DETAILED ACTION
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
2. 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.
3. Claims 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Watanabe et al. (US 20010036213).
Regarding claim 1, Watanabe et al. discloses in figure 6 and specification:
A DFB laser manufacturing method based on a dielectric laterally coupled
grating with a deterministic grating coupling coefficient (see paragraph [0025] and [0036], wherein the DFB laser manufacturing method comprises steps of:
S1: performing photolithography (see, paragraph [0044]) on an epitaxial substrate (see, 9, fig. 6, see also, paragraph [0038]) of a laser without an etch-stop layer to obtain a photoresist pattern with a waveguide morphology in a predetermined geometric configuration, and then performing dry etching and removing a photoresist to obtain a substrate of a waveguide structure in the predetermined geometric configuration (see, paragraph [0044]);
S2: depositing a layer of an insulating film with a low refractive index on the substrate obtained in the step S1 (see, paragraph [0057], here, first insulators 40a such as SiO.sub.2, refractive index: 1.46);
S3: depositing a dielectric film with a high refractive index on the layer of the insulating film (see, paragraph [0059], here, second insulator layer 40c, polyimide, refractive index: 1.58-1.89);
S4: performing photolithography on the dielectric film to prepare a photoresist pattern with a laterally coupled grating morphology (see, paragraph [0044], here, by means of the photolithography);
S5: performing etching and removing the photoresist for the dielectric film on the photoresist pattern obtained in the step S4 to prepare a dielectric laterally coupled grating for the laser, and using the dielectric laterally coupled grating to prepare a DFB laser (see, paragraph [0061]).
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Regarding claim 2, Watanabe et al. discloses in figure 6 and specification the DFB laser manufacturing method based on the dielectric laterally coupled grating with the deterministic grating coupling coefficient according to claim 1, wherein the substrate of the waveguide structure in the predetermined geometric configuration obtained in the step S1 by performing dry etching and removing the photoresist is a zero-footing substrate of the waveguide structure with a deterministic geometry size, the predetermined geometric configuration is a positive trapezoid, the waveguide structure for the substrate of the waveguide structure in the predetermined geometric configuration has the positive trapezoid with an inner angle of 60° to 85°, the inner angle being favorable for a footing with a height of less than 100 nm (see, paragraph [0044] and [0045]).
Regarding claim 3, Watanabe et al. discloses in figure 6 and specification the DFB laser manufacturing method based on the dielectric laterally coupled grating with the deterministic grating coupling coefficient according to claim 1, wherein a specific process of the step S1 comprises: performing photolithography on the epitaxial substrate of the laser without the etch-stop layer, and obtaining the photoresist pattern with the waveguide morphology in the predetermined geometric configuration by controlling exposure process or post-processing method, and then performing dry etching and removing the photoresist to obtain a zero-footing substrate of the waveguide structure in the predetermined geometric configuration with a determinable size (see, paragraph [0044] and [0045]).
Regarding claim 4, Watanabe et al. discloses in figure 6 and specification the DFB laser manufacturing method based on the dielectric laterally coupled grating with the deterministic grating coupling coefficient according to claim 1, wherein the laser epitaxial substrate without the etch-stop layer in the step S1 comprises GaAs-based, GaSb-based and GaN laser materials (see, paragraph [0036]).
Regarding claim 5, Watanabe et al. discloses in figure 6 and specification the DFB laser manufacturing method based on the dielectric laterally coupled grating with the deterministic grating coupling coefficient according to claim 1, wherein an angle of the photoresist pattern with the waveguide morphology in the predetermined geometric configuration is ranged from 60° to 80°, and controlling exposure process parameters and post-processing methods comprises exposure dose, developing time, post-baking reflow or plasma dry processing (see, paragraph [0044] and [0045]).
Regarding claim 6, Watanabe et al. discloses in figure 6 and specification the DFB laser manufacturing method based on the dielectric laterally coupled grating with the deterministic grating coupling coefficient according to claim 1, wherein, process parameters of the dry etching comprise process gas flow rate, pressure, plasma concentration, bias pressure or sample temperature. (see, paragraph [0052] and [0061]).
Regarding claim 7, Watanabe et al. discloses in figure 6 and specification the DFB laser manufacturing method based on the dielectric laterally coupled grating with the deterministic grating coupling coefficient according to claim 1, wherein the insulating film deposited in the step S2 has a thickness of less than 50 nm, the insulating film deposited is a dielectric material with a low refractive index, and the dielectric material with the low refractive index has a refractive index of less than 2 (see, paragraph [0034] and [0064]).
Regarding claim 8, Watanabe et al. discloses in figure 6 and specification the DFB laser manufacturing method based on the dielectric laterally coupled grating with the deterministic grating coupling coefficient according to claim 1, wherein the dielectric film deposited in the step S3 has a thickness of less than 300 mm, the deposited dielectric film is a high refractive index dielectric material, and the dielectric material with the high refractive index has a refractive index of greater than 2 (see, paragraph [0034] and [0064]).
Regarding claim 9, Watanabe et al. discloses in figure 6 and specification the DFB laser manufacturing method based on the dielectric laterally coupled grating with the deterministic grating coupling coefficient according to claim 1, wherein a grating design in the step S4 comprises correction of a grating period, duty cycle, grating length, and ridge waveguide position grating size, debugging exposure process comprises overall exposure dose debugging and local dose optimization. (see, paragraph [0049]).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
5. Claim 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Watanabe et al., and further in view of MATSUMOT (US 20110229079).
Regarding claim 10, Watanabe et al., discloses the limitations of claim 1 for the reasons above.
However, Watanabe et al., is silent as to the limitation of “the dielectric laterally
coupled grating prepared in the step S5 is a first-order or third-order grating”.
MATSUMOT discloses that There is a known method for fabricating a first-
order diffraction grating constituting a short-wavelength DFB or DBR semiconductor laser made of a GaAs-based material (see, paragraph [0018]) and . a second-order diffraction grating having a period 2.LAMBDA. on an optical waveguide made of p-AlGaAs (see, paragraph [0019]). Even though MATSUMOT does not disclose that “the limitation of “the dielectric laterally coupled grating prepared in the step S5 is a first-order or third-order grating” as claimed, MATSUMOT discloses the limitation can be realized.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art at
the time of invention to combine the limitation of “the dielectric laterally coupled grating prepared in the step S5 is a first-order or third-order grating” with a DFB laser manufacturing method of Watanabe et al., because selecting a first-order or third-order grating allows for providing the laser with a different wavelength.
Conclusion
6. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Kinam Park whose telephone number is (571) 270-1738. The examiner can normally be reached on from 9:00 AM-5:00 PM. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, MINSUN HARVEY, can be reached on (571) 272-1835. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
/KINAM PARK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2828
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