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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application CN 2023/105077278, filed on 05/05/2023. Certified translation of the certified copy is required in order to perfect priority claims made to this application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 11/27/2023 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
35 U.S.C. 112(a) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, requires the specification to be written in “full, clear, concise, and exact terms.” The specification is replete with terms which are not clear, concise and exact. The specification should be revised carefully in order to comply with 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112. Examples of some unclear, inexact or verbose terms used in the specification are: “AR film”.
Claim Interpretation
As disclosed, “AR film” has no established definition, structure, or meaning. In light of the disclosure, Fig. 1 of the disclosure utilizes the term “anti-reflection film”. For purposes of examination, “AR film” will be understood to mean “anti-reflection film”.
Claim Objections
Claims 1 and 9 are objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 1, The term “s-AFPF” has no common or universal meaning to someone of ordinary skill in the art. Appropriate correction is required. Examiner suggests the acronym “s-AFPF” is spelled out as “single-cavity all-dielectric Fabry-Pérot filter (s-AFPF)” at the first instance that the acronym is recited in the claim, both in the preamble and the body.
In claim 1, the term “ first AR film” and “second AR film” have an undefined acronym “AR” which has no common or universal meaning to someone of ordinary skill in the art. Appropriate correction is required. Examiner suggests the acronym “AR” is spelled out as “first anti-reflection (AR) film” and “second anti-reflection (AR) film” at the first instance that the acronym is recited in the claim.
In claim 9, the term “ping-pong ball effect” has no common or universal meaning to someone of ordinary skill in the art. Appropriate correction is required. For purposes of examination, this limitation will be understood to mean “mode-hopping effect”.
Claim Rejections – 35 USC § 103
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 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) 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiao et al. (NPL, “Theoretical analysis of the wavelength tuning characteristics in a tunable ECDL based on a s-AFPF”), hereinafter Xiao, in view of Heng et al. (NPL, “Theoretical investigation of a tunable external cavity diode laser based on a single cavity all-dielectric thin-film Fabry-Pérot filter”), hereinafter Heng, in view of Guan et al. (CN 105529613 A), hereinafter Guan, in view of Specac (NPL, “Standard Infrared Polarizers GS57010 Series User Manual”).
Regarding Claim 1, Xiao teaches a single-mode (Fig. 7, see caption) external-cavity diode laser based on an s-AFPF (Title), the laser being composed of a Fabry-Pérot laser diode (Fig. 7, “LD”), an s-AFPF (Fig. 7, “s-AFPF”), a first totally reflecting plane mirror (Fig. 7, see upper “plane totally reflecting mirror”), a second totally reflecting plane mirror (Fig. 7, see lower “plane totally reflecting mirror”), and an actuator with a wheel (Fig. 7, see “actuator”, “wheel”), which are disposed in sequence, wherein the wheel is connected to the s-AFPF via a connecting rod (Fig. 7, see rod connecting “s-AFPF” and “actuator”), and used to control the s-AFPF to rotate anticlockwise (Fig. 8, see “position 1” to “position 2” of the “s-AFPF” is anticlockwise) around a rotating shaft (Fig. 7, “pivot point”) disposed on the laser, the wheel is in sliding connection with the actuator; the actuator is used to move a mirror forward and backward (Fig. 8, see “position 1” and “position 2” of mirror connected to “actuator” as seen in Fig. 7), and control the s-AFPF to rotate anticlockwise (Fig. 8, see “position 1” to “position 2” of the “s-AFPF” is anticlockwise as “actuator” has displacement “x”); and the laser is used to generate a TE plane wave or TM plane wave (Abstract) with mode hop-free tuning performance (Abstract) by moving the mirror forward and backward and controlling the s-AFPF to rotate anticlockwise (Fig. 8, see “position 1” to “position 2” of the “s-AFPF” is anticlockwise as “actuator” has displacement “x”).
Xiao does not teach: a reflecting plane mirror; a first orthogonal bi-cylindrical lens; a second orthogonal bi-cylindrical lens; a wire grid polarizer; an actuator with a steel ball, the steel ball is in sliding connection with the actuator, and the actuator is a piezoelectric ceramic actuator; two cleavage surfaces of the Fabry-Pérot laser diode as a light source are plated with a first AR film for eliminating longitudinal modes; the surfaces of both the first orthogonal bi-cylindrical lens and the second orthogonal bi-cylindrical lens are plated with a second AR film for eliminating longitudinal modes; the actuator is used to move the second totally reflecting plane mirror forward and backward; and the laser is used to generate a TE plane wave or TM plane wave with mode hop-free tuning performance by moving the second totally reflecting plane mirror forward and backward and controlling the s-AFPF to rotate anticlockwise.
Heng teaches: a reflecting plane mirror (Fig. 10, see “plane totally reflecting member” on the left of “laser diode”); a first orthogonal bi-cylindrical lens (Section 3, fourth paragraph; Fig. 10, see “Doublet Cylindrical Lens with AR coating” on left of “laser diode”); a second orthogonal bi-cylindrical lens (Section 3, fourth paragraph; Fig. 10, see “Doublet Cylindrical Lens with AR coating” on right of “laser diode”); an actuator with a steel ball (Fig. 10, “actuator”, “steel ball”), the steel ball is in sliding connection with the actuator (Fig. 11, see sliding of “steel ball” connected to “actuator” as “actuator” has displacement “x”); two cleavage surfaces of the Fabry-Pérot laser diode as a light source are plated with a first AR film (Fig. 10, see “AR film” on left of “laser diode”) for eliminating longitudinal modes (p. 11, first paragraph); the surfaces of both the first orthogonal bi-cylindrical lens and the second orthogonal bi-cylindrical lens are plated with a second AR film (Fig. 10, see “Doublet Cylindrical Lens with AR coating” on right of “laser diode”) for eliminating longitudinal modes (Section 3, fourth paragraph). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to: have a plane reflecting mirror as taught by Heng in the device of Xiao, for the benefit of optical feedback; have a first orthogonal bi-cylindrical lens and a second orthogonal bi-cylindrical lens as taught by Heng in the device of Xiao, for the benefit of shaping and collimating the light emitted by the laser diode (Section 3, fourth paragraph); have two cleavage surfaces of the Fabry-Pérot laser diode as a light source are plated with a first AR film for eliminating longitudinal modes as taught by Heng in the device of Xiao, for the benefit of eliminating longitudinal modes (Section 3, fourth paragraph) on both ends of the diode; the surfaces of both the first orthogonal bi-cylindrical lens and the second orthogonal bi-cylindrical lens are plated with a second AR film for eliminating longitudinal modes as taught by Heng in the device of Xiao, for the benefit of preventing multiple-beam interference (Section 2, first paragraph); to have an actuator with a steel ball as taught by Heng in the device of Xiao, for the benefit of simplified manufacturing.
Heng does not teach: a wire grid polarizer; the actuator is used to move the second totally reflecting plane mirror forward and backward; the actuator is a piezoelectric ceramic actuator.
Guan teaches: the actuator (Fig.2, “7”) is used to move a totally reflecting plane mirror (Fig. 2, “6” ) forward and backward (see paragraph [0016] of Examiner provided translation); the actuator is a piezoelectric ceramic actuator (see paragraph [0034] of Examiner provided translation). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that: the actuator is used to move a totally reflecting plane mirror forward and backward for the benefit of reflecting all of the light at the end of the external cavity (Fig. 2, see “6”, “7” at end of cavity); that the actuator is a piezoelectric ceramic actuator, for the benefit of high resonant frequency and sub-millisecond response time (see paragraph [0034] of Examiner provided translation). It can necessarily be understood that: the laser is used to generate a TE plane wave or TM plane wave with mode hop-free tuning performance by moving the second totally reflecting plane mirror forward and backward and controlling the s-AFPF to rotate anticlockwise in the device of Xiao, Heng, and Guan, in the sense that the laser is used to generate a TE plane wave or TM plane wave with mode hop-free tuning performance and the as taught by Xiao (Abstract, “TE or TM plane wave”, “mode-hop free”) and the actuator is controlled to move the s-AFPF to rotate anticlockwise as taught by Xiao (Fig. 8, see “position 1” to “position 2” of the “s-AFPF” is anticlockwise) in the device of Xiao, Heng, and Guan; the actuator is used to move the second totally reflecting plane mirror forward and backward as taught by Guan (Fig. 2, see “7” connected to “6”; paragraph [0016] of Examiner provided translation) in the device of Xiao, Heng, and Guan. Xiao, Heng, and Guan do not teach: a wire grid polarizer.
Specac teaches: a wire grid polarizer (Section 1, third paragraph). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to: have a wire grid polarizer as taught by Specac in the device of Xiao, Heng, and Guan, in order to attenuate a particular plane of polarized light and act as a polarizing beamsplitter (Section 1, second paragraph).
Regarding Claim 2, Xiao, Heng, Guan, and Specac teach the device of Claim 1. As taught above in Claim 1 by Heng, the first orthogonal bi-cylindrical lens and the second orthogonal bi-cylindrical lens are orthogonal cemented cylindrical doublets (p. 11, last paragraph; Fig. 10, see “Doublet Cylindrical Lens with AR coating” on left of “laser diode”); the first orthogonal bi-cylindrical lens and the second orthogonal bi-cylindrical lens are disposed on two sides of the Fabry-Pérot laser diode respectively (p. 11, last paragraph; Fig. 10, see “Doublet Cylindrical Lens with AR coating” on each side of “laser diode”); and the side, opposite to the first AR film, of each of the first orthogonal bi-cylindrical lens and the second orthogonal bi-cylindrical lens is plated with the second AR film (Fig. 10, see “AR coating”; Section 2, first paragraph; Section 3, fourth paragraph).
Regarding Claim 3, Xiao, Heng, Guan, and Specac teach the device of Claim 2. As taught above in Claim 1 by Specac, the wire grid polarizer is a wire grid polarizing film (Fig. 3, “2”), wherein the wire grid polarizing film represents closely arranged thin metal wires/wire array (Fig. 3, see “parallel grid lines from 12 O’clock to 6’O’clock”) on the top of a transparent substrate (p.15, “KRS-5” is transparent in infrared). It can be necessarily understood to someone of ordinary skill that: the wire grid polarizer is used to generate TE or TM light in the device of Xiao, Heng, and Guan, in the sense that TE light and TM light is generated as taught by Xiao and the wire grid polarizer as taught by Specac selects the TE or TM mode; that when the TE polarized light is generated, an intersection of the plane of the wire grid polarizing film and the horizontal plane should be perpendicular to an optical path, the plane of the wire grid polarizing film is not perpendicular to the optical path, and grid wires of the wire grid polarizing film are parallel to the horizontal plane; and when the TM polarized light is generated, the plane of the wire grid polarizing film is perpendicular to the horizontal plane and not perpendicular to the optical path, and meanwhile, the grid wires are perpendicular to the horizontal plane, in the sense that the TE mode is perpendicular to the horizontal plane and the TM mode is parallel to the horizontal plane as disclosed by Xiao, such that to select the TE mode an intersection of the plane of the wire grid polarizing film and the horizontal plane should be perpendicular to an optical path to block to TM mode, and to select the TM mode the grid wires of the wire grid polarizing film are parallel to the horizontal plane to block the TE mode in the device of Xiao, Heng, Guan, and Specac. Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to: have a wire grid polarizer with a diameter of 20 mm, for the benefit of the diameter being the same of the s-AFPF as taught by Xiao (p. 2, right column, last paragraph).
Regarding Claim 4, Xiao, Heng, Guan, and Specac teach the device of Claim 3. Xiao further teaches: the s-AFPF is a circular single-cavity all-dielectric film Fabry-Pérot filter with a diameter of 20 mm (p. 2, right column, last paragraph).
Regarding Claim 5, Xiao, Heng, Guan, and Specac teach the device of Claim 4. Xiao as modified does not teach: a high refractive index dielectric of the s-AFPF is
T
a
2
O
5
film with a physical thickness of 191.247 nm.
Xiao further teaches a high refractive index dielectric of the s-AFPF is
T
a
2
O
5
film with a physical thickness of 193.57 nm (p.2, left column, second paragraph). However, in accordance with MPEP 2144.05 II, Optimization of Ranges: where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, it is not inventive to discover the optimum or workable ranges by routine experimentation. In the prior art the general conditions are disclosed, quarter-wavelength layer thicknesses of the high-index dielectric medium (Xiao, p.1, right column) which is understood to someone having ordinary skill in the art as dependent on the transmission wavelength and refractive index, and the transmission wavelength dependent on the angle of incidence of light on the s-AFPF (Xiao, p. 2, left column, see caption of Fig, 4). Therefore, the thickness of the high refractive index dielectric is a result effective variable of the refractive index and the transmittance wavelength, and the transmittance wavelength is a result effective variable of the incidence angle of light on the s-AFPF as disclosed by Xiao. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to obtain a workable range of values for the thickness of the high refractive index dielectric of the s-AFPF by routine experimentation, such as 191.247 nm.
Regarding Claim 6, Xiao, Heng, Guan, and Specac teach the device of Claim 5. Xiao as modified does not teach: a low refractive index dielectric of the s-AFPF is
S
i
O
2
film with a physical thickness of 272.073 nm.
Xiao further teaches a low refractive index dielectric of the s-AFPF is
S
i
O
2
film with a physical thickness of 273.12 nm (p.2, left column, second paragraph). However, in accordance with MPEP 2144.05 II, Optimization of Ranges: where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, it is not inventive to discover the optimum or workable ranges by routine experimentation. In the prior art the general conditions are disclosed, quarter-wavelength layer thicknesses of the low-index dielectric medium (Xiao, p.1, right column) which is understood to someone having ordinary skill in the art as dependent on the transmission wavelength and refractive index, and the transmission wavelength dependent on the angle of incidence of light on the s-AFPF (Xiao, p. 2, left column, see caption of Fig, 4). Therefore, the thickness of the low refractive index dielectric is a result effective variable of the refractive index and the transmittance wavelength, and the transmittance wavelength is a result effective variable of the incidence angle of light on the s-AFPF as disclosed by Xiao. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention to obtain a workable range of values for the thickness of the low refractive index dielectric of the s-AFPF by routine experimentation, such as 272.073 nm.
Regarding Claim 7, Xiao, Heng, Guan, and Specac teach the device of Claim 6. Xiao further teaches: a substrate dielectric of the s-AFPF is BK7(K9) glass (p.2, left column, second paragraph, “K9 glass”) with a physical thickness of 2 mm (p.2, left column, second paragraph).
Regarding Claim 8, Xiao, Heng, Guan, and Specac teach the device of Claim 7. Xiao further teaches: wherein an included angle is provided between the connecting rod and the s-AFPF (Fig. 8, see for “position 1” the rod connecting “wheel” and “s-AFPP” is perpendicular to the bottom of the “s-AFPF”, i.e. 90 degrees), and when the s-AFPF rotates anticlockwise, the remains unchanged (Fig. 8, see for “position 2” the rod connecting “wheel” and “s-AFPP” is still perpendicular to the bottom of the “s-AFPF”, i.e. 90 degrees), wherein based on the included angle, a rotation angle of the s-AFPF is acquired by acquiring a displacement of the actuator from an initial position thereof (Fig. 8, “x”)and a distance between the center of the rotating shaft and the center of the wheel (Fig. 8, “L”), which is used for a maximum transmission wavelength of the s-AFPF, and then a pass band center wavelength of the s-AFPF is controlled to occlude with a given external cavity longitudinal mode wavelength, to realize the mode hop-free tuning performance (p. 5, left column, segment preceding first paragraph). Therefore, it can be necessarily understood to someone having ordinary skill that wherein an included angle is provided between the connecting rod and the s-AFPF, and when the s-AFPF rotates anticlockwise, the included angle remains unchanged, wherein based on the included angle, a rotation angle of the s-AFPF is acquired by acquiring a displacement x of the actuator from an initial position thereof and a distance N between the center of the rotating shaft and the center of the steel ball, which is used for a maximum transmission wavelength of the s-AFPF, and then a pass band center wavelength of the s-AFPF is controlled to occlude with a given external cavity longitudinal mode wavelength, to realize the mode hop-free tuning performance in the device of Xiao, Heng, Guan, and Specac.
Regarding Claim 9, Xiao, Heng, Guan, and Specac teach the device of Claim 8. Xiao as modified does not teach: a curved groove is further disposed at a sliding joint between the actuator and the steel ball, used to accommodate the steel ball, and prevent the steel ball from generating a ping-pong ball effect.
Heng further teaches: a curved groove (Section 1, third paragraph, “bent edge”) is further disposed at a sliding joint between the actuator and the steel ball (Section 1, third paragraph, “edge against the steel ball”), used to accommodate the steel ball (Section 1, third paragraph, “against the steel ball”), and prevent the steel ball from generating a ping-pong ball effect (Section 1, third paragraph, “hop-free”). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to: have a curved groove is further disposed at a sliding joint between the actuator and the steel ball, used to accommodate the steel ball, and prevent the steel ball from generating a ping-pong ball effect as taught by Heng in the device of Xiao, Heng, Guan, and Specac, for the benefit of removing mode-hops from the wavelength region (Section 1, third paragraph).
Regarding Claim 10, Xiao, Heng, Guan, and Specac teach the device of Claim 9. It can be necessarily understood to someone of ordinary skill that the device of Xiao, Heng, Guan, and Specac can be applied to a light source of TLDAS-WMS system for high-precision gas sensing, in the sense that it can be applied in atomic and molecular laser spectroscopy as taught by Xiao (Abstract) including TLDAS-WMS, and that the device of Xiao, Heng, Guan, and Specac is a light source.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Chapman et al. (U.S. Patent No. 6,704,332)
Ebbecke (WO 2023/016827)
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/J.K.M./Examiner, Art Unit 2828
/XINNING(Tom) NIU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2828
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