Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 1-4 and 7-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 6304697 B1 (applied in a previous action).
Claim 1: '697 discloses a multilevel retro-coupling device for a light radiation, comprising (see mainly fig. 1 and the crop below which is annotated to define a coordinate system and designate levels; line numbers are approximate due to misaligned index):
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at least one first level (lower labeled dotted line labeled n1) extending along a first plane along a length direction (parallel to the x direction as labeled above) and a width direction (parallel to the y direction as labeled above, i.e. into or out of the page) and
a second level (upper labeled dotted line labeled n2) extending along a second plane parallel to the first plane,
said first and second levels being at least partially superposed in a direction normal to the first and second planes,
the first level comprising at least one first waveguide 12 configured to guide a propagation of the light radiation in a first direction parallel to the length direction and the second level comprising at least one second waveguide 11 configured to guide the propagation of the light radiation in a second direction opposite the first direction,
the device comprising:
a coupling portion, wherein the first and second waveguides are coupled by moving the first and second waveguides closer to one another, such that the light radiation is propagated from the first level to the second level by evanescent coupling (col. 1 lns. 25-55), and
at least one reflector 14 at an end of the coupling portion, configured to reflect the light radiation,
wherein in the coupling portion, the first and second waveguides are in a same position in the width direction (both waveguides are formed in the same surface of the LiNbO3 substrate 10 as described at col. 1 lns. 20-22, and thus they have the same y-coordinate; the y direction corresponds to the recited width direction as mentioned above).
Claim 2: The reflector 14 is formed by an interruption of the first and second waveguides in a plane normal to the first and second propagation directions.
Claim 3: The reflector 14 is formed by a block ("total reflection plate", col. 1 ln. 32) interrupting the first and second waveguides.
Claim 4: The coupling portion has a length L=Lc/2 ("half of the perfect coupling length" in '697) in a propagation direction of the light radiation, Lc being the characteristic coupling length ("perfect coupling length" in '697) for a transfer of a propagation mode of the light radiation from the first waveguide to the second waveguide (col. 1 lns. 29-31).
Claim 7: The second level corresponds to a projection level, and
an electrode, called lower electrode 16, below the projection level.
Claim 8: The first level corresponds to an addressing level and the lower electrode 16 is located below the addressing level (fig. 1; note claim 7 does not require the entirety of the lower electrode to be below the first level).
Response to Arguments
The indefiniteness rejections of the 11/18/2025 action were overcome by the 2/3/2026 response.
The anticipation rejection based on US 2022/0146740 A1 is withdrawn. The principal argument is that '740 does not show the coupling relationship between the waveguides in the xy plane (in other words, '740 does not show a top-down or plan view of the figs. 1A-1B device). Therefore '740 technically does not disclose that the first and second waveguides are in a same position in the width direction (corresponding to the y-axis or into / out of the page in figs. 1A-1B). Since the waveguides are evanescently coupled it is unclear why someone would unnecessarily increase the y-axis distance between them and reduce the coupling strength. Nevertheless since claims 1-2 are addressed by the other applied reference, for the sake of advancing prosecution a rejection based on '740 is not further pursued in this action.
The anticipation rejection based on US 6304697 B1 has been updated to track the amended language. Again the argument is that '697 does not show the coupling relationship between the waveguides in the xy plane. However it can be inferred that the first and second waveguides are in a same position in the width direction (corresponding to the y-axis as labeled in the annotated crop of fig. 1) since both waveguides are formed in the same surface of the LiNbO3 substrate.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 15-16 are allowed. Claims 5-6 and 9-14 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 claim 1 and all applicable intervening claims.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
JP 3-256028 A is cited on the attached 892 form since it is mentioned by the applied '697 reference and shows a similar device in an isometric view. US 2019/0227230 A1 is cited for its disclosure of a device having evanescently coupled waveguides, with side and plan views in figs. 2A and 3.
Contact Information
Examiner: 571-272-2360
Examiner's direct supervisor: 571-272-2397
Official correspondence by fax: 571-273-8300
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/Michael Stahl/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874
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