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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed 11/25/2025, with respect to the 35 U.S.C. 103 rejections of claims 16-20, and 35 as being unpatentable in view of Yu et al. (Pub. No. US 2019/0373145 A1; hereafter Yu), Howarth et al. (Pub. No. US 2020/0200154 A1; hereafter Howarth), and Jun (Pub. No. US 2020/0026149 A1; hereafter Jun) have been fully considered and are persuasive. The 35 U.S.C. 103 rejections of claims 16-20, 28-33, and 35 made in view of Yu, Howarth, and Jun have been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments, filed 11/25/2025, with respect to the 35 U.S.C. 103 rejections of claims 16, 25, 26, 28, and 35 as being unpatentable in view of Bian et al. (Pub. No. US 20204/0088749 A1; hereafter Bian), Howarth, and Jun have been fully considered and are persuasive. The 35 U.S.C. 103 rejections of claims 16, 25, 26, 28, and 35 have been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments, filed 11/25/2025, with respect to the 35 U.S.C. 103 rejections of claim 24 as being unpatentable in view of Yu, Howarth, Jun, and Citro et al. (Pub. No. US 2022/0349392 A1; hereafter Citro) have been fully considered and are persuasive. The 35 U.S.C. 103 rejections of claims 24 made in view of Yu, Howarth, Jun, and Citro has been withdrawn.
Applicant's arguments filed 11/25/2025 with respect to the rejections of claims 28-33 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant argues that the prior art does not disclose or fairly suggest the newly added claim limitation of “a reset spring, connected between the first SMA wire and the second SMA wire” as called for in claim 28. Examiner respectfully disagrees.
Howarth discloses that the there are several flexures between the first and second SMA wires (see Howarth Fig. 1, items 114a-114c), and that “the flexure may be able to couple together separate pieces of SMA actuator wire” (see Howarth paragraph [0023]). These flexures can reasonably be construed as “a reset spring” which is “connected between the first SMA wire and the second SMA wire” as called for in claim 28. Yu in view of Howarth and Jun therefore disclose “a reset spring, connected between the first SMA wire and the second SMA wire” as called for in claim 28. Applicant’s argument regarding claim 28 is therefore unpersuasive.
Applicant’s arguments regarding claims 29-33 rest on the perceived deficiency of Yun, Howarth, and Jun, addressed above, and therefore are similarly addressed.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 28-33 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yu et al. (Pub. No. US 2019/0373145 A1; hereafter Yu) in view of Howarth et al. (Pub. No. US 2020/0200154 A1; hereafter Howarth) and Jun (Pub. No. US 2020/0026149 A1; hereafter Jun).
Regarding claims 28 and 30-33 Yu discloses camera module, comprising a camera lens and a variable aperture (see Yu Fig. 1, items 161 and 200), wherein the variable aperture is fastened to the camera lens, and an aperture hole of the variable aperture is located on a light transmission path of the camera lens (see Yu paragraph [0067] “The iris diaphragm holder 240 may be fixedly mounted on, for example, the lens assembly 130”), and the variable aperture comprises: a base, wherein a through hole extends through the base (see Yu Fig. 1, item 241); a fixed plate fixedly connected to the base, wherein the fixed plate is in a ring shape, and an inner through hole of the fixed plate is opposite to the through hole (see Yu Fig. 2A, item 246); a rotation plate rotatively connected to the base and disposed around the fixed plate (see Yu Fig. 2A, item 230); a plurality of blades located on a same side of the fixed plate and the rotation plate, wherein blades of the plurality of blades are annularly distributed and enclose an aperture hole (see Yu Fig. 2A, item 220), the aperture hole is opposite to the through hole (see Yu Fig. 2A, item 220a), and each of the blades of the plurality of blades is rotatively connected to the fixed plate and slidably connected to the rotation plate (see Yu Figs. 2A and 2C, items 221b, 221c, 230, and 245).
Yu discloses utilizing a protrusion 221c, which is moved in a rocking-type motion by rotation of ring 231 to actuate the aperture blades, but does not disclose a first shape memory alloy (SMA) wire and a second SMA wire, wherein a first end of each of the first SMA wire and the second SMA wire is connected to the base, a second end of each of the first SMA wire and the second SMA wire is connected to the rotation plate, the first SMA wire or the second SMA wire is configured to shrink when power is on, to drive the rotation plate to rotate relative to the fixed plate, and each of the blades of the plurality of blades is configured to rotate relative to the fixed plate and to slide relative to the rotation plate in a manner that an aperture of the aperture hole changes; a reset spring, connected between the first SMA wire and the second SMA wire; and wherein a direction in which the first SMA wire shrinks to drive the rotation plate to rotate is opposite to a direction in which the second SMA wire shrinks to drive the rotation plate to rotate; [claim 30] further comprising a first flipping block, wherein the first flipping block comprises a rotation part, a first connection part, and a second connection part, the rotation part is rotatively connected to the base, the first SMA wire is connected to the first connection part, and the rotation plate is connected to the second connection part; and wherein the first SMA wire is configured to shrink to drive the first connection part to rotate about the rotation part in a manner that that the second connection part rotates about the rotation part and flips the rotation plate to rotate relative to the fixed plate; [claim 31] wherein the second connection part is engaged or in interference fit with the rotation plate; [claim 32] wherein a spacing between the first connection part and the rotation part is less than a spacing between the second connection part and the rotation part; [claim 33] wherein the first connection part and the second connection part are separately located on two sides of the rotation part.
Howarth discloses a first shape memory alloy (SMA) wire and a second SMA wire (see Howarth Fig. 1, items 112a-112d), wherein a first end of each of the first SMA wire and the second SMA wire is connected to the base (item 112a is directly connected to the base via crimp 116, while the other wires are connected to the base through wire 112a), a second end of each of the first SMA wire and the second SMA wire is connected to the rotation plate (see Howarth Fig. 7A, items 112d and 702. Similarly to the base, 112d is directly connected to the rotation plate, while the other wires are connected through wired 112s), the first SMA wire or the second SMA wire is configured to shrink when power is on, to drive the rotation plate to rotate relative to the fixed plate, and each of the blades of the plurality of blades is configured to rotate relative to the fixed plate and to slide relative to the rotation plate in a manner that an aperture of the aperture hole changes (see Howarth Figs. 7A and 7B, which show rotation of the blades and closing of the aperture); and a reset spring, connected between the first SMA wire and the second SMA wire (see Howarth Fig. 1, items 114a-114c); [claims 17, 30] further comprising a first flipping block (see Howarth Fig. 5, item 506), wherein the first flipping block comprises a rotation part (item 506 is disclosed as “rocking” and not sliding, therefore it must have some rotational connection to the base, which is not shown in Fig. 5), a first connection part (see Howarth Fig. 5, item 504), and a second connection part (see Howarth Fig. 5, item 510), the rotation part is rotatively connected to the base, the first SMA wire is connected to the first connection part (see Howarth Fig. 5, items 504 and 506), and the rotation plate is connected to the second connection part (see Howarth Fig. 5, item 508. While in the embodiment of Fig. 5, item 508 is merely a receiving space for the rocker arm, Howarth discloses that “The lever arm mechanism described above may magnify the displacement provided by the SMA actuator wire” (see Howarth paragraph [0054]) which would only be the case if the lever was connected to a moving portion to provide mechanical advantage, such as in the configuration of Fig. 6, where rotation of the first blade 602 pushes rocking portion 610 to magnify movement of blade 604. One having ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the rocker arm could therefore be connected to the rotation portion, like in Yu, in order to magnify the motion of the blades, as suggested in Howarth.); and wherein the first SMA wire is configured to shrink to drive the first connection part to rotate about the rotation part in a manner that that the second connection part rotates about the rotation part and flips the rotation plate to rotate relative to the fixed plate (see Howarth Fig. 4, the rotation of the connection portion 504 moves in the D direction, which is flipped at the end of the rocker arm 510 due to the pivoting action); [claims 18, 31] wherein the second connection part is engaged or in interference fit with the rotation plate (see Howarth Figs. 5 and 6A, items 508 and 510, and analogous structure 610 and 612, which show how the rocker arm of Fig. 5 can be modified to produce the magnified displacement); [claims 19, 32] wherein a spacing between the first connection part and the rotation part is less than a spacing between the second connection part and the rotation part (see Howarth Fig. 5, items 504 and 510, while not specifically recited, having the driven part be closer to the fulcrum (i.e. the rotation part) is the only way to achieve the displacement magnification effect discussed by Howarth.); [claims 20, 33] wherein the first connection part and the second connection part are separately located on two sides of the rotation part (see Howarth Fig. 5, items 504 and 510, while not specifically recited, having the driven part and the rocker arm on opposite sides of the fulcrum (i.e. the rotation part) is the only way to achieve the displacement magnification effect discussed by Howarth.).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to provide an SMA wire actuation system like that of Howarth instead of the electromagnetic actuation system of Yu in order to reduce the size required for mounting the magnet and coil, enabling a thinner device while maintaining the large stroke length as taught by Howarth.
Yu in view of Howarth does not specifically disclose that a direction in which the first SMA wire shrinks to drive the rotation plate to rotate is opposite to a direction in which the second SMA wire shrinks to drive the rotation plate to rotate. Howarth is silent about how the diaphragm is returned to the open position, only reciting how the closing operation is accomplished. Presumably by the restoring force of the flexures.
Jun discloses that a direction in which the first SMA wire shrinks to drive the rotation plate to rotate is opposite to a direction in which the second SMA wire shrinks to drive the rotation plate to rotate (see Jun Fig. 4, items 161 and 163).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to provide both opening and closing SMA actuators, like those in Chiu, to the device of Yu in view of Howarth, in order to enable the device to actively close the aperture, thereby reducing the time required to switch between opening and closing the aperture than relying on the biasing force of the flexure alone. Additionally, having both opening and closing wires would increase the amount of control over the aperture.
Regarding claim 29, Yu as modified discloses the camera module according to claim 28, wherein: the aperture hole is located on a light inlet side of the camera lens (see Yu Fig. 1, items 200 and 161); or the camera lens comprises a first part and a second part that are coaxially disposed, and the aperture hole is located between the first part and the second part.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 16-27, 35, and 36 are allowed.
Regarding claims 16 and 35, Applicant has persuasively argued that the prior art does not disclose or fairly suggest, either singly or in combination, the claim limitations wherein “a first end of each of the first SMA wire and the second SMA wire is connected to the base using a same connection manner, a second end of each of the first SMA wire and the second SMA wire is connected to the rotation plate using a same connection manner” as called for in the claims. Claims 16 and 35 are therefore allowable over the prior art.
Claims 17-27 and 36 are dependent on claims 16 and 35, respectively, and are allowable for substantially the same reasons.
Finality
Applicant's amendment necessitated any new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NOAM S REISNER whose telephone number is (571)270-7542. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:00AM-5:30PM.
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/NOAM REISNER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2852 2/18/2026