DETAILED ACTION
This Office action is in response to the amendment and remarks filed on November 11th, 2025. Claims 1-20 are pending.
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 Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see remarks, filed November 11th, 2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-16 under U.S.C. 102(a)(1) or U.S.C. 103 over Sheng have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Sheng in view of “Quantum phases of matter on a 256-atom programmable quantum simulator” (Ebadi et al.).
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) 1-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over "Efficient preparation of two-dimensional defect-free atom arrays with near-fewest sorting atom moves" (Sheng et al.) in view of “Quantum phases of matter on a 256-atom programmable quantum simulator” (Ebadi et al.).
Regarding claim 1, Sheng et al. discloses an optical tweezer arrays system comprising: first and second optical paths from respective light sources to a substrate (fig. 1(c)); and a sensor for imaging the particle array (‘Images of atom fluorescence are taken by an electron multiplying charge-coupled device camera’); wherein the first optical path comprises a first pair of acousto-optic deflectors configured for deflecting a first light beam for generating static optical tweezers for the particle array on the substrate (fig. 1(c),also ‘The 8×8 optical tweezer array is generated by an 808-nm laser beam deflected in two orthogonal directions by a dual-axis acousto-optic deflector (AOD).’); and wherein the second optical path comprises a second pair of acousto-optic deflectors configured for deflecting a second light beam for generating a mobile optical tweezer for re-arranging particles in the particle array on the substrate (fig. 1(c), also ‘The 830-nm MT is also created by an AOD’).
Sheng et al. does not disclose generating multiple mobile optical tweezers simultaneously. Ebadi et al. discloses an optical tweezer arrays system configured to generate multiple mobile optical tweezers simultaneously (“Dynamically changing the RF frequency allows for continuous steering of beam positions, and multi-frequency waveforms allow for multiple moving tweezers to be created in parallel.”) from a pair of acousto-optic deflectors (“These movable tweezers are generated by a separate 809-nm laser source (DBR from Photodigm and tapered amplifier from MOGLabs) and are steered with a pair of independently controlled crossed acousto-optic deflectors (AODs) (AA Opto Electronic DTSX-400).”).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time the application was filed to modify the system of Sheng et al. to include configuring the second pair of acousto-optic deflectors to generate multiple mobile tweezers simultaneously as done in Ebadi so that atom sorting can be done more quickly.
Regarding claim 2, Sheng in view of Ebadi discloses the optical tweezer arrays system of claim 1, wherein a maximum number of mobile optical tweezers for re-arranging the particles is variable to vary a degree of parallelism (Ebadi teaches that the number of mobile optical tweezers is related to the number of frequencies in the waveform, which is inherently variable).
Regarding claim 3, Sheng in view of Ebadi discloses the optical tweezer arrays system of claim 1, comprising an objective element disposed in the first and second optical paths for focusing the first and second light beams onto the substrate, and optionally wherein the objective element is disposed in a third optical path between the sensor and the substrate (fig. 1(c), ‘microscope objective’).
Regarding claim 4, Sheng in view of Ebadi discloses the optical tweezer arrays system of claim 1, wherein the first and second optical paths coincide for respective portions thereof, and optionally wherein the respective portions comprise an objective element disposed in the first and second optical paths for focusing the first and second light beams onto the substrate (fig. 1(c)).
Regarding claim 5, Sheng in view of Ebadi discloses the optical tweezer arrays system of claim 1, wherein the first pair of acousto-optic deflectors is configured for deflecting the first light beam for generating the static optical tweezers for the particle array on the substrate such that a target array and a reservoir array are generated on the substrate, and optionally wherein the reservoir array surrounds the target array (‘The 8×8 optical tweezer array is generated by an 808-nm laser beam deflected in two orthogonal directions by a dual-axis acousto-optic deflector (AOD).’ Wherein ‘We refer to all the reservoir tweezers as the outside region and all target sites as the inside region.’).
Regarding claim 6, Sheng in view of Ebadi discloses the optical tweezer arrays system of claim 5, wherein the reservoir array completely surrounds the target array (‘We refer to all the reservoir tweezers as the outside region and all target sites as the inside region.’).
Regarding claim 7, Sheng in view of Ebadi discloses the optical tweezer arrays system of claim 1, wherein the second pair of acousto-optic deflectors is configured for deflecting the second light beam for generating the mobile optical tweezers for re-arranging particles in the particle array on the substrate (Sheng, ‘Sorting atoms stochastically loaded in optical tweezer arrays via an auxiliary mobile tweezer’ and Ebadi, ‘We rearrange the initially loaded atoms into programmable, defect-free patterns using a second set of moving optical tweezers that are steered by a pair of crossed acousto-optical deflectors (AODs) to arbitrary positions in two dimensions (Fig. 1a)35.’) based on an image taken by the sensor of the particle array on the substrate representative of an occupancy matrix of the particle array (Sheng, fig. 3, where all 3 methods are based on images of occupancy matrix).
Regarding claim 8, Sheng in view of Ebadi discloses the optical tweezer arrays system of claim 7, wherein the second pair of acousto-optic deflectors is configured for deflecting the second light beam for generating the mobile optical tweezers for re-arranging particles in the particle array on the substrate in a sequence of re-arrangement cycles, based on respective images taken by the sensor of the particle array on the substrate representative of the occupancy matrix of the particle array prior to each re-arrangement cycle (‘After the atom in the MT is released into the target site in 1 ms, the next rearrangement cycles for other target sites are carried out. Finally, we acquire a new image to reveal the new positions of the atoms in the array as shown in Fig. 1(e).’, also Ebadi, ‘To increase filling fractions, we perform a second round of rearrangement (having skipped ejection in the first round to keep excess atoms for the second round).’).
Regarding claim 9, Sheng et al. discloses a method of arranging a particle array comprising the steps of: providing first and second optical paths from respective light sources to a substrate (fig. 1(c)); providing a sensor for imaging the particle array (‘Images of atom fluorescence are taken by an electron multiplying charge-coupled device camera’); using a first pair of acousto-optic deflectors comprised in the first optical path for deflecting a first light beam for generating static optical tweezers for the particle array on the substrate (fig. 1(c),also ‘The 8×8 optical tweezer array is generated by an 808-nm laser beam deflected in two orthogonal directions by a dual-axis acousto-optic deflector (AOD).’); and using a second pair of acousto-optic deflectors comprised in the second optical path for deflecting a second light beam for generating mobile optical tweezers for re-arranging particles in the particle array on the substrate (fig. 1(c), also ‘The 830-nm MT is also created by an AOD’).
Sheng et al. does not disclose generating multiple mobile optical tweezers simultaneously. Ebadi et al. discloses an optical tweezer arrays system configured to generate multiple mobile optical tweezers simultaneously (“Dynamically changing the RF frequency allows for continuous steering of beam positions, and multi-frequency waveforms allow for multiple moving tweezers to be created in parallel.”) using a pair of acousto-optic deflectors (“These movable tweezers are generated by a separate 809-nm laser source (DBR from Photodigm and tapered amplifier from MOGLabs) and are steered with a pair of independently controlled crossed acousto-optic deflectors (AODs) (AA Opto Electronic DTSX-400).”).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art at the time the application was filed to modify the method of Sheng et al. to include configuring the second pair of acousto-optic deflectors to generate multiple mobile tweezers simultaneously as done in Ebadi so that atom sorting can be done more quickly.
Regarding claims 10-16, see analysis with respect to claims 2-8, respectively.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 17-20 are allowed.
The prior art of record does not disclose a method of arranging a particle array comprising the steps of: generating static optical tweezers for the particle array such that a target array and a reservoir array are generated on a substrate, wherein the reservoir array surrounds the target array; generating multiple mobile optical tweezers simultaneously based on an image of the particle array on the substrate representative of an occupancy matrix of the particle array; and using the mobile optical tweezers for re-arranging particles in the particle array; wherein re-arranging the particles comprises a row sorting step for arranging particle rows of the target array; and a column compression step for arranging particle columns of the target array; wherein the row sorting step comprises prioritizing rows that are closest to, or equal to, half-filled.
The closest prior arts of record are US 2023/0411035 (Schymik et al.) & “Quantum phases of matter on a 256-atom programmable quantum simulator” (Ebadi et al.).
Schymik et al. discloses a method of arranging a particle array comprising the steps of: generating static optical tweezers for the particle array such that a target array and a reservoir array are generated on a substrate, wherein the reservoir array surrounds the target array (fig. 2A, steps 201 & 203, wherein fig. 3, diagram 312 shows a target array surrounded by a target array); generating mobile optical tweezers based on an image of the particle array on the substrate representative of an occupancy matrix of the particle array (fig. 2A, generating mobile tweezers is part of step 212, and image is acquired at step 209); and using the mobile optical tweezers for re-arranging particles in the particle array (fig. 2A, step 212); wherein re-arranging the particles comprises a compression step (‘In the example illustrated in the series 310, the target array is compact, therefore the compression algorithm is advantageously used to rearrange the atoms.’ P 149).
Schymik et al. does not disclose generating multiple mobile optical tweezers simultaneously, nor does it disclose a row sorting step for arranging particle rows of the target array; wherein the row sorting step comprises prioritizing rows that are closest to, or equal to, half-filled. Schymik also differs by compressing in layers, rather than columns.
Ebadi et al. discloses a method of arranging a particle array by generating multiple mobile optical tweezers simultaneously (“Dynamically changing the RF frequency allows for continuous steering of beam positions, and multi-frequency waveforms allow for multiple moving tweezers to be created in parallel.”), and using the mobile optical tweezers for re-arranging particles in a particle array; wherein the re-arranging the particles comprises a row sorting step for arranging particle rows of the target array (‘Accordingly, we apply a ‘pre-sorting’ procedure in which we move atoms between columns.’); and a column compression step for arranging particle columns of the target array (‘After pre-sorting and ejection, each column has the correct number of atoms to fill all of its target traps by moving atoms up/down within the column.’).
However, Ebadi still does not disclose prioritizing rows that are closest to, or equal to, half-filled, and no other art of record discloses this.
Conclusion
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/ELIZA W OSENBAUGH-STEWART/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2881