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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The prior art documents submitted by applicant in the Information Disclosure Statement filed on 2/20/24 and 1/29/25, have all been considered and made of record (note the attached copy of form PTO/SB/08a).
Drawings
Figure 1 should be designated by a legend such as --Prior Art-- because only that which is old is illustrated. See MPEP § 608.02(g). Corrected drawings in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. The replacement sheet(s) should be labeled “Replacement Sheet” in the page header (as per 37 CFR 1.84(c)) so as not to obstruct any portion of the drawing figures. If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Specification
Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: because:
Line 3 of claim 1 recites “the front face”. It should be “a front face” or “the main face” (in order to provide a proper antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim).
Appropriate correction is required.
Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
5. 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.
6. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103(a) which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
(a) 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.
7. Claims 1 and 10-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103(a) as being unpatentable over Ito (JP 2019074642 A) and Casey et al. (US-20100316342-A1) and further in view of Horiguchi et al. (US-20170242316-A1).
With respect to claim 1, Ito (figure 4) discloses a photonic chip, comprising a support substrate having a main face (a silicon substrate); two single Mach-Zehnder modulators (410, 420), respectively, the modulator I (410) and modulator Q (420) such that the photonic chip (400) forms an IQ modulator (410, 420), each comprising two modulation branches, including a first branch (412, 422) and a second branch (413, 423) arranged between an optical input (401) and an optical output (402) so that a light ray injected at the optical input (401) is split into a first ray and a second ray, intended to be modulated by, respectively, the modulator I (410) and the modulator Q (420), and are then recombined at the optical output (404, 402), the two modulation branches of each of the two single Mach-Zehnder modulators (410, 420) comprises a modulation section (light modulator) formed by a modulation waveguide (401), and a modulation element, the modulation element being configured to modulate the phase of a ray capable of being guided by the modulation waveguide (401), the second branch (413, 423) further comprising a phase-shift module (415) configured to impose a fixed phase shift onto a light ray capable of being guided by the second branch (413, 423), the first branch (412) and the second branch (413) of the modulator I (410) being connected, at one of their ends (figure 4), by an intermediate optical input I (411), and, at the other of their ends, by an intermediate optical output I (414), the first branch (422) and the second branch (423) of the modulator Q (420) being connected, at one of their ends, to another intermediate optical input Q (421), and, at the other of their ends, to another intermediate optical output Q (424); a beam splitter (403) and a ray combiner (404), the beam splitter (403) comprising two waveguides including an input guide I (see the annotation in figure 4 below) and an input guide Q (see the annotation in figure 4 below), the input guide I and the input guide Q connecting the optical input (401) with, respectively, the input I and the input Q (figure 4), so that the first ray and the second ray are injected at, respectively, the input I and the input Q (figure 4), the ray combiner (404) comprising two waveguides including an output guide I and an output guide Q (see the annotation in figure 4 below), the output guide I and the output guide Q connecting the optical output (402) with, respectively, the output I and the output Q (figure 4).
Ito does not explicitly disclose a waveguide layer disposed on the front face of the substrate and the Mach- Zehnder modulators being formed on and/or in the waveguide layer.
However, Casey et al. (figure 4b) teach an optical device including a waveguide layer (42) disposed on the front face of the substrate (41) and the Mach- Zehnder modulators (40) being formed on and/or in the waveguide layer (42) (figure 4b). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the device of Ito to include the above features (accordance with the teaching of Casey) for the purpose of providing the functionally of the Mach- Zehnder modulator ([0039]).
Ito and Casey et al. do not explicitly disclose two single semiconductor optical amplifiers, including an amplifier I and an amplifier Q carried, respectively, by the output guide I and the output guide Q.
However, Horiguchi et al. (figure 9) teach an optical device including semiconductor optical amplifiers carried by the output guide ([0075]). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the device of the above combination by including the above features (accordance with the teaching of Horiguchi) for the purpose of minimizing the high frequency wave signal crosstalk ([0073]).
[AltContent: arrow][AltContent: arrow]An input guide I An output guide I
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An input guide Q An output guide Q
With respect to claims 10-12, Ito (figure 4) substantially discloses all the limitations of the claimed invention except the modulation waveguide comprises silicon, doped silicon and a PN junction along the waveguide made of silicon.
However, the modulation waveguide comprising silicon, doped silicon and a PN junction along the waveguide made of silicon are considered to be obvious to provide a high performance of optical signal transmission. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the device of Ito to include the above features for the purpose of providing a high performance of optical signal transmission. It is also noted that it has been held to be within the general skill of a worker in the art to select a known material on the basis of its suitability for the intended use as a matter of obvious design choice. In re Leshin, 125 USPQ 416.
With respect to claim 13, Ito (figure 4) substantially discloses all the limitations of the claimed invention except the at least two semiconductor optical amplifiers comprise a waveguide made of III-V semiconductor material.
However, the at least two semiconductor optical amplifiers comprising a waveguide made of III-V semiconductor material are considered to be obvious to provide a high performance of optical signal transmission. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the device of Ito to include the above features for the purpose of providing a high performance of optical signal transmission. It is also noted that it has been held to be within the general skill of a worker in the art to select a known material on the basis of its suitability for the intended use as a matter of obvious design choice. In re Leshin, 125 USPQ 416.
Allowable Subject Matter
8. Claims 2-9 and 14-16 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.
Conclusion
9. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Okamura (US-9703169-B2), Prosyk (US-20150286108-A1) and Secondini (US-20110182590-A1) disclose an optical modulator.
10. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jennifer Doan whose telephone number is (571) 272-2346. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday to Friday from 7:00am to 3:30pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Thomas Hollweg can be reached on 571-270-1739. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JENNIFER DOAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874