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 Objections
Claims 1, 10 and 13 are objected to because of the following informalities: Claims 1, 10 and 13 should comprise the full form of DSM and PID in order to be consistent with the specifications. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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 2, 3, 10 and 12-15 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.
Claim 2 states “for sat-comm applications”. This part of the claim is vague and confusing. What is a sat-comm application? How many sat-comm applications are claimed here? Furthermore, are the limitations of claim 2 applicable to every sat-comm application?
Claim 3 states “for astronomy applications”. This part of the claim is vague and confusing. What is an astronomy application? How many astronomy applications are claimed here? Furthermore, are the limitations of claim 3 applicable to every astronomy application?
Claim 10 states “opening the light paths for all sub-apertures to obtain a beamformed sum of the DSM colour and payload colours”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for these limitations. There are no prior light paths for all sub-apertures. Furthermore, there are no prior DSM and payload colours claimed.
Claim 12 states “as a peak in the cross-correlation function”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for “the cross-relation function”. Furthermore, it is unclear what this cross-correlation function is and comprises within the context of the claim.
Claim 13 states, “searching for a peak in the cross-correlation function”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for “the cross-relation function”. Furthermore, it is unclear what this cross-correlation function is and comprises within the context of the claim.
Claim 14 states “wherein the output of each station”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation.
Claim 15 comprises insufficient antecedent basis for “that is the beat difference frequency”.
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) 10 and 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Calvo (Optical technologies for very high throughput satellite communications).
Regarding claim 10, Calvo teaches a method of establishing coherence of an optical payload (Page 8, paragraph 1, Beam divergence was fixed for both the uplink (order of tens μrad) and the downlink (hundreds of μrad), in order to emulate the bidirectional link in realistic conditions. The fiber coupling served the purpose of guiding the light into the fiber. This was done with combination of a fine-steering mirror controller using feedback from a four-quadrant detector (4QD) and the single-mode fiber placed in the focus of a coupling lens. A PID loop filter was implemented in custom hardware interfacing the fine steering mirror and 4QD with additional measures to hold the last good pointing angle in case of power loss, to allow easier re-acquisition when power was restored. Together with using a patent-pending method for automatic alignment of the fiber position to the tracking sensor, we could achieve stable coupling efficiency, which was evaluated from photodetectors placed in the focus of the received beam before coupling and in a tap of the single-mode fiber) and DSM signals (Page 8, paragraph 3 shows the different DSM signals) from a plurality of sub-apertures (Fig. 4-1 shows this), from which atmospheric and temporal optical waveguide variations have been removed by a plurality of per-sub-aperture PID servos (Page 11, paragraph 1, Adaptive Optics (AO) is a method to mitigate the adverse effects of atmospheric turbulence on the communications channel. This method corrects optical aberrations in real-time, by adapting a correction element, often a Deformable Mirror (DM), in the path of the light. A Wavefront Sensor detects the phase-aberration residual error and an appropriate command sent to the DM to improve correction. As the turbulence changes on timescales of ~1ms, the AO system must operate in a closed-loop at frame rates of ~1 kHz. AO has been in use in a number of fields, like astronomy or biological imaging. It is present at most major astronomical observatories and. is currently successfully working in satellite links through the atmosphere), comprising: opening a light path of a reference sub-aperture; aligning the optical payload and DSM signals (page 8, paragraph 1, method for automatic alignment of the fiber position to the tracking sensor, we could achieve stable coupling efficiency); and opening the light paths for all sub-apertures to obtain a beamformed sum of the DSM colour and payload colours (Fig. 5-1 shows the coupling of the signals).
Regarding claim 11, Calvo teaches the method of claim 10, wherein aligning the optical payload and DSM signals comprises sequentially opening a light path for each other sub-aperture and adjusting the phase of the DSM signals until maximum optical power is detected, whereby the optical payload and DSM signals are aligned (Page 13, paragraph 3, Briefly, the method captures a single focal image and detects the peak amplitude and coordinate position of the main intensity speckles. Then, it represents each speckle with a software-generated plane wave in the pupil plane. The iterative process involves the search of the optimum phase shift between plane waves to achieve the best coherent combination that compensates the distorted field. This process is done sequentially, optimizing each plane wave at a time, and concurrently sensing the fiber-coupled power; page 11, paragraph 1, A Wavefront Sensor detects the phase-aberration residual error and an appropriate command sent to the DM to improve correction).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1-9 and 14-19 will be allowed over the prior arts of record after overcoming the 112b issues of the respective dependent claims.
Claim 12 is 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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See the notice of reference cited (PTO-892).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PRANESH K BARUA whose telephone number is (571)270-1017. The examiner can normally be reached on Mon-Sat: 11-8pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, David Payne can be reached on 5712723024. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PRANESH K BARUA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2635