Detailed Office Action
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 .
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 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.
Election/Restriction
Applicant’s election without traverse of claims 1-11 in the reply filed on 18 December 2025 is acknowledged.
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 of this title, 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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-4 and 7-11
Claims 1-4 and 7-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheng et al. (2013/0187836; “Cheng”) in view of Rodrigo et al. (Optically controlled three-dimensional assembly of microfabricated building blocks, in Novel Optical Instrumentation for Biomedical Applications IV, Vol. 7371 of Proceedings of SPIE-OSA Biomedical Optics (Optica Publishing Group, 2009), paper 7371_14; “Rodrigo”) and further in view of Böttger et al. (Building blocks for actively-aligned micro-optical systems in rapid prototyping and small series production, Proc. SPIE 9368, Optical Interconnects XV, 93680F (3 April 2015); “Bottger”).
Regarding claim1, Cheng discloses in figures 12, 13a, and 13b, and related figures and text, for example, Cheng – Selected Text, embodiments of ‘tiled head-mounted display devices, and related fabrication steps, comprising pluralities of molded polymer prisms with free-form surfaces configured such that each prism is a wedge prism including a first surface (2), a second surface (3) and a third surface (4).’ Cheng, abstract. Cheng further discloses that ‘second optical surface 3 of the prism in each display channel can be coated with a transflective film to be formed as a semi- transmissive and semi-reflective surface.’ Cheng, paragraph [0076].
Cheng – Figure 12
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Cheng – Figures 13a, and 13b
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Cheng – Selected Text
Abstract. A tiled head-mounted display device comprises an optical component including a plurality of prisms with free-form surfaces, and a display component including a plurality of micro-displays (6), wherein the number of the micro-displays (6) and the number of the prisms with free-form surfaces is identical, and each prism with free-form surfaces and the corresponding micro-display (6) constitute a display channel. Each prism is a wedge prism including a first surface (2), a second surface (3) and a third surface (4). The exit pupil planes of each display channel are coincident, thus avoiding pupil aberration and keeping exit pupil diameter and eye clearance same as a single ocular. There is no resolution variance throughout the entire field of view, thus preventing extra trapezoid distortion. The tiled head-mounted display device is compact and lightweight, and provides wide field of view and high resolution. The tiled head-mounted display device can be readily applicable to augmented environments applications by simply adding an auxiliary free-form lens behind the prism with free-form surfaces.
[0013] The prism can comprise a first optical surface, a second optical surface and a third optical surface in a counter-clockwise order relative to X-axis. The first optical surface and the second optical surface are free-form surfaces, the third optical surface can be selected from free-form, spherical or aspherical surface. The first optical surface is a transmissive surface, the second optical surface is a concave reflective surface or semi-transmissive and semi-reflective surface, and the third optical surface is a transmissive surface.
[0015] According to one embodiment of the present invention, the display channels can be tiled by mechanical tiling methods, the first optical surface, the second optical surface and the third optical surface of each prism satisfy following conditions (6) -(8):
[0016] The prisms with free-form surface also satisfy following conditions regarding incident angles of R.sub.u on the first optical surface:
where .theta..sub.mi1 is an incident angle of R.sub.u emitted from the displays first striking the first optical surface (2), and .theta..sub.mi2 is an incident angle of R.sub.u striking the first optical surface (2) at the second time, n is a refractive index of prism material,
[0017] The mechanical tiling methods include a first mechanical tiling method and a second mechanical tiling method. In the first mechanical tiling method, bottom surfaces of two prisms to be tiled are subject to mechanical processing and then cemented together, the bottom surface is positioned between the first optical surface and the second optical surface. In the second mechanical tiling method, side surfaces of two prisms to be tiled are subject to mechanical processing and then cemented together, the side surface intersects with all of the first optical surface, the second optical surface and the third optical surface of the prism.
[0018] According to another embodiment of the present invention, the display channels can be tiled by optical tiling methods, the first optical surface, the second optical surface and the third optical surface of each prism satisfy following conditions (10)-(12):
[0019] The optical tiling methods comprise a first optical tiling method and a second optical tiling method. In the first optical tiling method, the bottom surfaces of both prisms to be tiled are directly cemented together. The bottom surface of the prism is positioned between the first optical surface and the second optical surface. In the second optical tiling method, the side surfaces of the respective prisms are directly cemented. The side surface of each prism intersects with the first optical surface, the second optical surface and the third optical surface of the prism.
[0034] Furthermore, the surfaces of the prisms according to the present invention for optical tiling can be formed continuous together as larger optical surfaces, each larger surface can be fabricated in one time and thus it does not require additional processing for the tiling surface. In addition, all optical surfaces of the prism of the display channels in the head-mounted display device can be formed integrally, thus reducing difficulty and complexity of the tiling process.
[0053] The micro-display in each display channel can be any types of flat panel displays such as LCD displays, OLED displays. The prism can be formed of plastic or glass optical material by injection molding, micromachining, which will not be discussed in detail herein.
[0075] Tiled head-mounted display device for augmented environment applications
[0076] In tiled head-mounted display devices according to the ten embodiments discussed above, if the second optical surface 3 of the prism in each display channel is coated with a reflective film to be formed as a reflective surface, the tiled head-mounted display devices can be mainly used for virtual environment application. If the second optical surface 3 of the prism in each display channel can be coated with a transflective film to be formed as a semi- transmissive and semi-reflective surface, an head-mounted display device for augmented environment application can be formed by adding an auxiliary lens with free-form surfaces in the display device, so that the lens and the prisms can constitute a focus-free system and allow user to see through the display device to observe outside real world. FIG. 12 is a two dimensional schematic view of one display channel in a tiled head-mounted display system for augmented environment according to the present invention. Therefore the embodiments as discussed above can be used for augmented environment by adding an auxiliary lens with free-form surfaces.
[0077] FIG. 13a and FIG. 13b are two-dimensional schematic view and three-dimensional schematic view of a tiled head-mounted display system for augmented environment according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 13a, the tiled head-mounted display device can comprise display channels each comprising a prism with free-form surfaces 1302, a micro-display device 1302 and a lens with free-form surfaces 1304. The display channels can be tiled by the first mechanical tiling method, thus a part of prism 1302 and a part of lens 1304 are removed during tiling.
Further regarding claim 1, Cheng does not explicitly disclose the steps of forming a first transflective mirror element and a separate second transflective mirror element; forming a first functional coating over an active surface of the first transflective mirror element; forming a second functional coating over an active surface of the second transflective mirror element; and aligning the first transflective mirror element with the second transflective mirror element to form a microprism array.
However, Rodrigo discloses in figure 4, and related figures and text, for example, Rodrigo – Selected Text, embodiments of methods of parallel assembling microsystems using resin-based microscale building blocks. Rodrigo, 5. Summary (“The massively parallel nature of these methods enables mass production of microscale components.”).
Rodrigo – Figure 4
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Rodrigo – Selected Text
5. SUMMARY. We have demonstrated an optical microassembly scheme using multiple dynamic 3D optical traps. This, we believe, will enable researchers to extend their application of 2PP-fabrication and to break free from the common trend of synthesizing only substrate-attached microstructures of one polymer type at a time. The ability to assemble building blocks made from different polymer resin complements the technique of selective metallization of 2PP-fabricated objects [21]. Three-dimensional multiple-beam optical manipulation is not limited to polymer microcomponents fabricated by 2PP. Alternative microfabrication processes, such as photolithography and electron beam etching, are available to manufacture microscale components from a wider variety of materials. The massively parallel nature of these methods enables mass production of microscale components [22]. Microassembly via optical manipulation thus opens the door for the construction of hybrid microsystems [23] with a much broader range of functionality for the fields of MEMS, MOEMS and nanotechnology. The demonstrated process of fabricating designed microstructures as building blocks for subsequent optical assembly can serve as template for constructing reconfigurable microenvironments that can be utilized for investigating biomedical questions, among others.
Consequently, in light of Rodrigo’s disclosure of parallel assembly using resin-based microscope building blocks, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Cheng’s embodiments to disclose a method comprising: forming a first transflective mirror element and a separate second transflective mirror element; forming a first functional coating over an active surface of the first transflective mirror element; forming a second functional coating over an active surface of the second transflective mirror element; and aligning the first transflective mirror element with the second transflective mirror element to form a microprism array; Cheng, figures 12, 13a, and 13b, and related figures and text, for example, Cheng – Selected Text; Rodrigo, figure 4, and related figures and text, for example, Rodrigo – Selected Text; because the resultant method would facilitate designing, fabricating, and deploying 3D optical components using discrete microstructure building blocks. Bottger, 4. Summary and Outlook (“combining discrete 2D structures to form 3D functional elements”) and Bottger – Selected Text.
Böttger – Selected Text
ABSTRACT.
In recent years there has been considerable progress in utilizing fully automated machines for the assembly of microoptical systems. Such systems integrate laser sources, optical elements and detectors into tight packages, and efficiently couple light to free space beams, waveguides in optical backplanes, or optical fibers for longer reach transmission. The required electrical-optical and optical components are placed and aligned actively in more than one respect. For one, all active components are actually operated in the alignment process, and, more importantly, the placing of all components is controlled actively by camera systems and power detectors with live feedback for an optimal coupling efficiency.
The total number of optical components typically is in the range of 5 to 50, whereas the number of actors with gripping tools for the actual handling and aligning is limited, with little flexibility in the gripping width. The assembly process therefore is strictly sequential and, given that an automated tool changing has not been established in this class of machines yet, there are either limitations in the geometries of components that may be used, or time-consuming interaction by human operators is needed.
As a solution we propose and present lasered glass building blocks with standardized gripping geometries that enclose optical elements of various shapes and functionalities. These are cut as free form geometries with green short pulse and CO2 lasers. What seems to add cost at first rather increases freedom of design and adds an economical flexibility to create very hybrid assemblies of various micro-optical assemblies also in small numbers.
3.1 Design of photonic parts lasered from glass.
Starting with a general tolerance analysis, identifying crucial or more robust assembly steps as well as required degrees of freedom, the required holding and mounting parts are designed. These can be imported as standard 2D-DXF-files into the vectorization software supplied with the MDI-Schott laser system. In the design of these parts, the thickness of the glass is chosen according to the required stiffness and stability, or the shape of the optical elements to be held in position such as fiber optical ports (fiber collimators), focussing or collimating lenses, beam-splitters, filters, or even active optical components such as lasers. If using new glass types or thicknesses, some initial testing may be required to find optimal parameters for the laser processing. Once these parameters are found, parts can be cut out in large quantitities and with constant quality from large panels, with a direct singulation into parts or still connected to the original panel for panel scale production.
Regarding dependent claims 2-4 and 7-11, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Cheng in view of Rodrigo and further in view of Bottger, as applied in the rejection of claim 1, to disclose:
2. The method of claim 1, wherein forming the first transflective mirror element and forming the second transflective mirror element comprise molding an optical polymer. Cheng, figures 12, 13a, and 13b, and related figures and text, for example, Cheng – Selected Text; Rodrigo, figure 4, and related figures and text, Rodrigo – Selected Text; Bottger – Selected Text.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein a refractive index of the first transflective mirror element is substantially equal to a refractive index of the second transflective mirror element. Cheng, figures 12, 13a, and 13b, and related figures and text, for example, Cheng – Selected Text; Rodrigo, figure 4, and related figures and text, Rodrigo – Selected Text; Bottger – Selected Text.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein forming the first transflective mirror element comprises molding a first optical polymer and forming the second transflective mirror element comprises molding a second optical polymer. Cheng, figures 12, 13a, and 13b, and related figures and text, for example, Cheng – Selected Text; Rodrigo, figure 4, and related figures and text, Rodrigo – Selected Text; Bottger – Selected Text.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein a thickness of the first functional coating differs from a thickness of the second functional coating. Cheng, figures 12, 13a, and 13b, and related figures and text, for example, Cheng – Selected Text; Rodrigo, figure 4, and related figures and text, Rodrigo – Selected Text; Bottger – Selected Text.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein an angle of inclination of the active surface of the first transflective mirror element is different than an angle of inclination of the active surface of the second transflective mirror element. Cheng, figures 12, 13a, and 13b, and related figures and text, for example, Cheng – Selected Text; Rodrigo, figure 4, and related figures and text, Rodrigo – Selected Text; Bottger – Selected Text.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first transflective mirror element and the second transflective mirror element are aligned using a mating coupling feature. Cheng, figures 12, 13a, and 13b, and related figures and text, for example, Cheng – Selected Text; Rodrigo, figure 4, and related figures and text, Rodrigo – Selected Text; Bottger – Selected Text.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first transflective mirror element comprises a female coupling feature, the second transflective mirror element comprises a male coupling feature, and the first transflective mirror element and the second transflective mirror element are aligned by engaging the female coupling feature with the male coupling feature. Cheng, figures 12, 13a, and 13b, and related figures and text, for example, Cheng – Selected Text; Rodrigo, figure 4, and related figures and text, Rodrigo – Selected Text; Bottger – Selected Text.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first functional coating comprises a reflective polarizer having a first polarization response and the second functional coating comprises a reflective polarizer having a second polarization response different from the first polarization response. Cheng, figures 12, 13a, and 13b, and related figures and text, for example, Cheng – Selected Text; Rodrigo, figure 4, and related figures and text, Rodrigo – Selected Text; Bottger – Selected Text.
because the resultant configurations and methods would facilitate designing, fabricating, and deploying 3D optical components using discrete microstructure building blocks. Bottger, 4. Summary and Outlook (“combining discrete 2D structures to form 3D functional elements”) and Bottger – Selected Text.
Claims 5 and 6
Claims 5 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheng et al. (2013/0187836; “Cheng”) in view of Rodrigo et al. (Optically controlled three-dimensional assembly of microfabricated building blocks, in Novel Optical Instrumentation for Biomedical Applications IV, Vol. 7371 of Proceedings of SPIE-OSA Biomedical Optics (Optica Publishing Group, 2009), paper 7371_14; “Rodrigo”) and further in view of Böttger et al. (Building blocks for actively-aligned micro-optical systems in rapid prototyping and small series production, Proc. SPIE 9368, Optical Interconnects XV, 93680F (3 April 2015); “Bottger”), as applied in the rejection of claims 1-4 and 7-11, and further in view of Luten et al. (2009/0207513; “Luten”).
Regarding claims 5 and 6, Luten discloses in figure 2a, and related figures and text, for example, Luten – Selected Text, embodiments of methods that use evaporations and depositions to form transflective surfaces and zones. Luten, figure 2a, and related figures and text, for example, Luten – Selected Text
Luten – Figure 2A
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Luten – Selected Text
Abstract. A multi-zone reflector having an opaque zone and a transflective zone. The reflector includes a supporting base, a lower reflecting layer disposed adjacent the supporting base, and an upper reflecting layer extending over the opacifying layer and the transflective zone of the reflector. The lower reflecting layer substantially completely covers the transflective zone, and the opacifying layer is disposed substantially outside the transflective zone adjacent to the lower reflecting layer. Over at least a portion of the transflective zone, the upper and lower reflecting layers have a common surface.
[0049] A commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,700,692 teaches an electrochromic mirror having coatings that simultaneously provide for significant reflectance and low transmittance in the opaque area as well as high transmittance in the transflective display area. The patent also discloses an embodiment of a reflective coating having a gradient of thickness in the area of transition between the opaque and transflective areas of the mirror. FIG. 2 schematically illustrates an embodiment of a multi-zone reflector having a graded region of transition. FIG. 2(A) shows a cross-sectional view, and FIG. 2(B) shows a front view of an embodiment 200 of a reflector assembly, wherein the mirror element 202 has an opaque area 204 and a transflective area 206. As shown, the mirror element 202 is a regular viewing mirror having a single continuous reflective layer 207 (such as a metallic layer) disposed on a transparent supporting base substrate 208. In a specific embodiment, the supporting base may be a glass substrate. A portion 209 of the reflective layer 207, disposed in the opaque area 204 of the mirror element 202, is thick enough to substantially prevent incident ambient light I from penetrating through the mirror element 202 at the area 204. The portion 210 of the reflective layer 207 at the transflective area 206 is thinner than the portion 209 and provides for a required amount of light transmission through the area 206. The transition region 211, separating the transflective display area 206 of the mirror element from its opaque area 204, is defined by a gradual change in thickness of the reflective coating 207, as shown in FIG. 2(A). A user 112 can see the light L, emanating from a display 214, through the supporting base 209 at the transflective area 206. As shown in FIG. 2(B), the embodiment of the mirror element 202 is circular and the display area 206 is completely surrounded by the opaque area 204. Particular shapes of the opaque and display areas of any embodiment of a reflector according to the present invention, however, do not affect the performance and may differ from embodiment to embodiment. For example, an overall shape of the mirror substrate may be quasi-rectangular, and the opaque area of the mirror element may be non-enclosing with respect to the transflective area. FIGS. 2(C) and 2(D) demonstrate, in front view, two alternative orientations of the opaque and transflective areas of a multi-zone reflector having a transition region. In a specific alternative embodiment and in comparison to FIGS. 2(A) and 2(B), a transition region may be formed by grading or tailoring the thickness of the reflecting layer 207 in the opposite fashion. Specifically, the thickness of the reflecting layer 207 may be graded between the higher thickness value corresponding to the peripheral area 204 and the lower thickness corresponding to the central area 206. In such a specific case, however, the area 204 becomes transflective and the area 206 becomes opaque. It will also be appreciated that profiles of the reflecting layer(s) in the opaque and transflective areas are not limited to being uniform and, in general, may be variable.
[0054] A typical current commercial EC-mirror assembly utilizing an RCD, includes two lites of glass and a reflector stack fabricated on surface III. The third surface of such commercial mirror contains a quarter-wave-thick dielectric stack including TiO.sub.2 and indium-tin-oxide (ITO) layers and a silver alloy layer deposited on top of the quarter-wave stack. Both the quarter-wave-thick stack and the silver alloy layer are deposited across all of the third surface. Generally, the silver alloy refers to silver (Ag) doped with gold (Au) or another element or elements in any predetermined ratio. For example, in some embodiments, the silver alloy may contain about 7% of gold by weight, in which case the alloy may be denoted as 7X silver alloy or 7Au93Ag. The reflector stack used in the current commercial product is uniform across the third surface and has approximately 63 percent reflectance and 25 percent transmittance at any point across the stack. Because high transmittance is not desirable in the opaque area of the mirror, an opaque black plastic applique is additionally disposed in the opaque area between the fourth surface and the circuit board (or other components) located behind the mirror to hide them and make them invisible to the viewer. In practice, such applique backing is both expensive and difficult to apply cleanly: any wrinkles or bubbles in the applique are plainly visible through the reflective coating, which affects the yield of the product. In each and every embodiment discussed herein, thin-film deposition is carried out using methods such as physical vapor deposition, evaporations, DC-megatron sputtering, RF-sputtering, or other methods known in the art. Gradation of layer thicknesses can be achieved using, for example, using a knife-edge procedure where a blocker shielding a substrate from deposition of a material being sputtered is moved out of the way to increase the area of the substrate exposed to the depositing material. Fabrication of embodiments of the invention will be addressed below in more detail.
Consequently, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Cheng in view of Rodrigo and further in view of Bottger, as applied in the rejection of claims 1-4 and 7-11, to disclose:
5. The method of claim 1, wherein forming the first and second functional coatings comprises evaporative deposition. Luten, figure 2a, and related figures and text, for example, Luten – Selected Text. Cheng, figures 12, 13a, and 13b, and related figures and text, for example, Cheng – Selected Text; Rodrigo, figure 4, and related figures and text, Rodrigo – Selected Text; Bottger – Selected Text.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein forming the first functional coating comprises evaporative deposition in a first deposition process and forming the second functional coating comprises evaporative deposition in a second deposition process. Luten, figure 2a, and related figures and text, for example, Luten – Selected Text; Cheng, figures 12, 13a, and 13b, and related figures and text, for example, Cheng – Selected Text; Rodrigo, figure 4, and related figures and text, Rodrigo – Selected Text; Bottger – Selected Text.
because the resultant configurations and methods would facilitate fabricating arrays of optical microstructures characterized by selectively positioned transflective surfaces. Luten, figure 2a, and abstract.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PETER RADKOWSKI whose telephone number is (571)270-1613. The examiner can normally be reached on M-Th 9-5. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Thomas Hollweg, can be reached on (571) 270-1739. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
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/PETER RADKOWSKI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874