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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The prior art documents submitted by applicant in the Information Disclosure Statement filed on June 5, 2024 have all been considered and made of record (note the attached copy of form PTO-1449).
Drawings
Five (5) sheets of drawings were filed on February 15, 2024 and have been accepted by the examiner.
Specification
Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Inventorship
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
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 1-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ding et al. (“On-Chip mode division multiplexing technologies”, Next-Generation Optical Communication: Components, Sub-Systems, and Systems V, edited by Guifang Li, Xiang Zhou, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 9774, 977401, 2016 SPIE).
Regarding claims 1-14; Ding et al. discloses a 2x2 coupler (see Figure 1(a) and 2(a)), comprising:
a first stage (first stage; see Figure 1(a) annotated below) configured as a mode multiplexer; and
a second stage (second stage; see Figure 1(a) annotated below) configured as a multimode splitter;
wherein the first stage transitions to the second stage at a transition plane (transition plane; see Figure 1(a) annotated below), and wherein at the transition plane, substantially all optical power of an optical signal traversing through the 2x2 coupler is contained within a single multimode waveguide (multimode waveguide; see Figure 1(a) annotated below);
wherein the first stage (first stage; see Figure 1(a) annotated below) transitions to the second stage at a transition plane (transition plane; ; see Figure 1(a) annotated below), and wherein the mode multiplexer has a first input waveguide (first input waveguide; see Figure 1(a) annotated below) and a second input waveguide (second input waveguide; see Figure 1(a) annotated below) that each traverse from an input to the transition plane, and wherein the first and second input waveguides are arranged asymmetrically along a propagation axis of the 2x2 coupler (see Figure 1(a));
wherein the first stage transitions to the second stage at a transition plane (see Figure 1(a) annotated below), and wherein the first input waveguide and the second input waveguide are single mode waveguides at an input of the 2x2 coupler and the first and second input waveguides transition along the first stage so as to render a single multimode waveguide at least at the transition plane (see Figure 1(a) below; single TE0 modes are input to the input waveguides and multiple propagation modes, TE1 & TE0, propagate within the multimode waveguide);
wherein the first input waveguide becomes the single multimode waveguide at the transition plane while the second input waveguide tapers as the second input waveguide approaches the transition plane so that substantially all optical power of an optical signal input into the second input waveguide is contained in the single multimode waveguide at the transition plane (see Figure 1(a), the first input waveguide is the single mode waveguide at the transition plane and the second input waveguide tapers, i.e. the width increases, at the transition plane so that substantially all optical power of an optical signal input in the second input waveguide is contained in the single multimode waveguide at the transition plane);
wherein the mode multiplexer is arranged as a two-mode multiplexer (TE1 & TE0);
wherein the multimode splitter is arranged symmetrically along a propagation axis of the 2x2 coupler (see Figure 1(a));
wherein the multimode splitter is arranged as a multimode y-splitter (see Figure 1(a));
wherein the multimode y-splitter has a multimode waveguide that tapers and two output waveguides that inverse taper (see Figure 1(a); the two output waveguides inverse taper at the branching portion thereof; the examiner notes that a step taper occurs for the upper output waveguide at the transition of the y-coupled from the multimode section to the single mode section, since the multimode section forms part of the waveguide in the multimode region and not after the branching point);
wherein the first stage transitions to the second stage at a transition plane, and wherein, at the transition plane, the multimode waveguide is in communication with a single multimode waveguide of the mode multiplexer (see Figure 1(a) annotated below);
wherein the multimode waveguide is arranged between the two output waveguides (output waveguides; see annotated Figure 1(a) below; at least a portion of the multimode waveguide is between the two output waveguides; see Figure 1(a));
wherein the multimode waveguide terminates before an output of the 2x2 coupler (see Figure 1(a));
wherein the two output waveguides (output waveguides; see Figure 1(a) below) diverge from one another as they approach an output of the 2x2 coupler (see Figure 1(a));
wherein the 2x2 coupler is made entirely of silicon (SOI waveguide; see the caption of Figure 1(b)).
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Regarding claims 15-19; Ding et al. discloses a 2x2 coupler (see Figure 1 annotated below), comprising:
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a first stage (first stage; see Figure 1(a) annotated above) having two input waveguides (first input waveguide and second input waveguide) that transition asymmetrically along a propagation axis of the 2x2 coupler so that an optical signal input into one of the two input waveguides traverses into, or remains in, a first input waveguide (first input waveguide) of the two input waveguides, wherein the first input waveguide transitions from a single mode waveguide to a multimode waveguide (multimode waveguide); and
a second stage (second stage) having two single mode output waveguides (output waveguides) and a multimode waveguide (multimode waveguide) arranged in communication with the multimode waveguide of the first stage (see Figure 1(a); the examiner notes that the area where the first and second input waveguides are closest together forms a multimode waveguide section, as understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art), the two single mode output waveguides (output waveguides) and the multimode waveguide (multimode waveguide) transition symmetrically along the propagation axis so that the optical signal traversing in the multimode waveguide of the first stage is received by the multimode waveguide of the second stage and split into the two single mode output waveguides (see Figure 1(a));
wherein the 2x2 coupler is an adiabatic 2x2 coupler (the adiabatic tapering ensure a sufficiently long interaction length to achieve efficient coupling; see the portion of section 2.1 Mode (de)multiplexers above Figure 1(a) on page 977407-2);
wherein the first input waveguide inverse tapers along at least a portion of the first stage (step tapers at the transition plane of the first stage; see Figure 1(a)) and a second input waveguide of the two input waveguides tapers along at least a portion of the first stage (see Figure 1(a));
wherein the first input waveguide and the second input waveguide (first input waveguide and second input waveguide) converge toward one another from an input of the 2x2 coupler to a first plane arranged between the input and a transition plane defined where the first stage transitions to the second stage (see Figure 1(a), annotated above);
wherein the multimode waveguide (multimode waveguide) of the second stage (second stage) is arranged between the two single mode output waveguides (output waveguides; at least a portion of the multimode waveguide is between the output waveguides) and tapers over at least a portion of the second stage (second stage) as the multimode waveguide (multimode waveguide) extends away from the first stage (first stage) while the two single mode output waveguides (output waveguides) both inverse taper over at least a portion of the second stage as the two single mode output waveguides extend away from the first stage (see Figure 1(a) annotated above; the two output waveguides inverse taper at the branching portion thereof; the examiner notes that a step taper occurs for the upper output waveguide at the transition of the y-coupled from the multimode section to the single mode section, since the multimode section forms part of the waveguide in the multimode region and not after the branching point).
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 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ravi et al. (10,534,130 B1) in view of Ding et al. (“On-Chip mode division multiplexing technologies”, Next-Generation Optical Communication: Components, Sub-Systems, and Systems V, edited by Guifang Li, Xiang Zhou, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 9774, 977401, 2016 SPIE).
Regarding claim 20; Ravi et al. discloses a Mach Zehnder device (100; see figure 1), comprising 2x2 couplers (108, 110), but does not disclose the 2x2 coupler as claimed. Ding discloses a 2x2 coupler (see Figure 1(a)) that provides efficient mode demultiplexing (see the entire disclosure and Figure 1(a)), the 2x2 coupler (see Figure 1(a) annotated below) comprising:
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a first stage (first stage) having two input waveguides (first input waveguide and second input waveguide) that transition asymmetrically along a propagation axis of the 2x2 coupler so that an optical signal input into a first input waveguide or a second input waveguide of the two input waveguides traverses into, or remains in, the first input waveguide (see Figure 1(a); the first waveguide tapers and transitions to the multimode waveguide), wherein the first input waveguide transitions from a single mode waveguide to a multimode waveguide (see Figure 1(a)), and wherein the first input waveguide inverse tapers while the second input waveguide tapers over at least a portion of the first stage as the first and second waveguides extend away from an inlet of the 2x2 coupler (the second waveguide has a step taper where it is closest to the multimode waveguide, since that second action as a portion of the multimode waveguide); and
a second stage (second stage) having two single mode output waveguides (output waveguides) and a multimode waveguide (multimode waveguide) arranged in communication with the multimode waveguide of the first stage, the two single mode output waveguides and the multimode waveguide transition symmetrically along the propagation axis so that the optical signal traversing in the multimode waveguide of the first stage is received by the multimode waveguide of the second stage and split into the two single mode output waveguides (see Figure 1(a)).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Ding et al. (“On-chip two-mode division multiplexing using tapered directional coupler-based mode multiplexer and demultiplexer”, Optics Express, Vol. 21, No. 8, April 2013), see entire document;
Peterson et al. (EP 3 954 070 B1), see entire document;
Tao (CN 112539849 A), see entire document;
Tambasco (US 12.372.722 B2), see entire document;
Oka (US 2017/0176679 A1), see entire document;
Tambasco et al. (US 12,510,708 B2), see entire document;
Henry (US 4,998,793 A), see entire document; and
Matsumoto (US 9,465,168 B2), see entire document.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHELLE R CONNELLY whose telephone number is (571)272-2345. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Uyen-Chau Le can be reached at 571-272-2397. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MICHELLE R CONNELLY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874