NON-FINAL REJECTION
Acknowledgements
1. Claims 1-17 were presented for examination on Oct. 25, 2023. These claims are grouped as follows:
claims 1-16; and
claim 17.
2. The presumed effective filing date of the instant application is Oct. 25, 2023, which is the actual filing date of the instant application.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
3. Claims 1-5, 9-14, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by US 10,985,531 to Wang et al. published Apr. 20, 2021 (“Wang”).
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As to claim 1, Wang discloses a surface-emitting type semiconductor laser (fig.1) comprising:
a substrate (col.4:48); and
a structure (VCSEL mesa) that includes a 1st multilayer-film reflective mirror (2nd DBR mirror) of a 1st conductivity type formed on the substrate,
an active layer (quantum well structure) formed on the 1st multilayer-film reflective mirror (2nd DBR mirror, #102b), and
a 2nd multilayer-film reflective mirror (DBR mirror, #102a) of a 2nd conductivity type that is formed on the active layer (quantum well structure) and
includes
a current confinement layer (col. 4:54-58), and that is a structure in which a shape of an aperture formed in the current confinement layer to represent a part not subjected to oxide confinement is a shape not including an axially symmetrical or point symmetrical part.
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col.5:12-17.
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As to claim 2, Wang discloses “the structure is a mesa structure and an external shape of the mesa structure or an arrangement of holes of the trench structure is not a circular shape” because Wang’s mesa reads on the claimed “mesa structure” and the aperture is elliptical.
As to claim 3, Wang discloses “the external shape of the mesa structure or the arrangement of the holes of the trench structure includes a linear shape” because Wang’s mesa reads on the claimed “mesa structure” and Wang’s aperture is elliptical, which is linear in one-dimension.
As to claim 4, Wang discloses “the shape of the aperture is a shape including a linear part and an arc part connected to both ends of the linear part, and a point most separated from the linear part among a plurality of points constituting the arc part is not on a center line that is orthogonal to a line segment representing the linear shape included in the external shape of the mesa structure or in the arrangement of the holes of the trench structure and that passes through a center of the line segment” because Wang’s aperture is elliptical.
As to claim 5, Wang discloses “the shape of the aperture is a shape of a partial ellipse” because Wang’s aperture is elliptical.
As to claim 9, Wang discloses “an optical transmission unit that transmits light output from the surface-emitting type semiconductor laser” because Wang’s device is for use in a VCSEL-based transmission system. See col.3:35.
As to claims 10-13, Wang discloses “an optical transmission unit that transmits light output from the surface-emitting type semiconductor laser” because Wang’s device is for use in a VCSEL-based transmission system. See col.3:35.
As to claim 17, this claim is rejected for the same reasons as claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
4. Claims 6-8 and 15-16 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.
As to claim 6, the prior art does not disclose or make obvious “the structure is a trench structure, and areas of a plurality of holes constituting the trench structure are identical to each other” in combination with the other limitations of the claims.
As to claim 7-8 and 15-16, the prior art does not disclose or make obvious “the 2nd multilayer-film reflective mirror is obtained by alternately stacking a 1st film having a 1st refractive index and a 2nd film having a 2nd refractive index lower than the 1st refractive index, the current confinement layer is a selective oxidation layer, and a film thickness of the selective oxidation layer is less than a film thickness of any film that is the lesser of a film thickness of the 1st film and a film thickness of the 2nd film” in combination with the other limitations of the claims.
Conclusion
5. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DEANDRA M HUGHES whose telephone number is (571)272-6982. The examiner can normally be reached Generally M-Th 8AM-6PM.
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Signed:
/DEANDRA M HUGHES/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3992
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