described (+ adjust positioning of remaining components in Killi, as necessary) to expand the overall composite beam width and provide more flexibility with component beam control (Lapchuk 0110).
Regarding claim 2, modified Killi discloses the laser pulse generation system as claimed in claim 1.
Modified Killi does not disclose wherein said spatial shaping module is arranged upstream of said optical system.
Oulianov discloses the spatial shaping module being arranged upstream of an optical system/imaging lens (fig. 2a 43a+b+47 arranged upstream of optical system imaging lens 44).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have the depolarizer arranged upstream of an optical system/imaging lens to maximally scramble the polarization prior to beam entering the optical system/imaging lens + improve uniformity in output intensity profile.
Regarding claim 6, modified Killi discloses the laser pulse generation system as claimed in claim 1, wherein N is between 2 and 10 (N between 2 and 10, see Lapchuk fig. 8 beam count after 255 + before 260).
Regarding claim 9, Killi discloses a method for generating high peak power laser pulses comprising: emitting initial laser pulses by means of a light source (fig. 1 light source 24 emits initial laser pulses, lines 244-247); generating, by means of a diffractive optical element and of an optical system, from each of said initial laser pulses, a laser pulse (fig. 1 diffractive optical element 7 and optical system 8 generate laser pulse towards fiber-based device 4, lines 290-293 + 406-409), wherein the spatial intensity distribution of each of said laser pulses in a Fourier plane of the optical system comprises a low spatial frequency "top hat" type component summed with a high spatial frequency component resulting from speckle type interference (fig. 3a distribution has low spatial frequency “top hat" and high spatial frequency speckle interference, lines 302-326, 357-372); conveying said laser pulses by means of a fiber-based device comprising a multimode fiber with a single core (fig. 1 fiber 4 conveys laser pulses + has multimode fiber w/ single core, lines 290-293), wherein an input face of the multimode fiber is substantially coincident with said Fourier plane of the optical system (fig. 1 input face 10 of 4 receives beam from 8, lines 406-413).
Killi does not disclose the pulses being nanosecond pulses.
Xu discloses treatment of a surface with nanosecond laser pulses (lines 17-31).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to make the pulses nanosecond pulses to increase peak power of pulse and improve device function for annealing/eliminating defects (Xu lines 27-31).
Killi, as modified, does not disclose spatially shaping said initial laser pulses by means of a spatial shaping module, arranged upstream of the fiber-based device, and configured to transform a first electric field into a second electric field formed by a sum of a plurality of N components, N >2, wherein said N components are at least partially spatially incoherent with one another, such that the contrast of the spatial high frequency component resulting from the speckle type interference on the input face of said first multimode fiber is limited compared to an initial contrast defined without said spatial shaping module.
Oulianov discloses a spatial shaping module/quartz crystal wedge depolarizer placed immediately before an imaging lens (fig. 2a spatial shaping module 43a+b+47 placed immediately before imaging lens 44 (analogous to Killi optical system 8), 0043-0045), configured to transform a first electric field into a second electric field formed by a sum of N components that are at least partially spatially incoherent with one another, N > 2 (fig. 3 shows at least 2 incoherent output polarizations, output (second) electric field different from input (first) electric field, 0044-0045), such that the contrast of the high spatial frequency component resulting from speckle type interference is limited compared to an initial contrast defined without said spatial shaping module (fig. 2a 43a+b+47 limits speckle, 0006).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the Oulianov depolarizing homogenizer w/ quartz depolarizer to perform the associated method steps of claim 9 to improve homogeneity and help reduce speckle effect (Oulianov 0006, 0045-0046).
Modified Killi does not disclose wherein said light source is a longitudinal multimode source configured to emit said first electric field, wherein said first electric field comprises a plurality of N spectral components, wherein said spatial shaping module comprises at least one first diffraction grating, configured to transform said first electric field into said second electric field formed by a sum of N components, N>2, and wherein said N components of said second electric field are characterized by non-collinear wave vectors and result from the diffraction by said at least one first diffraction grating of said N spectral components of said first electric field.
Lapchuk discloses a scanning display apparatus with a longitudinal multimode source emitting first electric field with plurality of spectral components, with diffraction grating that transforms first electric field into second electric field with a sum of N components, N > 2, with N components non-collinear and result from diffraction by diffraction grating of first electric field (fig. 8 multimode source 200 with plurality of spectral components, grating on 255 diffracts first electric field (before 255) and changes to second electric field (after 255) with non-collinear components, and N > 2 before and after 255, 0107-0111).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add diffraction grating in the manner described (+ adjust positioning of remaining components in Killi, as necessary) to expand the overall composite beam width and provide more flexibility with component beam control (Lapchuk 0110).
Claim(s) 3-4, 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Killi in view of Xu, Oulianov, Lapchuk, and Mossberg (US-20200200954-A1).
Regarding claim 3, modified Killi discloses the laser pulse generation system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said spatial shaping module comprises a polarization scrambler (Oulianov fig. 2a spatial shaping module 43a+b+47 comprises quartz crystal wedge depolarizer/polarization scrambler 47, Oulianov 0044, instant application specification pg. 13 lines 10-15 “quartz depolarizer”), configured to transform a first electric field into a second electric field formed by a sum of two components along two orthogonal axes (Oulianov fig. 3 linearly polarized light/first electric field enters and second electric field exits formed by a sum of orthogonal components, 0034, 0044, Oulianov fig. 3 identical to instant application fig. 3 plot 34), with the two components having a variable phase shift along a given axis (Oulianov fig. 3 variable phase shift along vertical axis).
Modified Killi does not disclose with said at least one first diffraction grating being arranged upstream the polarization scrambler.
Mossberg discloses a diffraction grating array arranged to reduce laser speckle that incorporates a speckle-reducing optical scrambler, where the diffraction grating array is placed upstream (closer to beam source) from the speckle-reducing optical scrambler (fig. 3 grating array 100 arranged to reduce laser speckle from VCSELs 302, 100 has optical scrambler placed in the paths of output beams 11 and 20 of 100 (i.e. downstream from diffraction grating 100), Abstract, 0008, 0037-0038).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to place the first diffraction grating upstream from the polarization scrambler to improve predictability of beam path after interaction with first grating.
Regarding claim 4, modified Killi discloses the laser pulse generation system as claimed in claim 3, wherein: said variable phase shift along said axis is periodic, resulting in a periodic variation of a polarization state of the electric field at the output of the polarization scrambler (Oulianov fig. 3 periodic variation of polarization state along vertical axis at output, 0034, 0044); and the polarization scrambler is arranged such that a spatial intensity distribution of said first electric field comprises, along said axis, a dimension that is greater than a variation period of the polarization state (annotated fig. 3 Beamwidth along vertical axis larger than Period along vertical axis, 0044 “…beam having a beamwidth which spans multiple of these areas…”).
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Annotated fig. 3
Regarding claim 7, modified Killi discloses the laser pulse generation system as claimed in claim 1.
Modified Killi does not disclose wherein said spatial shaping module comprises at least one second grating arranged downstream said first diffraction grating.
Mossberg discloses a diffraction grating array arranged to reduce laser speckle with a second diffraction grating array arranged downstream (fig. 3 grating array 100, second grating array can be added, 0033).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add a second grating downstream the first grating to increase the multiplicity of output propagation directions among the output beams, increasing design flexibility + output angle (Mossberg 0033).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Alex Ehrlich whose telephone number is (703)756-5716. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8-5.
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/A.E./Examiner, Art Unit 2828
/MINSUN O HARVEY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2828
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