DETAILED 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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 14, 19-21, 25-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Seok et al. (“Wafer-scale silicon photonic switches beyond die size limit”, Optica, Vol 6, No 4, April 2019, from hereinafter “Seok”).
Regarding claim 1, Seok teaches an optical flow switch (see Abstract), optical switches have been proposed as a promising alternative to enable continual scaling of data centers with increasing size and data rates (it is noted that an optical flow switch is defined as an optical switch that routes optical signals between portions of the data center or computing system in Applicant's current specification), comprising a network of photonic switches arranged between input and output ports of the optical flow switch (see Fig. 3(a); Pg 492, col 1: All three building blocks (Input, output, and switch) have a footprint of 1 cm x 1 cm), wherein the network of photonic switches spans two or more reticles (See Abstract, a 240 X 240 switch was fabricated by lithographically stitching a 3 >> 3 array of identical 80 x 80 switch blocks across reticle boundaries; see pg 491, col 2; The offset between adjacent reticles in the deep-UV stepper (ASML 5500/300) is less than 100 nm).
Regarding claim 2, Seok teaches wherein the two or more reticles comprise a same reticle pattern (see page 490, col 1-2, step and repeat lithography stepper), and the network of photonic switches is formed of a repeating arrangement of the same reticle pattern (see page 490, col 2 step and repeat lithography stepper).
Regarding claims 14, Seok teaches wherein the two or more reticles comprise rows or columns of reticles, each row or column of reticles being formed using a same set of reticle patterns (see page 490, col 2 step and repeat lithography stepper, blocks have rows and columns).
Regarding claims 19-21, Seok teaches wherein photonic switches of the network of photonic switches that are disposed in a first reticle are coupled to photonic switches of the network of photonic switches disposed in a second reticle by waveguides (regarding claim 19). Regarding claim 20, wherein photonic switches of the network of photonic switches are disposed in an arrangement spanning two or more chip and regarding claim 21, wherein the two or more chips are coupled using optical fibers (see page 491, col 2).
Regarding claim 25, Seok teaches wherein photonic switches comprise silicon photonic switches (see page 490, columns 1-2).
Regarding claim 26, Seok teaches wherein the input and output ports comprise grating couplers, edge couplers, and/or v-groove couplers (see edge couplers, page 490, column 1, line 5).
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, 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) 3-7, 11-13, and 22-24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Seok in view of Hosseini et al. (USPGPub 2020/0393737, from hereinafter “Hosseini”).
Regarding claims 3-7 and 11-13, Seok discloses the optical flow switch of claim 1, but does not specifically teach wherein the network of photonic switches comprises a Cantor network or a Benes network, which entails Benes switches and their placements.
In the same field of endeavor, Hosseini teaches an optical switch array (see Abstract, paragraph [0063]: an optical switching apparatus comprises: Input ports receiving respective input optical waves, each coupled to a respective beam-forming structure a spatially distributed phase shifter to apply different reception optical phase shifts over different portions of the respective spatial region, where the reception optical phase shifts determine the selected reception angle and an output optical waveguide) defined by reticles (see paragraph [0068]) wherein the network of photonic switches comprises a Cantor network or a Benes network (see paragraph [0081]-[0083]: an example of 16x16 optical switching network formed with integrated optical waveguides connecting individual 2x2 switches in such configurations, a 2x2 MZI type switch can be used as the basic building block of the system and the number of waveguide crossing used in such system grows exponentially; a network with the topology shown in this example is typically called a Benes network). Additionally, regarding claims 12-13, Hosseini teaches the coupling of Benes switches and output ports (see paragraph [0082]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention for the network of photonic switches of Seok to comprise a Cantor network or a Benes network, as disclosed by Hosseini to provide a NxN switch architecture as known in the art (see para [0081]) in order to have an efficient, well-run system.
Regarding claims 22-24, Seok fails to specifically teach wherein photonic switches of the network of photonic switches comprise a 2x2 Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) switch, or further arrangements thereof, such as three MZI switches in series.
Hosseini teaches an example of 16x16 optical switching network formed with integrated optical waveguides connecting individual 2x2 switches in such configurations, a 2x2 MZI type switch can be used as the basic building block of the system (see paragraph [0081]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use a notoriously well-known MZI type switch/series of switches for a stable foundation for the optical switching network.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8-10 and 15-18 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.
For example, regarding claim 9, the best prior art of record fails to teach the specific Cantor and Benes network equation.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: US Patent No. 6,259,833 to Doerr et al.
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/LISA M CAPUTO/Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2874