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 .
Applicant's election with traverse of Invention II (claims 7-9) in the reply filed on 11/25/2025 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground that claimed in both invention I and II is related to a composite color wheel module which utilizes a single substrate to carry the wavelength conversion layer and the wavelength selective layer and be regarded as a single invention. This is not found persuasive because Applicant has not provided both inventions are sufficiently related to that not a burden for searching (see MPEP, section 803). The Examiner has stated a “serious burden” by showing a separate classification for the two groups of sub-combination. In order to for the Applicant to present relative to there being no showing of a “serious burden”, he must demonstrate that the Examiner’s separate classification is in error.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/30/2023 was filed and considered by the examiner.
Specification
The lengthy specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
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, 7-9 and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hu et al., US 2013/025869 A1, in view of Kaneda, US 2024/0094614 A1.
Regarding claim 1, Hu et al. disclose a color wheel module (figs 1-4) comprising:
. a substrate (not shown) comprising a wavelength conversion region (area corresponding to 106/206) and a wavelength selection region (area corresponding to 107/207) [wherein a material of the substrate is selected from at least one of nitrogen alumina, magnesium oxide, magnesium aluminum spinel, yttrium aluminum garnet, aluminum nitride, beryllium oxide, yttrium oxide, yttrium zirconium dioxide, gallium arsenide, zinc sulfide, zinc selenide, magnesium fluoride, and calcium fluoride]
. a wavelength conversion layer 106/206
. a wavelength selection layer 107/207
Although Hu et al. do not explicitly disclose the substrate and a surface of the wavelength selection region has a first surface roughness less than 0.02µm, the Hu et al. color filters (applicant’s wavelength selection layer/region) can be a based substrate by itself as shown by Kaneda (substrate 121 of color wheel 12, figs. 1-2). Further, Kaneda also disclose that the support substrate 121 can be formed by a metal material having high thermal conductivity (e.g., claimed aluminum nitride AlN)([0025]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to employ the Hu et al. color wheel substrate with a claimed material (e.g., AlN), as shown by Kaneda to improve efficiency in a color wheel module ([0025]). As a result, a first surface roughness of the wavelength selection region would be less than 0.02µm due to AlN surface property.
Re claim 7, the modification to Hu et al. would result a transmittance of the wavelength selection region of the substrate is between 80% and 100% (transmittance of AlN is 95% @ 550nm).
Re claim 8, the modification to Hu et al. would result a thermal conductivity of the substrate is between 20 and 500 W/m.K (thermal conductivity of AlN is 160W/m.K).
Re claim 9, the modification to Hu et al. would result a heat resistance temperature of the substrate is between 1200 and 2800 °C (AlN: 1370oC), a hardness of the substrate is between 40 and 1950 (AlN: 1207 kg/mm2), and a density of the substrate is between 1.7 and 4 (AlN: 3.6g/cm3). and a refractive index of the substrate is between 1.2 and 1.8 (AlN: 1.54).
Re claim 11, the modification to Hu et al. disclose the color wheel module as described above, Hu et al. also disclose an application the color wheel module over a projection device (Abstract) comprising an illumination system 100/200 with a light source 101/201 and inherently including a light valve and a projection lens and its functional in the projection system (according to a projector structure) as claimed.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 2 is 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.
Conclusion
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/DUNG T NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2871