DETAILED ACTION
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)(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.
Claim(s) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. PGPub 2011/0026929 A1 by Powell.
Regarding claim 1, Powell teaches an optical multiplexer (OADM, Figs. 1, 2) comprising:
a first input port (102);
a second input port (110);
an optical dispersion element (grating 206) provided in a propagation path of first input light (collimated by 204a) from the first input port (102) and second input light (collimated by 204b) from the second input port (110), and configured to separate each of first input light and second input light into a plurality of wavelength components by dispersing the first input light and the second input light in a predetermined wavelength dispersion direction (“diffracts the different wavelengths of the signal by different degrees”, ¶[0026]);
a reflection mirror including a first reflection element and a second reflection element (upper and lower reflectors between focusing lenses 208 and mirrors 220), the first reflection element being configured to reflect a group of wavelength components (input express multiplexed beam) corresponding to a first wavelength band among the plurality of wavelength components separated by the optical dispersion element, the second reflection element being configured to reflect a group of wavelength (add/drop multiplexed beam) components corresponding to a second wavelength band different from the first wavelength band in a direction different from the group of wavelength components corresponding to the first wavelength band of corresponding input light;
a first output port (express port 108) provided in a propagation path of first reflected light that is reflected light by the first reflection element of a group of wavelength components corresponding to the first wavelength band of the first input light, and configured to output the first reflected light (at a first optical path 230a); and
a second output port (drop port 116) provided in a propagation path of second reflected light that is reflected light by the second reflection element of a group of wavelength components corresponding to the second wavelength band of the first input light, and configured to output the second reflected light (at a second optical path 230b), wherein
the reflection mirror reflects incident light in a direction different from an incident direction, and has a configuration in which the first reflection element and the second reflection element are arranged such that the first reflected light and the second reflected light propagate away in a direction perpendicular to the wavelength dispersion direction (illustrated as upper and lower positions in Fig. 2, while the dispersion direction occurs in a horizontal direction), and
the second input port (110) is arranged at a position separated from the first input port in a direction perpendicular to the wavelength dispersion direction so that third reflected light that is reflected light by the second reflection element of a group of wavelength components corresponding to the second wavelength band of the second input light is optically coupled to the first output port and output from the first output port (as shown in Fig. 1, a reflected signal, e.g., λ3 may be reflected/directed to either of the output ports 108/116).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4 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.
Prior art of record fails to specify each of a plurality of reflection mirrors of a mirror array is a reflection mirror in which the first reflection element and the second reflection element are arranged such that combinations of the first wavelength band and the second wavelength band are different from each other between the plurality of reflection mirrors, and the controller controls the arrangement of the mirror array so that the first input light and the second input light dispersed by the optical dispersion element are incident selectively on one designated reflection mirror among the plurality of reflection mirrors, when considered in view of the rest of the limitations of the claimed invention.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. USP6956987, WO2008018978 each discloses an optical add-drop multiplexer.
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/CHARLIE Y PENG/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874
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