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.
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.
Claims 15 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nagano (US 2004/00227631) in view of Iizuka (JPH05341215A).
Regarding claim 15, Nagano teaches a collimator lens (150 in Fig. 28-29, Fig. 22, [0251-0262]) for collimating a plurality of light beams (Fig. 28, [0253]) from a light source array (170 in Fig. 28, [0253]) in which a plurality of light sources (C1-C7 in Fig. 28, [0252]) are arranged (Fig. 28), the collimator lens (150 in Fig. 28-29, [0251-0262]) comprising:
a plurality of first lens portions (151-157 in Fig. 28-29, [0258]) arranged in an arrangement direction (the vertical direction in Fig. 28), the plurality of lens portions (151-157 in Fig. 28-29, [0258]) corresponding to the plurality of light sources (C1-C7 in Fig. 28, [0252]) in the light source array (170 in Fig. 28, [0253]).
Nagano teaches that each of the plurality of first lens portions (151-157 in Fig. 28-29, [0258]) has a substantially same shape (Fig. 28, Fig. 22, Fig. 19, [0224, 0215]), a vertical direction (the vertical direction in Fig. 29) intersecting the arrangement direction (the vertical direction in Fig. 28) and an optical axis direction (the horizontal direction in Fig. 28 and Fig. 29) of each light beam (Fig. 28-29). Nagano not teach that the plurality of first lens portions are provided rotationally asymmetrically to have positive power in the vertical direction and to have positive power in the arrangement direction.
Iizuka teaches that (Fig. 1, Pages 1-4 of English translation of JPH05341215A) a lens portion (10 in Fig. 1, page 3, Paragraph 1, The positive lens 10 is a rotationally asymmetric glass lens having positive power in both the main and sub-scanning directions) is provided rotationally asymmetrically to have positive power in a vertical direction (the direction corresponding to the sub scanning direction, Fig. 1, page 3, Paragraph 1, Page 2, Paragraphs 11-13) and to have positive power in another direction (the direction corresponding to the main scanning direction, Fig. 1, page 3, Paragraph 1, Page 2, Paragraphs 11-13), the vertical direction intersecting the another direction and an optical axis direction of the light beam (the horizontal direction in Fig. 1, page 3, Paragraph 1, Page 2, Paragraphs 1 and 11-13)
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to the artisan of ordinary skill to employ the above elements as taught by Iizuka for each of the plurality of first lens portions in the system of Nagano such that in the system of Nagano, the plurality of first lens portions are provided rotationally asymmetrically to have positive power in the vertical direction and to have positive power in the arrangement direction. The motivation is to reduce the influence of temperature change without increasing the number of lenses (Iizuka, Page 2, Paragraph 6).
Regarding claim 17, Nagano also teaches the following elements:
(Claim 17) a laser device (Fig. 28-29) comprising: the light source array (170 in Fig. 28, [0253]) including the plurality of light sources (C1-C7 in Fig. 28, [0252]) arranged in the arrangement direction (the vertical direction in Fig. 28), configured to emit the plurality of light beams (Fig. 28); and the collimator lens (150 in Fig. 28-29, [0251-0262]) configured to guide the plurality of light beams (Fig. 28-29) from the light source array (170 in Fig. 28, [0253]).
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nagano in view of Iizuka as applied to claim 15 above, and further in view of Ichihashi (US 2020/0379248).
Regarding claim 16, Nagano teaches an optical system (Fig. 28-29, Fig. 22, [0251-0262]) comprising: the collimator lens (150 in Fig. 28-29). Nagano does not teach the following elements.
Ichihashi teaches the following elements (Fig. 2-5):
(Claim 16) An optical system (2 in Fig. 2) comprising: a collimator lens (21a in Fig. 2-4, [0036]) and an optical element (21b in Fig. 2 and 5, [0035-0038]) disposed on an emission side of each light beams in the collimator lens (21a in Fig. 2-4), wherein the optical element includes a plurality of second lens portions arranged to rotate the respective light beams incident from the collimator lens around the optical axis direction (Fig. 5, [0037]).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to the artisan of ordinary skill to employ the above elements as taught by Ichihashi for the system of Nagano in view of Iizuka such that in the system of Nagano in view of Iizuka,
(Claim 16) An optical system comprising: the collimator lens of the system of Nagano in view of Iizuka and an optical element an optical element disposed on an emission side of each light beams in the collimator lens of the system of Nagano in view of Iizuka, wherein the optical element includes a plurality of second lens portions arranged to rotate the respective light beams incident from the collimator lens around the optical axis direction.
The motivation is to provides an optical resonator and a laser processing machine (Ichihashi, [0003]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-14 are allowed.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding independent claim 1, none of the prior art discloses or suggests that an optical system for guiding a plurality of light beams from a light source array in which a plurality of light sources are arranged, the optical system comprising: a first collimator lens disposed facing the light source array; an optical element disposed on an emission side of each light beam in the first collimator lens; and a second collimator lens disposed on an emission side of each light beam in the optical element, wherein the first collimator lens includes a plurality of lens portions arranged in the arrangement direction, the plurality of lens portions corresponding to the plurality of light sources in the light source array, and wherein “the first collimator lens is configured to collimate each light beam in at least a vertical direction among the vertical direction and an arrangement direction of the plurality of light sources, the vertical direction intersecting the arrangement direction and an optical axis direction of each light beam; the second collimator lens is configured to collimate each light beam at least in the arrangement direction, and the plurality of lens portions are configured rotationally asymmetrically to have positive power in the vertical direction and have positive power in the arrangement direction” in combination with the other required elements of the claim.
The most relevant reference, the prior art to Nagano (US 2004/00227631), Iizuka (JPH05341215A) and Ichihashi (US 2020/0379248), taken along or in combination, only discloses an optical system for guiding a plurality of light beams from a light source array in which a plurality of light sources are arranged, the optical system comprising: a first collimator lens disposed facing the light source array; an optical element disposed on an emission side of each light beam in the first collimator lens; and a second collimator lens disposed on an emission side of each light beam in the optical element, wherein the first collimator lens includes a plurality of lens portions arranged in the arrangement direction, the plurality of lens portions corresponding to the plurality of light sources in the light source array. However they do not teach or suggest that “the first collimator lens is configured to collimate each light beam in at least a vertical direction among the vertical direction and an arrangement direction of the plurality of light sources, the vertical direction intersecting the arrangement direction and an optical axis direction of each light beam; the second collimator lens is configured to collimate each light beam at least in the arrangement direction, and the plurality of lens portions are configured rotationally asymmetrically to have positive power in the vertical direction and have positive power in the arrangement direction” in combination with the other required elements of the claim.
Dependent claims 2-14 would be allowable by virtue of their dependency.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHAN LIU whose telephone number is (571)270-0383. The examiner can normally be reached on 9am-5pm EST M-F.
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/Shan Liu/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2871