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.
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of Invention I, claims 1-8, 15-20 in the reply filed on 01/15/2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that “claims 1 and 15 (Invention I) are Bsp, and claim 9 (Invention II) is ABsp (contain all details of claims 1 and 15). Therefore, claims 1-8, 15-20 (Invention I) and claims 9-14 (Invention II) are not distinct and a requirement for restriction must not be made or maintained”.
This is not found persuasive because Invention II is actually mapped as ABbr (“br” is an abbreviation for “broad”) as, contrary to applicant’s allegation, there are additional specific details, such as “wherein the first waveguide channel and the second waveguide channel are intersected and directed to different ones of the optical transceivers” in claim 1 and “wherein inward ends of the waveguide channels directing to the optical transceivers and outward ends of the waveguide channels opposite to the inward ends are arranged in different sequences” claim 15, that are not present in the more broadly recited Invention II.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL. Claims 9-14 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 01/15/2026.
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) 1-3, 6, 7, 15-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. PGPub 2015/0117821 A1 by Aoki et al. in view of WO 2022176804 A1 by Oda (copy and English translation thereof have been included).
Regarding claim 1, Aoki teaches a co-packaged optics device (Figs. 1A, 1B), comprising: a package substrate (package substrate 10); an electronic component (LSI chip 11) disposed on the package substrate; optical transceivers (13) disposed on the package substrate, arranged around the electronic component (as illustrated in Fig. 1A), wherein the electronic component is electrically connected to the optical transceivers (via electrical interconnection structures in a package substrate and illustrated solder bumps); and a waveguide component (14) disposed on the package substrate and comprising: a waveguide bulk (cladding 62, Figs. 6A, B) having an inward surface (left surface of the waveguides 14, Figs. 3A-C) facing the optical transceivers and an outward surface (right surface of the waveguides 14, Figs. 3A-C) opposite to the inward surface; a first waveguide channel (a first waveguide core 61, Fig. 3A) embedded in the waveguide bulk (62) and extending from the outward surface to the inward surface; and a second waveguide channel (a second waveguide core 61, Fig. 3A) embedded in the waveguide bulk and extending from the outward surface to the inward surface. Aoki further teaches the waveguides (14) are coupled to optical fibers held in grooves (41) but does not teach a design in which the first waveguide channel and the second waveguide channel are intersected and directed to different ones of the optical transceivers. Oda also teaches device (Fig. 2) for transmitting optical signals comprising a substrate (10), optical transmitter and receiver devices (20, 30, equivalent in function that can be performed by transceivers), a waveguide bulk (optical path converter 102) having a plurality of waveguide channels (waveguides 41, 42) with inward (right side) and outward (left side) surfaces, wherein the first waveguide channel (41) and the second waveguide channel (42) are intersected (see Fig. 2 and its description in the English translation) and directed to different ones of the optical transceivers (20, 30, respectively), and a multi-core optical fiber (200) the connects to the optical devices (20, 30). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the waveguide component (14) and the embedded waveguide channels (61) in Aoki’s invention, by alternating and intersecting the waveguide channels that couple the optical fibers to the different transceivers (13), in the design suggested by Oda in Fig. 2, since, “compared to the case where the waveguides do not intersect each other, the degree of freedom in arranging the transmission waveguides and the reception waveguides can be increased, and the density of the waveguides can be increased.”
Regarding claim 2, Aoki further teaches wherein the first waveguide channel and the second waveguide channel have a refractive index greater than the waveguide bulk (the channels or cores 61 have greater refractive index than the bulk or cladding 62 as required for total internal reflection by optical waveguides).
Regarding claim 3, Aoki further teaches a gap fill material (lens 19, Fig. 3) between the optical transceivers (13) and the waveguide bulk (14, which includes the waveguide bulk 62).
Regarding claim 6, Aoki further teaches a material of the waveguide bulk comprises a transparent material (as illustrated in Figs. 3B, 3C, light from/to the transceiver 13 is coupled into/out of the waveguide core 61 laterally by a mirror, and through the lens and cladding 62, and the cladding therefore must be at least transparent to the light applicable to the device).
Regarding claim 7, Aoki further teaches an interposer substrate (board 2), wherein the electronic component and the optical transceivers are disposed on the interposer substrate (Fig. 1B) and the interposer substrate is bonded onto the package substrate (via solder bumps 16).
Regarding claims 15, 16, Aoki teaches a co-packaged optics device (Fig. 1) comprising: a package substrate (10); an electronic component (11) disposed on the package substrate (10); optical transceivers (13) disposed on the package substrate, arranged around the electronic component, wherein the electronic component is electrically connected to the optical transceivers (via electrical interconnection structures in a package substrate and illustrated solder bumps); a waveguide bulk (62) disposed on the package substrate; and waveguide channels (61) embedded in the waveguide bulk.
Aoki further teaches the waveguides (14) are coupled to optical fibers held in grooves (41) but does not teach a design in which the first waveguide channel and the second waveguide channel are intersected and directed to different ones of the optical transceivers. Oda also teaches device (Fig. 2) for transmitting optical signals comprising a substrate (10), optical transmitter and receiver devices (20, 30, equivalent in function that can be performed by transceivers), a multi-core optical fiber (200) the connects to the optical devices (20, 30), a waveguide bulk (optical path converter 102) having a plurality of waveguide channels (waveguides 41, 42) with inward (right side) and outward (left side) surfaces, wherein inward ends of the waveguide channels directing to the optical transceivers and outward ends of the waveguide channels opposite to the inward ends are arranged in different sequences (e.g., the first and third waveguides 412 of the converter 102 are connected to the first and second waveguides 411 of the transceiver section 101), and wherein two of the waveguide channels are intersected and directed to different ones of the optical transceivers (the first waveguide channel (41) and the second waveguide channel (42) are intersected (see Fig. 2 and its description in the English translation) and directed to different ones of the optical transceivers (20, 30, respectively). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the waveguide component (14) and the embedded waveguide channels (61) in Aoki’s invention, by alternating and intersecting the waveguide channels that couple the optical fibers to the different transceivers (13), in the design suggested by Oda in Fig. 2, since, “compared to the case where the waveguides do not intersect each other, the degree of freedom in arranging the transmission waveguides and the reception waveguides can be increased, and the density of the waveguides can be increased.”
Regarding claim 17, Aoki further suggest, in a different embodiment illustrated in Fig. 3, two of the waveguide channels are positioned at different levels above the package substrate, so as to match locations of cores (201, 202) of the multi-core fiber (200).
Regarding claim 18, Aoki further teaches an interposer substrate (board 2), wherein the electronic component and the optical transceivers are disposed on the interposer substrate (Fig. 1B) and the interposer substrate is bonded onto the package substrate (via solder bumps 16).
Regarding claim 19, Aoki further teaches a material of the waveguide bulk comprises a transparent material (as illustrated in Figs. 3B, 3C, light from/to the transceiver 13 is coupled into/out of the waveguide core 61 laterally by a mirror, and through the lens and cladding 62, and the cladding therefore must be at least transparent to the light applicable to the device).
Regarding claim 20, Aoki further teaches wherein the first waveguide channel and the second waveguide channel have a refractive index greater than the waveguide bulk (the channels or cores 61 have greater refractive index than the bulk or cladding 62 as required for total internal reflection by optical waveguides).
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Aoki et al. and Oda as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of U.S. PGPub 2019/0287908 A1 by Dogiamis et al. Aoki teaches the optics device comprising the package substrate (10) and the waveguides (14) disposing thereon, but does not specify how the waveguide is fastened on the package substrate. Dogiamis alto teaches disposing a waveguide interconnect (100) on a package substrate (132), wherein the waveguide interconnect bridge (100) may be secured to the second face (148) of the package substrate (132) by an adhesive (e.g., an epoxy) or soldered to a second face (148) of the package substrate (132). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Aoki’s invention, by using epoxy adhesive to secure the waveguides (14) onto the package substrate, or alternately by using solder, as suggested by Dogiamis, as one of a finite number of identified, predictable solutions, for reasons including ensuring optical alignment to the optical waveguides as is known in the art.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 5 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. Aoki is the closest prior art and discloses using a lens in a gap between the optical transceivers (13) and the waveguide bulk (62), it is thus the examiner’s position that additional modification to place an intermediate waveguide channel surrounded by the gap fill material and extending in such a gap would not have been obvious or reasonable to a person of ordinary skill in the art, when considered in view of the rest of the limitations of the claimed invention.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. USPub20200363592 discloses an optical module having photonics units 130, an electronic component 120 and optical waveguides 140.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHARLIE PENG whose telephone number is (571)272-2177. The examiner can normally be reached 9AM - 6PM.
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/CHARLIE Y PENG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874