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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 25 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Limitation “wherein the receive control block is further adapted to change a direction of the receive elements” is unclear. It is unclear if Applicant tries to claim actual rotation of the receive element.
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, 55 , 56 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 US 20200225332 A1 in view of D0 US 12295097 B1 .
Regarding claims 1, 55, 56 D1 teaches
1. (Original) An adaptive LiDAR comprising:
a transmitter comprising:
an array of N radiators; and(fig. 2A)
a transmitter control block adapted to control an aperture of the transmitter;[0092](sequentially scanning at all angles)
and a receiver comprising: (fig. 2A)
an array of T receive elements; and(fig. 2A)
, wherein N and T are integers greater than one.(fig. 2A)
but does not explicitly teach
a receiver control block adapted to control a scan rate and resolution of the receiver
a trained neural network
D0 teaches a receiver control block adapted to control a scan rate and resolution of the receiver(col 12 line 61- col 13 line 15)
It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 with teachings by D0 in order to manipulate with scanning resolution and other parameters.
Although D1 does not teach trained neural network It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 to add trained neural network in order to classify detected objects.
2. (Original) The adaptive LiDAR of claim 1 wherein the transmitter control block is adapted to control the aperture of the transmitter in accordance with data supplied by a user.(obvious over D1[0092] and D0 col 12 line 61- col 13 line 15)
It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 with teachings by D0 in order to manipulate with scanning resolution and other parameters.
3. (Original) The adaptive LiDAR of claim 1 wherein the receiver control block is adapted to control the scan rate and resolution of the receiver in accordance with data supplied by a user.( D0 col 12 line 61- col 13 line 15)
It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 with teachings by D0 in order to manipulate with scanning resolution and other parameters.
5. (Original) The adaptive LiDAR of claim 2 wherein the transmitter and receiver control blocks are adapted to cause each of M radiators of the transmitter to be associated with each of Q receive elements of the receiver, wherein M is an integer equal to or
greater than 1 and less than N, and wherein Q is an integer equal to or greater than 1 and less than T.[0083-0082], claim 1 )
19. (Original) The adaptive LiDAR of claim 1 wherein each receive element comprises a gating coupler and a photodiode.[0055, 0088]
20. (Original) The adaptive LiDAR of claim 1 further comprising a first laser source.[0094]
21. (Original) The adaptive LiDAR of claim 1 further comprising:
a plurality of semiconductor optical amplifiers each adapted to amplify a laser beam generated by the first laser source and deliver the amplified laser beam to a different one of the plurality of tunable amplitude modulators.[0088][0094](intensity modulation obvious design modification to obtain intensity modulation for different channels)
24. (Original) The adaptive LiDAR of claim 1 wherein the transmitter control block is adapted to cause formation of an optical beam that is steered in accordance with phases of a plurality of optical signals received by the plurality of radiators. (see paragraph [0091], claim
10, figure 3B in D 1: a phase modulator coupled to a transmit waveguide to modulate a phase or a frequency of an optical radiation ).
Although D1 does not explicitly teach
25. (Original) The adaptive LiDAR of claim 24 wherein the receive control block is further adapted to change a direction of the receive elements.(mechanically)
D1 teaches electronic beam steering[0112]
Although D1 does not explicitly teach
27. (Original) The adaptive LiDAR of claim 26 further comprising:
a first laser source; and
a second laser source having a different wavelength than the first laser source.
It is just obvious modification to avoid interference.
30. (Original) The adaptive LiDAR of claim 1 wherein each of the arrays of radiators and receive elements is a two-dimensional array.(fig. 2A)
Claim(s) 4, 6, 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 US 20200225332 A1 in view of D0 US 12295097 B1 further in view of D2 US 2018-0239021 .
Although D1 does not teach D2 teaches
4. (Original) The adaptive LiDAR of claim 1 wherein the receiver control block causes the receiver to discern a target at a first scan rate using a first resolution during a first time interval, and to discern the target at a second scan rate using a second resolution during a second time interval, wherein the second scan rate is lower than the first scan rate, and wherein the second resolution is higher than first resolution.[0052]
6. (Original) The adaptive LiDAR of claim 5 further comprising:
a first cylindrical lens positioned away from the array of radiator.
7. (Original) The adaptive LiDAR of claim 6 wherein the transmitter control block is adapted to cause a beam focused by the lens to move along a direction substantially perpendicular to a central axis of the lens by activating radiators disposed along different rows of the array of radiators. (see paragraphs [0083][
0084], claim 11, figures 2A, 4A in Dl: a transmit array) and D2 (see paragraph [0042], figure 1 in D2: a
cylindrical lens configured to spread a emitted pulsed light of a laser).
8. (Original) The adaptive LiDAR of claim 6 further comprising:
a second cylindrical lens positioned away from the array of receive elements.(obvious modification to direct and shape beam)
26. (Original) The adaptive LiDAR of claim 1 further comprising:
a first cylindrical lens positioned away from the array of radiators; and
a second cylindrical lens positioned away from the array of receive elements. (obvious modification to direct and shape beam)
It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 with teachings by D2 in order to scan different regions with different resolutions and direct and shape beam to desired position and shape.
Claim(s) 16-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 US 20200225332 A1 in view of D0 US 12295097 B1 further in view of D3 US 2022-0011409.
Regarding claim 16 D1 does not teach but D3 teaches
16. (Original) The adaptive LiDAR of claim 5further comprising:
(N-1) optical switching layers adapted to generate N optical signals each received by a different one of the array of N radiators, wherein a jth optical switching layer includes 2i optical switches, wherein j is in index ranging from 1 to (N-1), wherein each optical switch is adapted to split a received optical signal into a pair of optical signals. (see paragraph [0032], claim 1, figure 4a in D3: an optical switch includes a 50/50 optical splitter feeds optical phase shifter which tune a phase of each arm, wherein the two arms are combined using an optical 2x2 combiner).
17. (Original) The adaptive LiDAR of claim 16 wherein the N optical signals generated by the (N-1) optical switching layers is delivered as N reference signals to the receiver. (see paragraph [0032],
claim 1, figure 4a in D3: an optical switch includes a 50/50 optical splitter feeds optical phase shifter which tune a phase of each arm, wherein the two arms are combined using an optical 2x2 combiner).
18. (Original) The adaptive LiDAR of claim 16 wherein a speed of a switch disposed in a first layer of the (N-1) optical switching layers is slower than a speed of a switch disposed in layer (N-1) of the (N-1) optical switching layers. (see paragraph [0032], claim 1, figure 4a in D3: an optical switch includes a 50/50 optical splitter feeds optical phase shifter which tune a phase of each arm, wherein the two arms are combined using an optical 2x2 combiner).
It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 with teachings by D3 in order to perform switching control of the individual transmitters and receivers.
Claim(s) 31, 33, 35 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 US 20200225332 A1 in view of D0 US 12295097 B1 further in view of D4 US 2018-0062345
Although D1 does not teach D4 teaches
31. (Original) The adaptive LiDAR of claim 1 further comprising:
a first array of N micro-lenses positioned over the N radiators, wherein each of the N micro-lenses of the first array is associated with a different one of the N radiators; and
a second array of T micro-lenses positioned over the T receive elements, wherein each of the T micro-lenses of the second array is associated with a different one of the T receive elements.[0033]
It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 with teachings by D4 in order to modify beam (such as collimate and direct to the scene or spread over fov) in a desired manner.
35. (Original) The adaptive LiDAR of claim 31 wherein the transmitter and receiver control blocks are adapted to cause each of M radiators of the transmitter to be associated with each of Q receive elements of the receiver, wherein M is an integer equal to or greater than 1 and less than N, and wherein Q is an integer equal to or greater than 1 and less than T.([0083-0084], [0095])
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 9-15.22-23.28-29,32-34 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
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/HOVHANNES BAGHDASARYAN/Examiner, Art Unit 3645
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