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 .
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 applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 14-20 are 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.
In claim 14, the claims should indicate that the first liquid crystal master is irradiated as the composite is exposed and how is modulates the incident light.
In claim 16, the claims should indicate that the “first Liquid crystal master grating”, the “second liquid crystal master grating, the “third liquid crystal master grating” and the “fourth liquid crystal master grating” are illuminated and how each of these modulates the incident light.
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.
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.
(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.
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.
Claims 1,2,6-9 and 14-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being fully anticipated by Sutherland et al. 20040175627.
Sutherland et al. 20040175627 teaches with respect to figure 3, a polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) master grating with an applied voltage splits the beam (33) into a diffracted beam (34) and a transmitted beam (36) which interfere within the copy holographic recording material (37) which is backed by an absorption filter [0037-0038,0049]. Figure 4 is similar, but the master holograms is used as a reflective master.
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The master hologram may be, but is not limited to, a computer generated hologram, any of a variety of emulsion-type holograms, a photopolymer hologram, a photochromic hologram, a polymer dispersed liquid crystal hologram, silver halide photographic emulsion hologram, dichromated gelatin hologram, photoresist hologram, photothermoplastic hologram, photorefractive crystal hologram, multiplexed hologram, white light hologram, rainbow hologram, thin holograms, in-line hologram, off-axis hologram, fourier hologram, fraunhofer hologram, diffractive optical element (DOE), holographic optical element (HOE), evanescent-wave hologram, image hologram, amplitude hologram, phase hologram, volume hologram, surface hologram, transmission hologram, reflection hologram, or silver-halide sensitized gelatin hologram [0079]. The sensitivity of the prepolymer materials to light is dependent on the photoinitiator dye and its concentration. Higher dye concentration leads to higher sensitivity. In most cases, however, the solubility of the photoinitiator dye limits the concentration of the dye and, thus, the sensitivity of the prepolymer material. Nevertheless, it has been found that for most general applications photoinitiator dye concentrations in the range of 0.2-0.4% by weight are sufficient to achieve desirable sensitivities and allow for a complete bleaching of the dye in the recording process, resulting in colorless final samples. Photoinitiator dyes that are useful in generating PDLC materials in accordance with the present invention are rose bengal ester (2,4,5,7-tetraiodo-3',4',5',6'-te- trachlorofluroescein-6-acetate ester); rose bengal sodium salt; eosin; eosin sodium salt; 4,5-diiodosuccinyl fluorescein; camphorquinone; methylene blue; and the like. These dyes allow a sensitivity to recording wavelengths across the visible spectrum from nominally 400 nm to 700 nm. Suitable near-infrared dyes, such as cationic cyanine dyes with trialkylborate anions having absorption from 600-900 nm, as well as merocyanine dyes derived from spiropyran, should also find utility in connection with the present invention [0051]. Analysis of the reflection notch in the absorbance spectrum supports the conclusion that a periodic refractive index modulation is disposed through the thickness of the film. For example, given a PDLC materials formed with a 488 nm line of an argon ion laser, a resulting reflection notch may have a reflection wavelength at approximately 472 nm for normal incidence and a relatively narrow bandwidth. This small difference between the writing wavelength and the reflection wavelength (approximately 3%) indicates that shrinkage of the film is not a significant problem under these exemplary conditions. Further, one skilled in the art recognizes that multiple write/reflect conditions are easily obtainable according to desired specifications and manipulations and adjustments to the recording geometry may also account for shrinkage, thus minimizing any resulting negative effects. Moreover, it has been found that the performance of such gratings is stable over periods of many months [0064]. Figures 11a-12 illustrate the use of multiple PDLC masters.
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These use of multipole stacked masters of figures 11a-12b is described at [0089-0096]
With respect to claims 1,2 and 6-8, the teachings of figures 3 and 4 and the associated text meets these claims.
With respect to claims 1,2,6-9 and 14-19, the teachings of figures 11a-12b and the associated text meets these claims, noting that figure 12 in particular teaches the use three PDLC masters (Red, green, blue) which are sequentially used to record red, green and blue replica/copy holograms. Due to the shrinkage during recording these is a shift in the fringes from the record wavelength to a spacing associated with a shorter wavelength as discussed at [0064].
Claims 1,2,6-9 and 14-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being fully anticipated by Popovich et al. 20180210396
Popovich et al. 20180210396 teaches with respect to the flow diagram of figure 8, providing a stack of SBG master grating, together with a linear polarizer and a half wave plate onto a holographic recording medium and apply zero order light to the combination, to record a holograms in the holographic photopolymer recording medium. Place the second holograms in in contact with a HPDLC recording medium,. Illuminate the second holograms with s-polarized light where the second holograms provides 0-order light to form a copy of the SBG master grating [0047,0070-0074]. The SBGs are switchable Bragg gratings including a PDLC mixture [0005]. A glass light guide in air will propagate light by total internal reflection if the internal incidence angle is greater than about 42 degrees. Thus waveguide transmission SBGs may be used if the internal incidence angles are in the range of 42 to about 70 degrees, in which case the light extracted from the light guide by the gratings will be predominantly p-polarized [0008]. SBGs may be used to provide transmission or reflection gratings for free space applications. SBGs may be implemented as waveguide devices in which the HPDLC forms either the waveguide core or an evanescently coupled layer in proximity to the waveguide. In one particular configuration to be referred to here as Substrate Guided Optics (SGO) the parallel glass plates used to form the HPDLC cell provide a total internal reflection (TIR) light guiding structure. Light is “coupled” out of the SBG when the switchable grating diffracts the light at an angle beyond the TIR condition. SGOs are currently of interest in a range of display and sensor applications. Although much of the earlier work on HPDLC has been directed at reflection holograms transmission devices are proving to be much more versatile as optical system building blocks and tend to be much easier to fabricate [0006]. The present invention is motivated by the requirement to record SBGs of differing optical prescriptions for use in image transmitting waveguides currently being designed for Head Up Displays (HUDs) and Head Mounted Displays (HMDs). The holograms may configured as stacks U.S. Pat. No.: 8,233,204 entitled OPTICAL DISPLAYS U.S. patent application Ser. No.: 13/844,456 entitled WIDE FIELD OF VIEW COLOR DISPLAY; or tessellated in single layers as disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No.: 13/869,866 entitled APERTURE SAMPLING FOR DUAL AXIS SAMPLING. In such applications the holograms are used to tile a field of view (FOV) space and/or increase the size of the exit pupil. For large FOV full color displays the number of holographic prescriptions can be high as the FOV of a holographic element is limited by diffraction efficiency angular bandwidth. Since the cost of fabricating masters using conventional holographic interferometry or ruling processes is currently very high this can make the manufacture of large FOV displays very expensive. Exemplary holographic masters and replicas thereof) are provided by companies such as Holographix Inc. (MA). Typically, masters are surface relief components fabricated using holographic, binary grating etching or mechanical ruling processes. Desirably, a mastering and replication process for large FOV holographic waveguides should provide a range of optical prescriptions spanning the required FOV space using a minimal number of master components. Ideally this should be accomplished with just one master. Applications such as HMDs and HUDs typically demand tight control of the diffraction efficiency and geometrical optical characteristics of the replicated holograms. In particular there is a need for precise control of the intensities of the diffracted and zero order beams. Currently available holographic mastering process suffer from the problem that the relative intensities of the diffracted and zero orders cannot be controlled to better than ±5%. As disclosed in a co-pending patent application PCT/GB2013/000273 the inventors have discovered that a perfect copy can be made if the master hologram is “over-modulated” by a small amount. Over-modulation in this context means that the refractive index modulation of the hologram is a little above that required to achieve the desired beam ratio. The next step is to separately attenuate the master beams to bring them to the desired ratio. Typically we require 50/50 or 1:1. However, the inventors have found that making a perfect master with the appropriate level of over-modulation, which is typically 5-10%, is very difficult in practice. To the best of the inventors' knowledge the required levels of index modulation control have not been achieved using conventional holographic recording processes using currently available holographic recording materials such as photopolymers and Photo Thermo Refractive (PTR) materials. Desirably a holographic mastering process should include methods for controlling the hologram modulation [0010].
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With respect to claims 1,2,6-9 and 14-19, the teachings of figure 8 and the associated text meets these claims, noting that the figure 4c illustrates the use three PDLC masters. Due to the shrinkage during recording these is a shift in the fringes from the record wavelength to a spacing associated with a shorter wavelength.
Claims 1,2 and 6-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being fully anticipated by Escuti et al. 20160033698.
Escuti et al. 20160033698 teaches with respect to figure 16B, the copying of a polarization LC grating to form a replica [0098].
Claims 1,2,5-8 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being fully anticipated by Beaton et al. 20160363784.
Beaton et al. 20160363784 teaches the use of a master cycloidal diffraction (liquid crystalline) waveplate which is exposed using a linearly or circularly polarized input beam to print/copy duplicate cycloidal diffractive waveplates [0199]. There may be numerous materials that may have characteristics consistent with the liquid crystal layer types that have been discussed herein. It may be expected that liquid crystal materials with favorable toxicity may be preferred and naturally derived cholesteryl based liquid crystal materials may be useful. In other examples, the encapsulation technology and materials of ophthalmic inserts may allow a broad choice of materials that may include the LCD display related materials which may typically be of the broad categories related to nematic or cholesteric N* or smectic C* liquid crystals or liquid crystal mixture. Commercially available mixtures such as Merck Specialty chemicals, Licristal mixtures for TN, VA, PSVA, IPS and FFS applications and other commercially available mixtures may form a material choice to form a liquid crystal layer [0116].
There is a clear disclosed of the use of a LC polarization grating as a master in a copying process using irradiation with circularly polarized light. The use of linearly polarized or circularly polarized light as the input light in the duplication process is clearly taught.
Claims 1,2 and 4-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Beaton et al. 20160363784
Beaton et al. 20160363784 does not exemplify the duplication process where the LC material of the polarization grating is a cholesteric LC.
It would have been obvious to preform the polarization grating duplication process described at [0199] with a cholesteric liquid crystal containing master with a reasonable expectation of success based upon the disclosure of cholesteric, nematic and smectic LCs as useful at [0116]
Claims 1,2 and 6-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being fully anticipated by Lam et al. 20220113672.
Lam et al. 20220113672 teaches that PBP lenses may be formed by a thin layer of one or more birefringent materials with intrinsic or induced (e.g., photo-induced) optical anisotropy (referred to as an optically anisotropic film), such as liquid crystals, liquid crystal polymers, amorphous polymers, or metasurfaces [0052]. The off-axis focusing PBP lens may be obtained by cropping or cutting an on-axis PBP lens asymmetrically. In some embodiments, the off-axis focusing PBP lens may be fabricated by one or more of holographic recording, direct writing, exposure through a master mask, or a photocopying, etc. In some embodiments, the orientation pattern of the optic axis of the optically anisotropic film may be holographically recorded in a layer of a recording medium by two coherent polarized lights. In some embodiments, the two polarized lights may be two circularly polarized lights with opposite handednesses irradiated onto the same surface of the recording medium. The fabricated off-axis focusing PBP lens may be a transmissive type optical element. In some embodiments, one of the two circularly polarized lights may be a collimated light and the other may be a converging or diverging light. [0068]. In FIG. 9C, a birefringent medium 915 may be dispensed, e.g., coated or deposited, on the patterned recording medium layer 910 to form a birefringent medium layer (or an optically anisotropic film, also represented by the reference numeral 915). The birefringent medium 915 may include one or more birefringent materials having an intrinsic birefringence, such as non-polymerizable LCs or polymerizable LCs (e.g., RMs). In some embodiments, the birefringent medium 915 may also include other ingredients, such as solvents, initiators (e.g., photo-initiators or thermal initiators), chiral dopants, or surfactants, etc. In some embodiments, the birefringent medium 915 may be coated on the patterned recording medium layer 910 using a suitable process, e.g., spin coating, slot coating, blade coating, spray coating, or jet (ink-jet) coating or printing [0156].
Claims 1-2,6-12 and 14-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Popovich et al. 20180210396
Popovich et al. 20180210396 does not exemplify the use of the duplication process associated with figure 8 to form a waveguide hologram or the attachment of the holograms to a wearable display
With respect to claims 1-3,6-9 and 14-20, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to modify the process associated with figure 8 of Popovich et al. 20180210396 to form waveguide/TIR holograms based upon the disclosure at [0006,0010] with a reasonable of forming useful TIR/waveguide copies
With respect to claims 1-3,6-12 and 14-20, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to modify the process associated with figure 8 of Popovich et al. 20180210396 to form waveguide/TIR holograms and mount them in head mounted displays which can project input images to be reflected by the TIR/waveguide holograms based upon the disclosure at [0006,0010] with a reasonable expectation of forming a useful head mounted display.
Claims 1-2, and 4-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Popovich et al. 20180210396, in view of Beaton et al. 20160363784 and Leister 20190369403.
Leister 20190369403 describes the use of polarization selective switchable LC gratings which are switchable, which are referred to a SBGs. Special types of polarization gratings having small grating period have the property, however, that they only deflect light of a defined circular polarization, but transmit light of the circular polarization having opposing rotational direction undeflected. For differentiation from the polarization-selective volume gratings (PSVG) and the conventional polarization gratings, (PG) they are referred to hereafter as Bragg polarization gratings (B-PG). These gratings will be described in greater detail hereafter [0302]. Such Bragg polarization gratings can be used in a broad field of application because of the unique properties thereof, such as high optical quality of thin films, a high diffraction efficiency, and a broad or wide angle acceptance and large spectral acceptance. For example, they can advantageously be used in head-mounted displays (HMD) or also in devices for AR (augmented reality) applications or VR (virtual reality) applications. These grating elements enable a very efficient beam deflection of coherent light in combination with a polarization switch. The angle of deflection, i.e., the angle between two “operative” diffraction orders, i.e., the zeroth and the first diffraction order, of the Bragg polarization grating were achieved in simulations at 42° in air with a wavelength used of 532 nm. The switching contrast, i.e., the ratio of the diffraction efficiency with opposing circular polarizations, can be approximately 100. The specific polarization and diffraction properties of the Bragg polarization grating offer the option of combining multiple such grating elements in one stack. For example, a grating element stack can comprise two such grating elements, which are designed for normal light incidence of green light. In operation, such a grating element stack would deflect an incident light beam either in the +1 diffraction order or in the −1 diffraction order, depending on the polarization state of the light, right-circular polarized light or left-circular polarized light. The two grating elements of the grating element stack have the same period of Λ=0.77 μm and the same angle of inclination, but an opposing inclination of the interference pattern. The rotation angle φ can be kept either at +28° or at −28° by holographic exposure. After the holographic exposure and the tempering, the grating elements are fixed with one another using UV-curing glue [0344]. Polarization-selective Bragg grating elements or Bragg polarization gratings are also to be discussed in general hereafter, which can advantageously be used in a light decoupling device of a light guiding device to couple light out of a light guide. This light guiding device can then advantageously be used in a head-mounted display [0339]. Figure 4 shows the use of polarization gratings.
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A light guiding device is schematically illustrated in FIG. 26, the light decoupling device of which comprises a Bragg polarization grating B-PG, which deflects light of all wavelengths, but at different angles, and multiple volume gratings VG. The multiple volume gratings VG form a volume grating stack, which in this exemplary embodiment has four volume gratings VG1, VG2, VG3, and VG4. Light of the red wavelength R, light of the green wavelength G, and light of the blue wavelength B is now incident at the same angle on the Bragg polarization grating B-PG. The light of the green wavelength G is deflected in this case so that it exits from the Bragg polarization grating B-PG perpendicularly to the surface or boundary surface of the light guide LG. Light of the red wavelength R and light of the blue wavelength B, however, exit at a different angle from the Bragg polarization grating B-PG, as can be seen on the basis of the dashed and the solid arrows in FIG. 26. The Bragg polarization grating B-PG is followed by the volume grating stack having the four volume gratings VG1, VG2, VG3, and VG4. These volume gratings VG1, VG2, VG3, and VG4 of the volume grating stack are designed as wavelength-selective. In this exemplary embodiment, this means that the light of the green wavelength G passes undeflected through all four volume gratings VG1, VG2, VG3, and VG4 and is then coupled out of the light guide LG. The light of the red wavelength R passes through the first two volume gratings VG1 and VG2 undeflected and is only deflected by the last two volume gratings VG3 and VG4 so that it exits from the light guide LG at the same angle as the light of the green wavelength G. The light of the blue wavelength B is only deflected by the first two volume gratings VG1 and VG2 and passes undeflected through the last two volume gratings VG3 and VG4, where the volume gratings VG1 and VG2 deflect the light of the blue wavelength in such a way that it exits at the same angle from the light guide LG as the light of the green wavelength G or red wavelength. One pair of volume gratings is used in each case for correcting the exit angle of the light for the blue wavelength and the light for the red wavelengths from the light guide, because a good wavelength selectivity may be set more easily for greater angle of deflections of the volume gratings. For example, the light of the blue wavelength B is firstly again deflected to a greater angle by the volume grating VG1 before the volume grating VG2 deflects the light of the blue wavelength so that it exits perpendicularly to the surface or boundary surface of the light guide LG therefrom [0318-0319].
Popovich et al. 20180210396 does not teach the use of circularly polarized light.
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to modify the teachings of Popovich et al. 20180210396 by replicating cholesterolic polarization gratings as taught by Beaton et al. 20160363784 and using these in head mounted displays which utilize circularly polarized light such as those taught by Leister 20190369403 which alloys mass duplication of holograms without having to record each holograms individually using a two beam exposure with a reasonable expectation of forming a useful head mounted display.
Claims 1-3,6-9 and 14-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sutherland et al. 20040175627, in view of Kobayashi et al. 20060055993
Kobayashi et al. 20060055993 teaches that holographic recording materials which can be used as the master or the copy materials in holographic duplication processes include photo sensitive materials like dichromate gelatin, photopolymer, photo-resist, photo-polymerized liquid crystal polymer, and polymer dispersed liquid crystal (a composite film of a non-polymerized liquid crystal and a polymerized polymer) [0083].
Sutherland et al. 20040175627 does not exemplify the use of the LC master to record/duplicate a hologram in dichromated gelatin (DCG).
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to modify the process of Sutherland et al. 20040175627 by replacing the PDLC copy material with dichromated gelatin with a reasonable expectation of forming a useful holograms based upon the disclosure in Kobayashi et al. 20060055993 at [0083] that useful master or copy materials for forming holograms include photo sensitive materials like dichromate gelatin, photopolymer, photo-resist, photo-polymerized liquid crystal polymer, and polymer dispersed liquid crystal (a composite film of a non-polymerized liquid crystal and a polymerized polymer).
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Popovich et al. 20150177688 and Someno 20090168130 teach copying/duplication of holograms using a PDLC master.
Kurashige JP 2010276660 (machine translation attached) teaches copying/duplication of holograms using a PDLC master.
Peng et al. 20190318706 Referring to FIGS. 1C and 1D, an LC device 301 in which the orientation of the LC material varies periodically or nearly periodically along a direction in the plane of the LC layer may function as a polarization grating. Such a grating may direct incident light at an angle that depends on the polarization state of the incident light. One example of an LC polarization grating is a Pancharatnam Berry Phase (PBP) grating, in which grating ‘groves’ are formed by spatially varying birefringence in the plane of the grating. The LC molecules 305 in such grating have varying orientations in the plane of the LC layer, indicated in the figure as an (x,y) plane, defining a device birefringence profile in the plane of the LC layer. The azimuth angle of the LC molecules in the plane of the grating continuously changes from center to the edge, typically with a fixed pitch 303. The LC layer in a PBP grating may be configured to deflect a right-circular polarized (RCP) light by a diffraction angle θ.sub.d in one direction, and to deflect a left-circular polarized (LCP) light in an opposite direction, generally by the same diffraction angle θ.sub.d and in a same plane, as illustrated in FIG. 1D. An LC PBP grating may be configured to provide a desired magnitude of the diffraction angle θ.sub.d. Such a grating may be either active, where the LC material orientation is electrically controlled, or passive, where the LC material orientation is fixed in place via material properties and/or alignment layers. An active LC PBP grating may be constructed as described hereinabove with reference to FIG. 1B. For example, an active LC PBP grating may deflect incident CP light by the diffraction angle +\−θ.sub.d depending on the chirality of incident light while simultaneously reversing its chirality in the absence of voltage (OFF state), and may leave both the direction of propagation and the polarization state of incident light unchanged in the presence of voltage (ON state). Another example of an LC polarization grating is a volume holographic LC grating, in which the orientation of the LC layer material may vary both in the plane of the LC layer and in the direction normal to the LC layer. Such gratings may be constructed to selectively deflect only one of two orthogonal linear polarizations, without substantially changing the propagation direction of the other of the two orthogonal polarizations. The volume holographic LC grating may operate, for example, as an active element where the LC material is electrically controlled, and/or as a passive element, together with a linear polarizer and an active polarization rotator operable to switch the polarization status of the incident light. Embodiments described below with reference to LC PBP gratings may be modified to use such volume holographic LC gratings instead [0065]. Figure 23 illustrates a head mounted display including a display module (199) [0132].
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Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Martin J Angebranndt whose telephone number is (571)272-1378. The examiner can normally be reached 7-3:30 pm EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ching-Yu (Coris) Fung can be reached at 571-270-5713. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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MARTIN J. ANGEBRANNDT
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 1737
/MARTIN J ANGEBRANNDT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1737 July 28, 2026
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