DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Specification
The specification is objected to because [0058] refers to "126", which does not appear in the figures.
Claim Objections
Claim 4 is objected to because line 1 recites "comprises" instead of "comprise".
Claim 12 is objected to because line 2 recites "comprises" instead of "comprise".
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2, 5-10, and 13-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by US 2023/0367082 A1 (already of record via information disclosure statement).
The applied reference has a common applicant with the instant application. Based upon the earlier effectively filed date of the reference, it constitutes prior art under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2). This rejection under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) might be overcome by: (1) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(a) that the subject matter disclosed in the reference was obtained directly or indirectly from the inventor or a joint inventor of this application and is thus not prior art in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(A); (2) a showing under 37 CFR 1.130(b) of a prior public disclosure under 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(B) if the same invention is not being claimed; or (3) a statement pursuant to 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) establishing that, not later than the effective filing date of the claimed invention, the subject matter disclosed in the reference and the claimed invention were either owned by the same person or subject to an obligation of assignment to the same person or subject to a joint research agreement.
Claim 1: '082 discloses an adapter tip to be employed with an optical-fiber connector endface inspection microscope for imaging two non-parallel APC optical-fiber endfaces of a duplex optical-fiber connector, the adapter tip comprising:
a housing 104 having (see fig. 5):
a mating interface 106 on one end, configured to mechanically engage with the duplex optical-fiber connector for inspecting the optical-fiber endfaces;
a connection mechanism 110 on the other end, to releasably attach to the inspection microscope; and
a hollow body 116 extending between the one end and the other end and allowing light beams reflected from the optical-fiber endfaces to propagate to an objective lens of the inspection microscope; and
relay optics 40 disposed in said hollow body of said housing and defining two imaging paths for respectively imaging said two optical-fiber endfaces, said relay optics comprising (see fig. 13A):
a first refracting plane surface (right surface of the left wedge, not numbered in fig. 13A but corresponding to 127 in fig. 8A) and a second refracting plane surface (left surface of the right wedge, not numbered in fig. 13A but corresponding to 129 in fig. 8A) along each of said imaging paths (depicted as upper and lower paths in fig. 13A),
wherein said first refracting plane surface and said second refracting plane surface are both tilted relative to the corresponding light beam so as to deviate said corresponding light beam towards an optical axis of the objective lens (fig. 13A, [0091]), such that both light beams reach the objective lens of the inspection microscope and both endfaces may be imaged within a field of view of the inspection microscope.
Claim 2: Said relay optics comprise two optical prisms, each along one of said imaging paths, each said optical prism defining a first refracting plane surface and a second refracting plane surface. Each wedge in fig. 13A is a prism and includes at least two refracting plane surfaces. It is noted that claim 2 does not recite that each prism provides the corresponding first and second refracting plane surfaces introduced by claim 1.
Claim 5: Said relay optics comprise a first optical wedge and a second optical wedge along each one of said imaging paths, wherein one surface of said first optical wedge defines said first refracting plane surface and one surface of said second optical wedge defines said second refracting plane surface along each of said imaging paths (fig. 13A).
Claim 6: Said relay optics comprises a pair of collimating lenses along each of said imaging paths, said first refracting plane surface and said second refracting plane surface being disposed in-between said collimating lenses. The collimating lenses are not numbered in fig. 13A but correspond to 122 and 124 in fig. 8A.
Claim 7: '082 discloses an optical-fiber connector endface inspection microscope system for imaging two non-parallel APC optical-fiber endfaces of a duplex optical-fiber connector, the inspection microscope system comprising:
an optical-fiber connector endface inspection microscope device 10 having an objective lens 36 defining a field of view of the inspection microscope device (figs. 4A-4B); and
(see above with regard to claim 1 for the following limitations):
an adapter tip connectable to the optical-fiber connector endface inspection microscope device and comprising: a housing having: a mating interface on one end, configured to mechanically engage with the duplex optical-fiber connector for inspecting the optical-fiber endfaces; a connection mechanism on the other end, to releasably attach to the inspection microscope; and a hollow body extending between the one end and the other end and allowing light beams reflected from the optical-fiber endfaces to propagate to the objective lens of the inspection microscope; and relay optics disposed in said hollow body of said housing and defining two imaging paths for respectively imaging said two optical-fiber endfaces, said relay optics comprising a first refracting plane surface and a second refracting plane surface along each of said imaging paths, wherein said first refracting plane surface and said second refracting plane surface are both tilted relative to the corresponding light beam so as to deviate said corresponding light beam towards an optical axis of the objective lens, such that both light beams reach the objective lens of the inspection microscope and both endfaces may be imaged within a field of view of the inspection microscope.
Claim 8: The optical-fiber connector endface inspection microscope device comprises at least one image sensor 34 for capturing images of the endfaces to be inspected, and an objective lens system comprising a focusing lens 35 for adjusting a focus of the objective lens system on the at least one image sensor and a controller; and
wherein the controller is configured to (see [0076]):
adjust a focus of the objective lens system in a first position where one of the optical fiber endfaces is in focus on said at least one image sensor and capture a first image; and
adjust a focus of the objective lens system in a second position where the other one of the optical fiber endfaces is in focus on said at least one image sensor and capture a second image, wherein the second position is different from the first position.
Claim 9: The optical-fiber connector endface inspection microscope device comprises a first image sensor 34 and a second image sensor 34 (fig. 4A, [0073]), disposed so as to capture images of respective regions over the optical-fiber endface.
Claims 10 and 13-14: See above with regard to claims 2 and 5-6 respectively.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-4 and 11-12 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 their respective base claim and all applicable intervening claims.
Regarding claims 3 and 11, the applied '082 reference does not disclose or suggest that the prisms of claims 2 and 10 are joined to one another. Claims 4 and 12 depend from claims 3 and 11 respectively.
Conclusion
The references listed on the attached 892 form are considered generally relevant to the subject matter of this application. Several of them disclose other examples of connector inspection devices, and US 2021/0080655 A1 and US 2022/0011525 A1 disclose examples of duplex APC connectors having oppositely slanted endfaces.
Contact Information
Examiner: 571-272-2360
Examiner's direct supervisor: 571-272-2397
Official correspondence by fax: 571-273-8300
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/Michael Stahl/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874