Prosecution Insights
Last updated: April 19, 2026
Application No. 18/548,934

DISPLACEMENT DETECTOR, ARRAY OF DISPLACEMENT DETECTORS AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURING A DISPLACEMENT DETECTOR

Non-Final OA §102§103§112
Filed
Sep 05, 2023
Examiner
HELLNER, MARK
Art Unit
3645
Tech Center
3600 — Transportation & Electronic Commerce
Assignee
AMS-OSRAM AG
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
91%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 10m
To Grant
99%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 91% — above average
91%
Career Allow Rate
1339 granted / 1477 resolved
+38.7% vs TC avg
Moderate +8% lift
Without
With
+8.2%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 10m
Avg Prosecution
38 currently pending
Career history
1515
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
2.1%
-37.9% vs TC avg
§103
42.2%
+2.2% vs TC avg
§102
29.6%
-10.4% vs TC avg
§112
13.6%
-26.4% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 1477 resolved cases

Office Action

§102 §103 §112
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. Priority Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55. Information Disclosure Statement The information disclosure statements filed 9/5/2023 and 8/15/2025 have been considered by the examiner. Drawings The drawings filed 9/5/2023 are approved by the examiner. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112 The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b): (b ) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA), second paragraph: The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the appl icant regards as his invention. Claim 5 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. There is no antecedent basis for the “resonant light source” set for by claim 5 in parent claim 1. It appears that claim 5 should depend on claim 4, and, as such, claim 5 will be interpreted this way with respect to the cited prior art. 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention. Claim s 1, 2 and 8-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Angelskar et al (United States Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0274291) . With respect to claim 1, Angelskar et al disclose: A displacement detector [ taught by figure 1 ] comprising a substrate [ taught by substrate (4); paragraph [0141] ] ; a membrane having an inner surface facing the substrate [ taught by membrane (8) ] ; a mounting area arranged to fix the membrane along at least part of the perimeter of the membrane [ met by the microphone chip (6); paragraph [0141] states, “… The microphone chip 6 and membrane 8 are positioned on top of the substrate 4 so as to provide the membrane in a spaced relationship with an upper surface region 20 of the substrate 4 …” ] , wherein the mounting area, the inner surface and the substrate enclose a back volume [ paragraph [0145] states, “… The position of the microphone chip 6 and membrane 8 over the substrate 4 defines an interstitial volume 32 between the membrane 8 and the substrate 4 . The substrate 4 is provided with air channels 34 providing a passage for air between the interstitial volume 32 and a region 36 beneath the substrate 4 …” ] , and wherein an acoustic compliance of the back volume is arranged to be the same or larger than an acoustic compliance of the membrane [ taught by paragraph [0033] ] ; and an optical sensor operable configured to generate a sensor signal indicative of a displacement of the membrane [ taught by light source (14) and photo detectors ( 16) ] . Claim 12 is anticipated by the subject matter of Angelskar et al, as applied to claim 1. Claims 2 and 13 are taught by paragraph [0033]. Claim 8 is taught by paragraph [0032]. A lens (70) is taught by figure 2, thus teaching claim 9. Paragraph [0141] discloses a microphone, thus teaching claim 10. Claim 11 is taught by paragraph [0106]. 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 4-7 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Angelskar et al (United States Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0274291) in view of Chen et al (United States Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0099431). Claim 4 further recites: wherein the optical sensor f urther comprises a resonant light source [ paragraph [0141] of Angelskar et al discloses a VCSEL light source (14) ] which is arranged in a flip-chip configuration [ this limitation would have been an obvious as a reasonable expectation of a skilled artisan in that flip chip mounting was a known practice in circuit construction ] , and forming a self-mixing interferometer with respect to the inner surface . Angelskar et al does not teach or suggest a self-mixing interferometer. However, the device disclosed by Angelskar et al used the function of light interference detection. Therefore, it would have been obvious for a person or ordinary skill in the art to have had a reasonable expectation of using other known means for using interference detection, such as disclosed by figure 1A of Chen et al as disclosed before the effective filing date of the present application. Claim 15 is met by the combination of Angelskar et al and Chen et al, as applied to claim 4. The VCSEL (122) disclosed by Chen et al in figure 1B has an upper surface emitting light a measurement surface (132) and a lower surface facing a photodetector (136). Therefore, claim 5 is met by the combination of Angelskar et al and Chen et al, as applied to claim 4. Claim 6 further recites: wherein: the substrate is formed by a substrate of the light source [ figure 1 of Angelskar et al shows the light source and detectors at the bottom of the structure integrated with substrate (4) ] , an d one or more electrical contact pads (CPS) are arranged on a lower surface of the light source to electrically contact the displacement detector [ figures 1A and 1B of Chen et al show electrical contacts at the bottom of the self-mixing detector ] . Therefore, claim 6 is met by the reasons to combine Angelskar et al and Chen et al, as applied to claim 4 . With respect to the combination of combine Angelskar et al and Chen et al, as applied to claim 6, claim 7 further recites: a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) having a front side and a back-side [ Chen et al teaches a VCSEL (122) ] ] , the upper surface (UPS) comprises the back-side of the vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser [ met by the surface of the VCSEL (122) facing the target surface (130) ] , and the front-side comprises the lower surface of the light vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser [ met by the surface facing the photodetector (136) ] . Allowable Subject Matter Claims 3 and 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 the base claim and any intervening claims. Any inquiry concerning this communication should be directed to MARK HELLNER at telephone number (571)272-6981 . Examiner interviews are available via a variety of formats. See MPEP § 713.01. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. /MARK HELLNER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3645
Read full office action

Prosecution Timeline

Sep 05, 2023
Application Filed
Sep 05, 2023
Response after Non-Final Action
Mar 23, 2026
Non-Final Rejection — §102, §103, §112 (current)

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
91%
Grant Probability
99%
With Interview (+8.2%)
2y 10m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 1477 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allow rate.

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