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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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, 5-7, 13-14 and 16-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Anderson et al. (US 2014/0270620 A1) in view of Shen et al. (“Recent progress on inverse design for integrated photonic devices: methodology and applications”, Journal of Nanophotonics, Vol. 10, Issue 1, pp1-26, 27 January 2024).
Re claim 1, Anderson et al. discloses a device comprising: a planar waveguide (200) disposed in or on a multi-layer semiconductor stock (paragraph 0002; Figs 5-6), the planar waveguide having an input port (230) and output ports (288a, 288b); a polarization rotating component (106, 206) integrated into the planar waveguide (200) to rotate at least a portion of an optical signal received via the input port from a transverse magnetic (TM) polarization to a transverse polarization (paragraph 0031); and a beam splitting component (108, 208) integrated into the planar waveguide shaped to split the optical signal between the two ports (paragraph 0036). Anderson et al. does not disclose the device wherein the polarization rotating component includes a first irregular pattern of at least two materials having different refractive indexes; wherein the beam splitting component includes a second irregular pattern of the at least two materials shaped.
Shen et al. discloses a device comprising a planar waveguide disposed in or on a multi-layer semiconductor stack, wherein a polarization rotating component includes a first irregular pattern of at least two materials (page 2, “Si, SiO2”) having different refractive indexes (page 2; Table 7); wherein the beam splitting component includes a second irregular pattern of the at least two materials (page 2; Table 6).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to employ the device wherein the polarization rotating component includes a first irregular pattern of at least two materials having different refractive indexes; wherein the beam splitting component includes a second irregular pattern of the at least two materials shaped since one would be motivated to expand the DOF and improve the optimization efficiency.
Re claim 17, Anderson et al. discloses a device comprising a planar waveguide (200) disposed in or on a multi-layer semiconductor stock (paragraph 0002; Figs 5-6), the planar waveguide having an input port (230) and output ports (288a, 288b), to rotate at least a portion of an optical signal received via the input port from a transverse magnetic (TM) polarization to a transverse electric (TE) polarization (paragraph 0031); and further to split the optical signal between the output ports, and to receive input TE and TM signals multiplexed on the optical signal at the input port of the planar waveguide and generate output TE signals demultiplexed on the output ports (paragraph 0036). Anderson et al. does not disclose the device including an inverse designed irregular pattern of at least two materials having different refractive indexes, the inverse designed irregular pattern shaped to rotate at least a portion of an optical signal received via the input port from a transverse magnetic (TM) polarization to a transverse electric (TE) polarization and further shaped to split the optical signal between the output ports, wherein the inverse designed irregular pattern is further shaped to receive input TE and TM signals multiplexed on the optical signal at the input port of the planar waveguide and generate output TE signals demultiplexed on the output ports.
Shen et al. discloses a device including an inverse designed irregular pattern of at least two materials having different refractive indexes (page 2, “Si, SiO2”), the inverse designed irregular pattern shaped for inversely designed polarization beam splitting and inversely designed polarization rotating (page 2, Tables 6-7).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to employ the device including an inverse designed irregular pattern of at least two materials having different refractive indexes, the inverse designed irregular pattern shaped to rotate at least a portion of an optical signal received via the input port from a transverse magnetic (TM) polarization to a transverse electric (TE) polarization and further shaped to split the optical signal between the output ports, wherein the inverse designed irregular pattern is further shaped to receive input TE and TM signals multiplexed on the optical signal at the input port of the planar waveguide and generate output TE signals demultiplexed on the output ports since one would be motivated to expand the DOF and improve the optimization efficiency.
Re claims 5 and 18, Anderson et al. discloses the device wherein the planar waveguide comprises one of a rib waveguide (240), a ridge waveguide, a slab waveguide or a buried channel waveguide (paragraph 0032).
Re claim 6, Anderson et al. discloses the device wherein the planar waveguide comprises either a rib waveguide (240) or a ridge waveguide, but does not disclose the device wherein the first and second irregular patterns are disposed within the rib portion of the rib waveguide or a ridge portion of the ridge waveguide.
Shen et al. discloses a device wherein a planar waveguide is designed to have irregular structures (page 2, Tables 6 and 7).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to employ the device wherein the first and second irregular patterns are disposed within the rib portion of the rib waveguide or a ridge portion of the ridge waveguide since one would be motivated to expand the DOF and improve the optimization efficiency.
Re claim 7, Anderson et al. does not disclose the device wherein the first and second irregular patterns are inverse designed patterns from a silicon and silicon dioxide disposed within the planar waveguide, wherein the first and second irregular patterns are optically coupled end-to-end within the planar waveguide, and wherein the multi-layer semiconductor stack comprises a photonic integrated circuit (PIC).
Shen et al. discloses a device wherein a beam splitter and a polarization rotator are inverse designed patterns from a silicon and silicon dioxide disposed within a planar waveguide (page 2, Tables 6-7), wherein the multi-layer semiconductor stack comprises a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) (abstract). Anderson et al. discloses the device wherein the beam splitter and the polarization rotator are optically coupled end-to-end (Fig. 2, ref. 206, 208).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to employ the device wherein the first and second irregular patterns are inverse designed patterns from a silicon and silicon dioxide disposed within the planar waveguide, wherein the first and second irregular patterns are optically coupled end-to-end within the planar waveguide, and wherein the multi-layer semiconductor stack comprises a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) since one would be motivated to expand the DOF and improve the optimization efficiency.
Re claim 13, Anderson et al. discloses the device wherein the polarization rotating component comprises a mode converter (paragraph 0013) to rotate the input TM signal to the TE polarization at an intermediate port (236) disposed between the polarization rotating (206) and the beam splitter components (208) and also converts a fundamental spatial mode of the input TM signal to a higher order TE spatial mode at the intermediate port (paragraph 0021). Anderson et al. does not disclose the device wherein the first irregular pattern shaped to both rotate the input TM signal to the TE polarization and also shaped to convert a fundamental spatial mode of the input TM signal to a higher order TE spatial mode of the intermediate port.
Shen et al. discloses a device wherein a polarization rotating component includes a first irregular pattern of at least two materials (page 2, “Si, SiO2”) having different refractive indexes (page 2; Table 7).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to employ the device wherein the first irregular pattern shaped to both rotate the input TM signal to the TE polarization and also shaped to convert a fundamental spatial mode of the input TM signal to a higher order TE spatial mode of the intermediate port since one would be motivated to expand the DOF and improve the optimization efficiency.
Re claim 14, Anderson et al. disclose the device wherein the beam splitting component (208) comprises a mode splitter to split the optical signal received at an intermediate port (236) disposed between the polarization rotating (206) and beam splitting (208) components to the output ports (288a, 288b) and to convert the portion of the optical signal rotated by the polarization rotating component from a higher order TE spatial mode at the intermediate portion to one of the output TE signals in a fundamental TE spatial mode at one of the output ports (paragraph 0022). Anderson et al. does not disclose the device wherein the beam splitting component comprises the second irregular pattern that is shaped to split the optical signal.
Shen et al. discloses a device wherein the beam splitting component comprises the second irregular pattern that is shaped to split the optical signal (page 2, Table 7).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to employ the device wherein the beam splitting component comprises the second irregular pattern that is shaped to split the optical signal since one would be motivated to expand the DOF and improve the optimization efficiency.
Re claim 16, Anderson et al. does not disclose the device defined by multiple layers of the multi-layer stack (paragraph 0002; Figs. 5-6), but does not disclose the device wherein at least one of the first or second irregular patterns comprises a three-dimensional pattern that extends across and is defined by multiple layers of the multi-layer stack.
Shen et al. discloses a device wherein at least one of the first or second irregular patterns comprises a three-dimensional pattern (page 2).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to employ the device wherein at least one of the first or second irregular patterns comprises a three-dimensional pattern that extends across and is defined by multiple layers of the multi-layer stack since one would be motivated to expand the DOF and improve the optimization efficiency.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4, 8-12, 15, 19-21 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.
Conclusion
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/RICHARD H KIM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2871
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