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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on:
February 23, 2024;
March 26, 2024;
August 09, 2024;
September 19, 2024;
July 28, 2025;
October 01, 2025;
December 11, 2025;
are being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings were received on January 19, 2023. These drawings are acceptable.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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)(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) 1, 12-16, 19 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Duan et al. (US Patent 11,513,418, hereinafter referred to as “Duan”). Duan anticipates claims:
1. A frequency-tunable optical relay (see figure 4) comprising:
one acousto-optic device (AOD) (the acousto-optic modulator AOM is interpreted as the AOD) in a double pass configuration (see column 5, lines 44-53) and configured to receive
(a) an input optical beam (the beam received from the quarter-wave plate, see figure 4, is interpreted as the input optical beam) propagating in a first direction (the left to right direction as seen in figure 4) toward the AOD from a first side (the optical “upstream” side of the AOD is interpreted as the first side) of the AOD and
(b) an electrical driving signal (see column 5, lines 54-62, the driving first radio frequency signal is interpreted as the electrical driving signal); and
an output optical element array (the two-dimensional qubit array are interpreted as being representative of the output optical element array) comprising a plurality of output optical elements (see figure 4) disposed on the first side of the AOD (they’re on the upstream side of the AOM), each output optical element of the plurality of output optical elements configured to provide a respective output optical beam substantially propagating either parallel or anti-parallel to a second direction (see figure 4) and the plurality of output optical elements are spaced apart from one another in a third direction (in and out of the page), the third direction being transverse to both the first direction and the second direction (see figure 4, the third direction in and out of the page is transverse to both the first and second directions which are generally in the left to right and right to left directions).
12. The frequency-tunable relay of claim 1, wherein the plurality of output optical elements comprises two to eight optical elements (see figure 4, the output optical elements comprise two optical elements in addition to other “additional optical elements”).
13. The frequency-tunable relay of claim 1, wherein a driving frequency profile (see figures 4 and 5) of the electrical driving signal controls which one or more output optical elements of the plurality of output optical elements provides a respective output optical beam (see column 9, line 46 – column 11, line 35).
14. The frequency-tunable relay of claim 1, wherein the AOD is configured to modulate a frequency profile of the input optical beam based at least in part on the electrical driving signal (see column 9, line 46 – column 11, line 35).
15. An optical beam delivery system (see figure 4), the system comprising:
one or more input optical paths (the path shown between the quarter-wave plate and the AOM is interpreted as the one input optical path) each configured to receive a respective input optical beam from a respective beam source (the source of the light shown is interpreted as the beam source); and
provide the respective input optical beam to a respective frequency-tunable optical relay (see figure 4);
the respective frequency-tunable optical relay, wherein the respective frequency-tunable optical relay comprises: one acousto-optic device (AOD) (the acousto-optic modulator AOM is interpreted as the AOD) in a double pass configuration (see column 5, lines 44-53) and configured to receive (a) the respective input optical beam propagating in a first direction (the left to right direction as seen in figure 4) toward the AOD from a first side (the optical “upstream” side of the AOD is interpreted as the first side) of the AOD and
(b) a respective electrical driving signal (see column 5, lines 54-62, the driving first radio frequency signal is interpreted as the electrical driving signal), and
an output optical element array (the two-dimensional qubit array are interpreted as being representative of the output optical element array) comprising a plurality of output optical elements (see figure 4) disposed on the first side of the AOD (they’re on the optical upstream side), each output optical element of the plurality of output optical elements configured to provide a respective output optical beam substantially propagating either parallel or anti-parallel to a second direction (see figure 4) and the plurality of output optical elements are spaced apart from one another in a third direction, the third direction being transverse to both the first direction and the second direction (see figure 4, the third direction in and out of the page is transverse to both the first and second directions which are generally in the left to right and right to left directions), and
one or more output optical paths each configured to receive a respective output optical beam from a respective output optical element and provide the respective output optical beam to at least one respective beam utilization location (the qubit location is interpreted as the beam utilization location, see figure 4).
16. The optical beam delivery system of claim 15, wherein the at least one respective beam utilization location is at least one position within an atomic object confinement apparatus (the qubit locations are interpreted as at least one position within an atomic object confinement apparatus).
19. The optical beam delivery system of claim 15, wherein the AOD is configured to modulate a frequency profile of the respective input optical beam based at least in part on the respective electrical driving signal (see column 9, line 46 – column 11, line 35, see figures 4 and 5).
20. A method performed by a controller configured to control the provision of optical signals along one or more of a plurality of optical paths (the path shown between the quarter-wave plate and the AOM is interpreted as the one input optical path), the method comprising:
determining, based on one or more computer-executable instructions, one or more particular optical paths of the plurality of optical paths along which a respective optical beam is to be provided (see figure 4);
identifying a respective frequency range associated with a respective one of each of the one or more particular optical paths (see figure 5);
causing an optical source to provide an input optical beam (see figure 4, the beam is shown and is interpreted as being provided from an optical source); and
causing an electrical driving signal having a frequency profile comprising at least one component corresponding to the respective frequency range to be applied to an acousto-optic device (AOD) of a respective frequency-tunable optical relay, wherein the respective frequency-tunable optical relay is configured to, responsive to receiving the electrical driving signal and the input optical beam by the AOD, provide the respective output optical beam to the one or more particular optical paths (see figures 4 and 5 and see column 9, line 46 – column 11, line 35, see figures 4 and 5).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-11, 17 and 18 are 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: the prior art of record, which is the closest prior art to the subject matter of the claims, does not disclose the limitations: “a plurality of reflective optical assemblies disposed on a second side of the AOD, the second side of the AOD being opposite the first side of the AOD; and a parallelizing lens disposed between the AOD and the plurality of reflective optical assemblies, wherein each reflective optical assembly of the plurality of reflective optical assemblies corresponds to an output optical element of the plurality of output optical elements, and wherein each reflective optical assembly of the plurality of reflective optical assemblies is configured to cause at least a portion of an intermediate optical beam that exited the AOD to the second side of the AOD and propagated through the parallelizing lens to return to the AOD via the parallelizing lens” as required in claims 2 and 17. The prior art is simply silent to this configuration of elements on a second side of the AOD. There is nothing on the record that would suggest such differences would be obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. Lastly, one having ordinary skill in the art does not possess any general knowledge or known motivations to find such differences obvious in view of the prior art of record.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOHN M BEDTELYON whose telephone number is (571)270-1290. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00am - 4:30pm.
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/John Bedtelyon/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874