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 .
Claims 1-7 are currently pending in the present application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The IDS dated 01 December 2025 was considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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.
(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) 1-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Shang et. al., “Real Time Tunable Colors from Microfluidic Reconfigurable All-Dielectric Metasurfaces,” ACS Nano 2018, 12, 2151-2159, cited by applicant in IDS dated 01 December 2025.
Re: claim 1, Shang discloses a transparent substrate (pg. 2152, right column, discloses ITO glass substrate, where ITO is a known transparent material), a resonant metasurface including an array of pixels (Fig. 1a discloses a single pixel; pg. 2152, right column, discloses TiO2 nanoblock array where each block in the array is a pixel; resonating in ED and MD disclosed in caption to Figure 1(b) on pg. 2152), wherein the resonant metasurface is disposed on the transparent substrate (pg. 2152, right column, discloses that TiO2 array is disposed on the ITO glass substrate); a fluidic circuit (circuit comprising a microfluidic channel disclosed in Fig. 4a & on pg. 2154; pg. 2153, left column, discloses microfluidic channel having a size smaller than 100 nm) configured to provide a per-pixel tunable index of refraction in proximity to the resonant metasurface (configuration disclosed on pg. 2155, right column: “Figure 4a shows the image of the microfluidic chip, where the solvents are mechanically injected and ejected through the pipes, and the metasurface is embedded in the fluidic channel” and “the refractive index of surrounding media (nsur) increases from 1.00 to 1.333, 1.4795, and 1.6276 with the injection of water, DMSO, and CS2…”); wherein the per-pixel resonances include at least a symmetric-mode resonance and an antisymmetric-mode resonance for each pixel (Figure 5 discloses symmetric mode where encoded information is visible and antisymmetric mode that conceals encoded information; resonating in ED and MD disclosed in caption to Figure 1(b) on pg. 2152); wherein the per-pixel resonances of the resonant metasurface are altered by changes in the per-pixel tunable index of refraction (pg. 2155, right column discloses: “Figure 4a shows the image of the microfluidic chip, where the solvents are mechanically injected and ejected through the pipes, and the metasurface is embedded in the fluidic channel” and “the refractive index of surrounding media (nsur) increases from 1.00 to 1.333, 1.4795, and 1.6276 with the injection of water, DMSO, and CS2…”); whereby at least per-pixel broadband intensity modulation in reflection is provided (Figures 4b, 4c & 4e disclose broadband capabilities; pg. 2155, right column discloses “Taking a TiO2 metasurface…its optical properties within different injected solvents have been…plotted in Figure 4b…the refractive index of the surrounding media (nsur) increases from 1.00 to 1.333, 1.4795, and 1.6276 with the injection of water, DMSSO, and CS2…the reflection peak at 530 nm shifts to 550, 570, and 610 nm”).
Re: claim 2, Shang discloses the limitations of claim 1, and Shang further discloses that changes in the per-pixel tunable index of refraction also provide color modulation in reflection (Figures 4b, 4c & 4e disclose color modulation; pg. 2155, right column discloses “Taking a TiO2 metasurface…its optical properties within different injected solvents have been…plotted in Figure 4b…the refractive index of the surrounding media (nsur) increases from 1.00 to 1.333, 1.4795, and 1.6276 with the injection of water, DMSSO, and CS2…the reflection peak at 530 nm shifts to 550, 570, and 610 nm”).
Re: claim 3, Shang discloses the limitations of claim 1, and Shang further discloses that metasurface features of the resonant metasurface are laterally isotropic (Fig. 1a discloses lateral isotropism).
Re: claim 4, Shang discloses the limitations of claim 1, and Shang further discloses that the per-pixel resonances have fluidically tunable resonant wavelengths (Figs. 4a, 4b, 1c & pg. 2155, right column discloses: “Figure 4a shows the image of the microfluidic chip, where the solvents are mechanically injected and ejected through the pipes, and the metasurface is embedded in the fluidic channel”).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5 - 7 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
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/ANGELA M. MEDICH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2871