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 .
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.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of Invention I, corresponding claims are 1 – 13 in the reply filed on June 30, 2026, is acknowledged.
Claim 14 is withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on June 30, 2026.
Priority
The priority has been considered by the examiner. Receipt is acknowledged of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Information Disclosure Statement
The references cited in the Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) submitted on July 10, 2025. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered and accepted by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawing submitted on March 10, 2023, has been considered and accepted by the examiner.
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 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Puckett et al. (US 11,429,010) in view of Diels et al. (US 11,821,838).
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Regarding claim 1, Puckett discloses a system for single-cavity multi-frequency comb (see Figure 1), comprising:
a single-cavity multi-comb pulse oscillator (see Figure 1, character 130, Abstract, column 2, lines 47 – 67 – column 3, lines 1 – 2 and 14 – 21, and the reference called “a TE/TM dual comb resonator”) configured to output mode-locked pulse trains with a certain repetition rate difference (see Figure 2, column 5, lines 14 – 31);
wherein the single-cavity multi-comb pulse oscillator (see Figure 1, character 130) comprises:
a frequency response component (see Figure 2, characters 112, column 4, lines 1 – 54, the reference called “laser light source”);
a frequency detection system (see Figure 3, characters 154 and 158, column 2, lines 56 – 67, column 3, lines 1 – 2, column 5, lines 59 – 67, column 6, lines 1 – 15, and 33 – 41, column 7, lines 10 – 4228, column 9, lines 59 – 67, column 10, lines 1 – 8 and column 11, lines 25 – 33) configured to receive split mode-locked pulse trains from the output port, detect the frequency signal, and output the corresponding electrical signal; and
a frequency feedback control system (see Figure 2 and 3, character 156, column 6, lines 3 – 41, column 8, lines 19 – 28 and column 9, lines 55 – 67) configured to process the electrical signal from the frequency detection system, and transmit it to the frequency response component in the single-cavity multi-comb pulse oscillator, so as to realize feedback control on the frequency of the mode-locked pulse trains,
wherein the frequency response component is configured to respond to the electrical signal processed by the frequency feedback control system to perform separate locking of each frequency signal (see Figure 2, column 2, lines 56 – 37 and column 4, lines 1 – 19).
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Puckett discloses the claimed invention except for configured to a single-cavity multi-comb pulse oscillator output mode-locked pulse trains with a certain repetition rate difference at two or more central wavelengths and an output port configured to split the mode-locked pulse trains according to the laser wavelength. Diels teaches a cavity (see Annotation Figure 5, character 501, the reference called “dual comb source”) with two combs of different central wavelength with feedback (see Figures 4 and 5) and splitter (see Annotation Figure 5, character 517, the reference called “splitter”). However, it is well known in the art to apply and/or modify the cavity with two combs of different central wavelength with feedback and splitter as discloses by Diels in (see Figures 4 and 5, column 3, lines 52 – 67 through column 5, lines 1 – 66). Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention was to apply and/or modify the cavity with two combs of different central wavelength with feedback and splitter as suggested to the device of Puckett, the different central wavelengths allow access to a wider optical bandwidth without the complexity of two separate cavities. The splitter could be used to split the pulse train.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2 – 13 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. Claim 2 recites a system for single-cavity multi-frequency comb structure including the specific structure limitation of the frequency response component comprises a repetition rate response component, a repetition rate difference response component, and a carrier envelope offset frequency difference response component, and the frequency response components do not interfere with each other during the frequency measurement and controlling, which is neither anticipated or neither disclosed nor suggested in any piece of available prior art, which is neither anticipated nor obvious over the prior art of record.
The prior art failed to teach or suggest the frequency response component comprises a repetition rate response component, a repetition rate difference response component, and a carrier envelope offset frequency difference response component, and the frequency response components do not interfere with each other during the frequency measurement and controlling.
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Delma R. Forde whose telephone number is (571)272-1940. The examiner can normally be reached M - TH 7:00 AM - 4:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, MinSun O Harvey can be reached at 571-272-1835. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Delma R Forde/Examiner, Art Unit 2828
/XINNING(Tom) NIU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2828
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