DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
2. This action is responsive to the following communication: Original claims filed 05/15/23. This action is made non-final.
3. Claims 1-20 are pending in the case. Claims 1 and 16 are independent claims.
Claim Objections
4. Claims 2-15 and 17-20 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
5. 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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
6. Claim 1 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being rejected by anticipated by Luo (Metasurface-Enabled On-Chip Multiplexed Diffractive Neural Networks in the Visible, 2021).
Regarding claim 1, Luo discloses a system for processing light, comprising:
one or more substrates (“Substrate” [Page 14 Line 7] [Fig 5]); and
a plurality of meta-units (“polarized-multiplexed dual-channel meta-units for the MDNN” [Page 7 lines 8-9]), patterned on each of the substrates (“we integrate the fabricated metasurfaces with CMOS imaging sensor…The Aluminum mask, spacer, and polarization multiplexed metasurface are integrated on the substrate by an electron beam lithography (EBL) overlay process” [Page 13 last line-Page 14 line 10]) and
configured to modify a phase, an amplitude, or a polarization of the light with a subwavelength resolution (“Figure 2 schematically shows the detailed design of the polarized-multiplexed dual-channel meta-units for the MDNN. The metasurface is composed of subwavelength rectangular TiO2 nanopillars. A nanopillar with two independently tunable structural parameters (𝐷𝑥, 𝐷𝑦), a fixed height 𝐻 and a period 𝑝, is delineated in Figure 2a. Its rectangular cross section leads to different effective refractive indices along the two crossed axes, which is the fundamental mechanism for achieving polarization multiplexing. When linearly polarized light is incident along the corresponding axes, the nanopillar produces polarization-dependent phase shifts which can be expressed as a function of 𝐷𝑥and 𝐷𝑦. The amplitude and phase under x- and y- polarization are simulated by the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method, where the wavelength is chosen to be 532 nm and 𝑝 is set to 400 nm (Figure 2b-e). The nanopillars have a height 𝐻 of 600 nm without cladding to achieve a combination of multiplexed phases covering approximately two 0-2π ranges as well as a high transmittance.” [ Page 7 lines 8-21]),
wherein the system is in a form of a diffractive neural network and is configured to perform target recognition (“we demonstrate a multiplexed metasurface-based diffractive neural network (MDNN) integrated with a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) imaging sensor for on-chip multi-channel sensing in the visible range.” [Page 4 Lines 1-3] “We demonstrate multitasking at the speed of light through polarization multiplexed metasurface, using a plane wave of the amplitude or phase of the object to be recognized as the input signal to achieve simultaneous recognition of digital and fashionable items” [ Page 4 Lines 7-10]).
Regarding claim 16, Luo discloses a method for processing light, comprising:
propagating light scattered from a target onto an output plane through a diffractive neural network (“we demonstrate a multiplexed metasurface-based diffractive neural network (MDNN) integrated with a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) imaging sensor for on-chip multi-channel sensing in the visible range.” [Page 4 Lines 1-3] “We demonstrate multitasking at the speed of light through polarization multiplexed metasurface, using a plane wave of the amplitude or phase of the object to be recognized as the input signal to achieve simultaneous recognition of digital and fashionable items” [ Page 4 Lines 7-10]);
wherein the diffractive neural network comprises one or more substrates and a plurality of meta-units, patterned on each of the substrates (“polarized-multiplexed dual-channel meta-units for the MDNN” [Page 7 lines 8-9]), patterned on each of the substrates (“we integrate the fabricated metasurfaces with CMOS imaging sensor…The Aluminum mask, spacer, and polarization multiplexed metasurface are integrated on the substrate by an electron beam lithography (EBL) overlay process” [Page 13 last line-Page 14 line 10]) and
configured to modify a phase, an amplitude, or a polarization of the light (“Figure 2 schematically shows the detailed design of the polarized-multiplexed dual-channel meta-units for the MDNN. The metasurface is composed of subwavelength rectangular TiO2 nanopillars. A nanopillar with two independently tunable structural parameters (𝐷𝑥, 𝐷𝑦), a fixed height 𝐻 and a period 𝑝, is delineated in Figure 2a. Its rectangular cross section leads to different effective refractive indices along the two crossed axes, which is the fundamental mechanism for achieving polarization multiplexing. When linearly polarized light is incident along the corresponding axes, the nanopillar produces polarization-dependent phase shifts which can be expressed as a function of 𝐷𝑥and 𝐷𝑦. The amplitude and phase under x- and y- polarization are simulated by the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method, where the wavelength is chosen to be 532 nm and 𝑝 is set to 400 nm (Figure 2b-e). The nanopillars have a height 𝐻 of 600 nm without cladding to achieve a combination of multiplexed phases covering approximately two 0-2π ranges as well as a high transmittance.” [ Page 7 lines 8-21]); and
identifying the target based on detecting a light intensity distribution on the output plane by using one or more detectors (“we demonstrate a multiplexed metasurface-based diffractive neural network (MDNN) integrated with a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) imaging sensor for on-chip multi-channel sensing in the visible range.” [Page 4 Lines 1-3] “We demonstrate multitasking at the speed of light through polarization multiplexed metasurface, using a plane wave of the amplitude or phase of the object to be recognized as the input signal to achieve simultaneous recognition of digital and fashionable items” [ Page 4 Lines 7-10]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVID E CHOI whose telephone number is (571)270-3780. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F: 7-2, 7-10 (PST). If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Bechtold, Michelle T. can be reached on (571) 431-0762. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DAVID E CHOI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2148