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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 1-22 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected group, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 6/1/2026.
Applicant’s election without traverse of group I in the reply filed on 6/1/2026 is acknowledged.
After careful review and search of claims, examiner requests the applicant to re-introduce the cancelled claims 1-22 in an amendment, since the claims contain allowable subject matter.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
Claims 23-28, 36-44 and 52-54 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Uthoff et al (US 11/747,446 B1).
Regarding claim 23, Uthoff discloses a light detection and ranging (lidar) transmitter (Figs. 27A-28C), comprising:
a laser assembly to generate optical radiation (column 20, lines 41-43 “VCSEL array 2701 (e.g. a one-dimensional or two-dimensional array of VCSELs) to generate optical radiation”);
a tunable optical metasurface (column 20, line37-38 “tunable metasurface 2780”) to:
selectively steer incident optical radiation in a steering direction for transmission at a plurality of steering angles within a first field of view (FOV) in the steering direction for which the optical transmissivity is above a threshold transmittance value, and transmit the optical radiation at each of the plurality of steering angles within a second, fixed FOV in a non-steering direction (see the beam reflected off from metasurface 2780);
an optical assembly to convey the optical radiation generated by the laser assembly to the metasurface to be steered (column 20, lines 43-46 “beam deflector 2705 into the coupling prism 2775 for internal reflection and incidence on the metasurface 2780”);
a controller (column 20, line 51-54 “Fig. 27B … LiDAR 2703 using the optical transmitter 2700 of Fig. 27A and a time-of-flight sensor 2785 … a receiver optical assembl 2786” inherently disclose a controller) to:
cause the laser assembly to generate optical radiation (column 20, lines 41-43 “VCSEL array 2701 (e.g. a one-dimensional or two-dimensional array of VCSELs) to generate optical radiation”), and tune the metasurface to steer incident optical radiation as a sequence of transmit scan lines at various steering angles within the first FOV (first FOV as shown in Figs. 29-31); and
a biconic freeform optic (Fig. 28C and column 21 “freeform optic diffuser 2852”) positioned within an optical path of the metasurface (column 21 “metasurface 2880”), the freeform optic configured to expand the first FOV in the steering direction to an expanded FOV with an optical transmissivity above the threshold transmittance value (Column 21, lines 1-4 “Fig. 28C illustrates a metasurface-based transmitter device with a freeform optic diffuser 2852 to expand the optical radiation 2890 steered by the metasurface 28809 in the non-steering direction”),
wherein the expanded FOV in the steering direction is larger than the first FOV (see Fig. 28C, expanded FOV is larger than the first FOV 2890).
Regarding claim 24, the lidar transmitter of claim 23, wherein the freeform optic comprises a
metalens formed on a curved substrate (Fig. 28C, see freeform 2892).
Regarding claim 25, the lidar transmitter of claim 23, wherein the freeform optic comprises one
or more of a diffractive optical element, a refractive optical element (2852 is a freeform optic diffuser), and a reflective optical element.
Regarding claim 26, the lidar transmitter of claim 23, wherein the freeform optic operates to
deflect the sequence of transmit scan lines at the various transmit angles with an expanded, fixed FOV in the non-steering direction that is larger than the second, fixed FOV of the metasurface (see Fig. 32).
Regarding claim 27, the lidar transmitter of claim 23, wherein the freeform optic operates to
deflect the sequence of transmit scan lines at the various transmit angles without any change to the FOV in the non-steering direction, such the transmit scan lines are transmitted within the second, fixed FOV of the metasurface (see Fig. 32).
Regarding claim 28, the lidar transmitter of claim 23, further comprising:
an air gap (Figs. 28A-28C, there is an air gap) between the freeform optic (2850, 2851, 2852) and the metasurface (2880).
Regarding claim 36, the lidar transmitter of claim 23, wherein the optical assembly comprises
one or more of a lens, a mirror, and a prism (column 20, lines 43-46 “beam deflector 2705 into the coupling prism 2775 for internal reflection and incidence on the metasurface 2780”).
Regarding claim 37, the lidar transmitter of claim 23, wherein the laser assembly comprises a
set of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) (column 20, lines 41-43 “VCSEL array 2701 (e.g. a one-dimensional or two-dimensional array of VCSELs) to generate optical radiation”).
Regarding claim 38, the lidar transmitter of claim 37, wherein different subsets of the VCSELs
are configured to be selectively activated to generate optical radiation for incidence on the metasurface at different angles of incidence in the non-steering direction, and wherein the controller causes the laser assembly to generate optical radiation by selectively activating a subset of the VCSELs (column 10, lines 23-35 “FIG. 4A illustrates an array of vertically aligned rows of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) 400, according to one embodiment. VCSELs emit light perpendicular to the surface of the substrate and tens, hundreds, or thousands of VCSELs may be arranged in rows and columns on a single chip for use as an optical radiation source in many of the embodiments described herein. Individual or groups of VCSELs may be selectively activated to control the total power output and/or angle at which the optical radiation is incident on the metasurface. In some embodiments, a controller can individually address and selectively activate each VCSEL, groups of VCSELs, rows of VCSELs, columns of VCSELs, and/or tiles or subsets of VCSELs”)
Regarding claim 39, A light detection and ranging (lidar) receiver (Figs. 27A-28C), comprising:
an array of detector elements to detect optical radiation as a received scan line (Fig. 27B, column 20, line 53 “time-of-flight sensor 2785”);
a tunable optical metasurface that is steerable in a steering direction to (column 20, line37-38 “tunable metasurface 2780”):
reflect incident optical radiation to the array of detector elements at each of a plurality of receive steering angles within a first field of view (FOV) in the steering direction for which optical transmissivity is above a threshold transmittance value, and reflect incident optical radiation to the array of detector elements at each of the plurality of receive steering angles within a second, fixed FOV in a non-steering direction (column 20, lines 43-46 “beam deflector 2705 into the coupling prism 2775 for internal reflection and incidence on the metasurface 2780”;
an optical assembly to convey the optical radiation reflected by the metasurface to the array of detector elements (Fig. 27B and column 20, line 54 “receiver optical assembly 2786”);
a controller (column 20, line 51-54 “Fig. 27B … LiDAR 2703 using the optical transmitter 2700 of Fig. 27A and a time-of-flight sensor 2785 … a receiver optical assembl 2786” inherently disclose a controller) to tune the metasurface to receive optical radiation (column 20, lines 41-43 “VCSEL array 2701 (e.g. a one-dimensional or two-dimensional array of VCSELs) to generate optical radiation”) at a sequence of receive steering angles within the first FOV (first FOV as shown in Figs. 29-31); and
a biconic freeform optic (Fig. 28C and column 21 “freeform optic diffuser 2852”) positioned within an optical path of the metasurface (column 21 “metasurface 2880”), the freeform optic configured to expand the first FOV in the steering direction to an expanded FOV with an optical transmissivity above the threshold transmittance value (Column 21, lines 1-4 “Fig. 28C illustrates a metasurface-based transmitter device with a freeform optic diffuser 2852 to expand the optical radiation 2890 steered by the metasurface 28809 in the non-steering direction”),
wherein the expanded FOV in the steering direction is larger than the first FOV (see Fig. 28C, expanded FOV is larger than the first FOV 2890).
Regarding claim 40, the lidar receiver of claim 39, wherein the freeform optic comprises a
metalens formed on a curved substrate (Fig. 28C, see freeform 2892).
Regarding claim 41, the lidar receiver of claim 39, wherein the freeform optic comprises one or
more of a diffractive optical element, a refractive optical element (2852 is a freeform optic diffuser), and a reflective optical element.
Regarding claim 42, the lidar receiver of claim 39, wherein the freeform optic operates to reflect the incident optical radiation at the sequence of receive steering angles with an expanded, fixed FOV in the non-steering direction that is larger than the second, fixed FOV of the metasurface (see Fig. 32).
Regarding claim 43, the lidar receiver of claim 39, wherein the freeform optic operates to reflect the incident optical radiation at the sequence of receive steering angles without any change to the FOV in the non-steering direction (see Fig. 32).
Regarding claim 44, the lidar receiver of claim 39, further comprising:
an air gap (Figs. 28A-28C, there is an air gap) between the freeform optic (2850, 2851, 2852) and the metasurface (2880).
Regarding claim 52, the lidar receiver of claim 39, wherein the optical assembly comprises
one or more of a lens, a mirror, and a prism (column 20, lines 43-46 “beam deflector 2705 into the coupling prism 2775 for internal reflection and incidence on the metasurface 2780”).
Regarding claims 53 and 54, Uthoff discloses the claimed invention as set forth above except for wherein the array of detector elements comprises a one-dimensional array of detector elements or a two-dimensional array of detector elements (see Figs. 4A and 4B).
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.
Claims 35 and 51 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Uthoff et al (US 11/747,446 B1).
Uthoff discloses the claimed invention as set forth above except for wherein the threshold transmittance value is between 80% and 99%, but the transmittance value of the prior art is most likely within the claimed range.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention before the effective filing date to choose the claimed value, since it has been held that discovering an optimum value of a result effective variable involves only routine skill in the art, as being motivated to obtain an excellent lidar transmitter.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 29-34 and 45-50 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.
The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for allowance:
claims are allowable at least for the reason that the prior art does not teach or reasonably suggest the freeform optic comprising:
a concave first surface positioned proximate to the metasurface, and
a biconic second surface that has a first radius of curvature along a first axis in the steering direction of the metasurface and a second radius of curvature along a second axis in a non-steering direction of the metasurface,
wherein the first radius of curvature along the first axis is different than the second radius of curvature along the second axis as set forth in the claimed combination.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to EUNCHA P CHERRY whose telephone number is (571)272-2310. The examiner can normally be reached M to F 7am to 3:30pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Pinping Sun can be reached at (571) 270-1284. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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7/15/2026
/EUNCHA P CHERRY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2872
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