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 .
Specification
The specification is objected to because the heading which precedes [0002] reads "FILED" instead of "FIELD".
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.
Claims 1-3 and 6-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by US 2023/0417974 A1.
Claim 1: '974 discloses an optical waveguide device for expanding input light beam based on one-dimensional grating and two-dimensional grating, comprising (see mainly figs. 9-13):
a waveguide substrate 200 and a coupling-in grating 210 and a coupling-out grating 212 arranged on the waveguide substrate, and
the coupling-in grating is configured to couple an input light beam from outside of the waveguide substrate into the waveguide substrate so that the input light beam is transmitted to the coupling-out grating through total reflection (see e.g. the path of image-bearing light WG depicted in fig. 4B),
wherein the coupling-in grating has a grating vector direction (the direction of k0 as labeled in earlier figures) pointing to the coupling-out grating, and
the coupling-out grating comprises a one-dimensional region 218 (or 222) in which a one-dimensional grating is formed and a two-dimensional region 214 in which a two-dimensional grating is formed.
Claims 2-3 and 6-7: See mainly fig. 9 and its description.
Claims 8-20: See the description of zones 214 through 229 e.g. in [0055], [0065], and [0070] and corresponding figs. 4A, 5A, 12, 13, and so forth ('974 uses the term "zones" instead of "partitions").
Claims 21-23: See fig. 22 and [0093].
Conclusion
The additional references listed on the attached 892 form are considered generally relevant to the subject matter of this application. Several of them disclose other examples of optical waveguide devices including 1-D and 2-D gratings in an outcoupling region.
Contact Information
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Examiner's direct supervisor: 571-272-2397
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/Michael Stahl/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874
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