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 .
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.
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) 1-6, 8, 10-25,27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20220365189 A1, Nathan; James T. in view of US 11500070 B2, Zheng Jiamin et al..
Regarding claim 1, Nathan teaches a LiDAR device comprising; a light source ([0053] Lidar system) to direct an outbound light beam on a target ([0055] target reflected output beam, input beam); a rotating optomechanical scanner to distribute the outbound light beam across a scanning range of the LiDAR device, the rotating optomechanical scanner further to receive an inbound light beam reflected from the target ([0065] lidar system 100 may include one or more optical components configured to reflect, focus, filter, shape, modify, steer, or direct light within the lidar system, As an example, lidar system 100 may include one or more lenses, mirrors, filters (e.g., band-pass or interference filters), beam splitters, polarizers, polarizing beam splitters, wave plates (e.g., half-wave or quarter-wave plates), diffractive elements, holographic elements, isolators, optical splitters, couplers, detectors, beam combiners, or collimators), wherein the optomechanical scanner induces an angular offset between the outbound light beam directed on the target and the inbound light beam reflected from the target ([0066] lenses and mirrors to focus, expand or culminate input or output beams) and a detector including one or more photodiodes to receive the offset corrected light beam from the offset compensator. ([0068] lidar system 100 may include a scanner 120 configured to scan an output beam 125 across a field of regard of the lidar system 100. As an example, scanner 120 may include one or more scanning mirrors configured to pivot, rotate, oscillate, or move in an angular manner about one or more rotation axes. The output beam 125 may be reflected by a scanning mirror, and as the scanning mirror pivots or rotates, the reflected output beam 125 may be scanned in a corresponding angular manner, [0069] motorized scanning mirror, galvanometer, motorized continuous spinning polygon mirror, [0074] one or more avalanche photodiodes, [0097] light beam reflected from target, [0104] outbound and inbound offset difference)
Nathan does not teach an offset compensator. Jiamin teaches an offset compensator to receive the inbound light beam and output an offset corrected light beam that reduces the angular offset; ([0022] For example, lens 1 and lens 2 may receive and refract the optical beam such that, even as scanner 1 tilts and creates an angular offset of the optical beam (e.g., with respect to an optical axis of the optical device), scanner 2 receives the optical beam. In other words, lens 1 and lens 2 may receive and refract the optical beam to prevent the angular offset created by angular tilting of scanner 1 from translating into a spatial offset (e.g., a lateral offset) on scanner 2 (e.g., beam walk-off).)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Nathan such that an offset compensation system similar to Jiamin reduces the angular offset from one scanner to another with a reasonable expectation of success. This would correct the angular offset leading to a more accurate distance measurement.
Regarding claim 2, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the offset compensator includes a prism that functions as a periscope to direct the inbound light beam toward the detector and proportionally reduce the angular offset. (Jiamin [0016] the first scanner receives an optical beam and scans the lens system with the optical beam, and the second scanner receives the optical beam from the lens system and scans a field of view with the optical beam.)
Regarding claim 3, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the prism reduces the angular offset of the inbound light beam by a factor of 2 or less. (Jiamin [0050] The lens system includes a filter and/or a DOE to provide angular dependent modification to the optical beam)
Regarding claim 4, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the prism increases the size of the offset corrected light beam by the same factor of 2 or less. (Jiamin, [0029] The lens system may be configured to increase and/or decrease a size of the optical beam. [0038] The optical device 500 includes a lens system that includes a beam expander to increase the size of the optical beam.)
Regarding claim 5, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the offset compensator includes a scanner that changes the relative phase delay between different sections of the inbound light beam. ([0139] In some embodiments, optical network module 907 is configured to provide a particular temporal delay of one or more different temporal delays to a received pulse of light.)
Regarding claim 6, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the scanner substantially eliminates the angular offset of the inbound light beam. (Jiamin, [0050] The lens system includes a filter and/or a DOE to provide angular dependent modification to the optical beam. Nathan [0066] The lidar system 100 may include flat or curved mirrors (e.g., concave, convex, or parabolic mirrors) to steer or focus the beam. The lidar system 100 may include an off-axis parabolic mirror to focus the input beam.)
Regarding claim 8, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the offset compensator includes a de-scan controller to match its angle scanning with an anticipated angular offset at a moment in time. ([0094] Optical beam may have an azimuth relative to reference line. An azimuth may represent a horizontal angle with respect to reference line 220, and an altitude may represent a vertical angle. [0096] Each pixel 210 may be associated with a distance or one or more angular values that represent the angular location of the pixel with respect to the lidar system.)
Regarding claim 10, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the scanner includes an optical phased array scanning element. ([0073] For example, a scanner 120 may include an optical phased array scanner configured to scan an output beam 125 in one direction and a galvanometer scanner that scans the output beam 125 in an orthogonal direction.)
Regarding claim 11, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the scanner includes a microelectromechanical scanning element. (Jiamin, [0021] Scanner 1 and/or scanner 2 may include a silicon micro-electromechanical system (MEMS).)
Regarding claim 12, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the offset compensator includes a local oscillator to output a diverging oscillator light beam to match angular offset with the inbound light beam. ([0091] The frequency difference may be determined by mixing the received light with the LO light to produce a beat signal and determining the beat frequency of the beat signal.)
Regarding claim 13, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the offset compensator includes a beam splitter to put the diverging oscillator light beam and the inbound light beam on an intersecting optical path. (([0065] lidar system includes one or more optical components configured to reflect, focus, filter, shape, modify, steer, or direct light within the lidar system)
Regarding claim 14, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the light source is a modulated laser source, and the detector is capable of detecting a resulting modulation of the offset corrected light beam. ([0053] The light source 110 emits an output beam of light which may be continuous wave (CW), pulsed, or modulated in any suitable manner for a given application, [0091] The frequency difference may be determined by mixing the received light with the LO light to produce a beat signal and determining the beat frequency of the beat signal. [0034] A temporally delayed and/or modulated optical pulse exits the transmitter and returns.)
Regarding claim 15, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the reduced angular offset of the offset corrected light beam yields a positional offset on the detector of less than 5 microns. ([0074] A detector may have an active region or an avalanche-multiplication region. The active region may refer to an area over which a detector may receive or detect input light. An active region may have any suitable size or diameter, such as for example, a diameter of approximately 10 μm, 25 μm, 50 μm, 80 μm, 100 μm, 200 μm, 500 μm, 1 mm, 2 mm, or 5 mm.)
Regarding claim 16, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the detector further includes an optical waveguide that directs the offset corrected light beam to the one or more photodiodes. ([0066] lenses and mirrors to focus, expand or culminate input or output beams. [0074] As another example, receiver 140 may include one or more avalanche photodiodes (APDs).)
Regarding claim 17, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the offset corrected light beam couples to the optical waveguide with a positional offset on the detector of less than 5 microns. ([0074] A detector may have an active region. The active region may refer to an area over which a detector may receive or detect input light. An active region may have any suitable size or diameter.)
Regarding claim 18, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, a lens configured to focus the offset corrected light beam on the detector. ([0068] lidar system includes a scanner configured to scan across a field of regard of the lidar system. The scanner includes one or more scanning mirrors configured to pivot, rotate, oscillate, or move in an angular manner about one or more rotation axes. The output beam is reflected by a scanning mirror, and the output beam may be scanned in a corresponding angular manner.)
Regarding claim 19, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the rotating optomechanical scanner is to distribute the outbound light beam across a horizontal scanning range of the LiDAR device, further comprising: an oscillating galvo mirror to distribute the outbound light beam across a vertical scanning range of the LiDAR device. ([0068], [0069] motorized scanning mirror, galvanometer, motorized continuous spinning polygon mirror)
Regarding claim 20, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the one or more photodiodes are avalanche photodiodes. ([0074] A receiver includes one or more avalanche photodiodes (APDs) or one or more single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs).)
Regarding claim 21, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the rotating optomechanical scanner is one of a rotating polygon scanner, a MEMS scanner, a galvo scanner, and a rotating prism scanner. ([0069] motorized scanning mirror, galvanometer, motorized continuous spinning polygon mirror)
Regarding claim 22, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, further comprising: a set of emitter optics to direct the outbound light beam from the light source to the target. ([0065] lidar system 100 may include one or more optical components configured to reflect, focus, filter, shape, modify, steer, or direct light within the lidar system.)
Regarding claim 23, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the emitter optics include one or more turning mirrors, an oscillating galvo mirror, and a rotating polygonal mirror. ([0069] motorized scanning mirror, galvanometer, motorized continuous spinning polygon mirror)
Regarding claim 24, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, a set of detector optics to direct the outbound light beam reflected from the target to the detector. ([0065] lidar system 100 may include one or more optical components configured to reflect, focus, filter, shape, modify, steer, or direct light within the lidar system.)
Regarding claim 25, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, a transimpedance amplifier, wherein a voltage output from the transimpedance amplifier is input to a timing circuit. ([0112] For example, a photocurrent signal i may include a pulse of current corresponding to the received pulse of light, and may produce a voltage signal with a voltage pulse that corresponds to the pulse of current. The pulse-detection circuit may determine the time-of-arrival for the pulse of light based on a characteristic of the voltage pulse)
Regarding claim 27, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 1, wherein the offset compensator includes: a local oscillator to produce local-oscillator light; and an optical mixer or optical combiner to combine the inbound light beam with the local- oscillator light, wherein the offset corrected light beam includes the inbound light beam and the local-oscillator light. ([0091] The frequency difference may be determined by mixing the received light with the LO light to produce a beat signal and determining the beat frequency of the beat signal.)
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20220365189 A1, Nathan; James T. as applied to claim 5 above, and further in view of Daniel Werner et al. WO 2021086634 A1.
Regarding claim 7, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 5,
Nathan does not explicitly teach, wherein the scanner eliminates 0.1 - 0.2 degrees of angular offset.
Werner teaches the elimination of 0.1-0.2 degrees of angular offset. ([0086] Moving 2120 the transport system 10 into a second position proximate to the first position; and adjusting 2130, with the positioning device 100, a third position of the inspection system 20 to reduce the offset between the inspection system 20 and the inspection object 35. The term “reduce the offset” may refer to a position of the inspection system 20 that is offset by about or less than 10%, 9%, 8%, 7%, 6%, 5%, 4%, 3%, 2%, 1%, 0.5%, 0.1%, 0.05%, or 0.01% of a theoretical ideal position of the inspection object 35 as measured in any given direction or angle about any given axis.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Nathan such that a device eliminates angular offset to a significant degree to have the predictable result of a more accurate distance measurement.
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20220365189 A1, Nathan; James T. as applied to claim 5 above, and further in view of BÖHME; Max et al. US 20180052225 A1.
Regarding claim 9, Nathan as modified above teaches the device of claim 5,
Nathan does not explicitly teach, wherein the scanner is one of reflecting and transmitting. Bohme teaches a scanner that transmits and reflects. ([0067] The optical device can adjust the angle at which the incident beam is reflected by the scanner. [0048] The scanner has a light transmitter; a light receiver; and a deflection unit that is configured to vary the transmission angle, the angle at which the transmitted light beam is transmitted.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Nathan such that the scanner can both transmit and reflect light beams similar to Bohme. This would yield the predictable result of increasing measurement accuracy of the lidar system.
Claim 26 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20220365189 A1, Nathan; James T. in view of WO 2020126123 A2, DOLD JÜRGEN.
Regarding claim 26, Nathan teaches a method comprising: directing from a light source (Nathan [0053] directed output light beam) a distance-measuring beam of light on a target; receiving a reflection of the beam of light ([0054] receiving reflected light) from the target on a fast mechanical scanner; ([0073] a scanner 120 may include a solid-state scanner and a mechanical scanner.)
Nathan does not teach a method comprising; compensating for angular offset induced by the fast mechanical scanner within the reflection of the beam of light using an offset compensator; and determining a distance between the light source and the target based on the offset corrected light beam output from the offset compensator and directed to a detector.
Jurgen teaches angular offset compensation, and determining a distance based on the offset corrected light beam. ([pg 37, ln 10-12] The laser scanner is configured to correct the angle determining data by the offset provided by the correction parameters. [pg 10, ln 1-5] The laser scanner further comprises a rotating body for variable deflection of the outgoing laser measurement beam and of returning parts of the laser measurement beam, wherein the rotating body has a reflecting surface for reflecting towards a detector of the laser scanner.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Nathan by combining an offset compensation method similar to Jurgen to yield the predictable result of increasing distance measurement accuracy.
Conclusion
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/JOHN CESARE TRIDICO/Examiner, Art Unit 3645
/ISAM A ALSOMIRI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3645
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