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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Beuschel (20210156975).
Referring to claims 1 and 15, Beuschel shows An optical ranging device, comprising:
a light source for emitting pulsed measurement light (see figure 2 Ref L);
a sensor module comprising a Single Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) array (see figures 3 and 4) for receiving measurement light reflected from an object to be measured (see figure 1 note the received light), wherein the SPAD array comprises a first SPAD group (see figure 3 Ref SPAD1 also see figure 4 Ref SPAD 41) with at least one SPAD and a second SPAD group with at least one SPAD (see figure 3 Ref SPAD2 also see figure 4 Ref SPAD 42), no aperture is arranged on the first SPAD group (see figure 3 Ref SPAD1 and figure 4 Ref SPAD41 also see paragraph 38-39), and a first aperture for reducing light-passing amount is arranged on each SPAD of the second SPAD group (see figure 3 Ref SPAD2 and figure 4 SPAD42 also see paragraph 38-39), the sensor module separately outputs a photon detection value corresponding to a number of photons received by each SPAD group based on the measurement light received by every SPAD (this is inherent with SPADs); and
a processing module for calculating a distance between the object to be measured and the ranging device using the photon detection value based on Direct Time of Flight (DToF) (see figure 2 Ref SV also see paragraph 37), wherein, in response to light intensity received by the SPAD array in a first pulse window being greater than a first threshold (see paragraph 34), the processing module calculates the distance using the photon detection value of the second SPAD group in the first pulse window but not using the photon detection value of the first SPAD group in the first pulse window (see paragraph 34-36 note the diodes in group 2 are set to ready to received state and after a predetermined time the diodes in group 1 are set to ready to receive and the diodes in group 2 are blocked).
Referring to claim 3, Beuschel shows the SPAD array further comprises a third SPAD group with at least one SPAD, on each SPAD of which a second aperture for reducing light-passing amount is arranged, and the light-passing amount of the second aperture is greater than the light-passing amount of the first aperture; and in response to the light intensity received by the SPAD array in the first pulse window being less than the first threshold but greater than a second threshold, the processing module calculates the distance using the photon detection value of the third SPAD group in the first pulse window or using the photon detection values of the third SPAD group and the second SPAD group in the first pulse window but not using the photon detection value of the first SPAD group in the first pulse window, and the second threshold is less than the first threshold (see figure 4 note the SPAD group 42, 43 and 44 also see paragraph 37-38).
Referring to claim 5, Beuschel shows the light intensity received by the SPAD array in the first pulse window is represented by the photon detection value of the first SPAD group in the first pulse window (see paragraph 34-36).
Referring to claim 6, Beuschel shows the second SPAD group comprises a plurality of SPADs (see figure 4 Ref SPAD42).
Referring to claim 7, Beuschel shows the plurality of SPADs of the second SPAD group are dispersedly distributed (see figure 4 Ref SPAD42).
Referring to claim 8, Beuschel shows the second SPAD group and/or the third SPAD group each comprises a plurality of SPADs (see figure 4 Ref SPAD42 also see SPAD43-44).
Referring to claim 9, Beuschel shows the plurality of SPADs of the second SPAD group and/or the third SPAD group are dispersedly distributed (see figure 4 Ref SPAD42 also SPAD43-44).
Referring to claim 10, Beuschel shows outputting the photon detection value corresponding to the number of photons received by each SPAD group comprises: outputting a total photon detection value corresponding to a total number of photons received by each SPAD group, or separately outputting a respective photon detection value corresponding to the number of photons received by each SPAD in each SPAD group (see paragraph 37-38 note the individual events that are output to the TDC).
Referring to claims 11 and 12, Beuschel shows the first aperture is a metal aperture integrated in a chip of the SPAD array or is a metal aperture or a polymeric material aperture attached above a chip of the SPAD array (see paragraph 20).
Referring to claim 13, Beuschel shows the processing module calculates the distance using a plurality of pulse windows (see paragraph 30 and 34).
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) 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Beuschel (20210156975) in view of Sakaguchi (20200348416).
Referring to claim 2, Beuschel fails to specifically show a memory to store charges however Skaguchi shows a similar device that includes a storage module for separately storing the photon detection value of each SPAD group, wherein the processing module calculates the distance using the photon detection value stored in the storage module (see figure 1 Ref 17 also see abstract, note the memory is used to store each pixel value). It would have been obvious to include the memory as shown by Skaguchi because this allows for temporary storage to collect pixel information from every activated pixel to pass the signal to the TDC.
Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Beuschel (20210156975) in view of Fukuda (20240053451).
Referring to claim 14, Beuschel fails to show but Fukuda shows the processing module comprises a Micro Processing Unit (MCU) (see paragraph 151). It would have been obvious to include a MPU because this is extremely well known and adds no new or unexpected results.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4 is 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LUKE D RATCLIFFE whose telephone number is (571)272-3110. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00AM-5:00PM EST.
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/LUKE D RATCLIFFE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3645