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 .
Claim Objections
Claims 1-11 objected to because of the following informalities: The claims comprise “bullet points” and are therefore not in proper sentence structure. Appropriate correction is required, such as employing semicolons.
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.
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) 1-5 and 9-11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Manders et al. (WO 2020/263094 A1).
Re claim 1, Manders et al. discloses a device comprising: a moveable mirror (25) (Figs. 1-2; page 11, line 6, lines 32-35) configured for scanning an illumination light, IL (16), as an IL pattern (34) over and/or through the sample (32) (Figs. 1-2; Page 11, lines 3-9), de-scanning sample light, SL (46), from the sample (32), the SL (46) caused by the IL pattern (34) (Figs. 1-2; page 11, lines 18-25), and rescanning the de-scanned SL as an SL pattern (54) over an imaging plane (56) of an imaging system (52) (Figs. 1-2; page 11, lines 18-25), wherein the light paths (16) incident with or reflected by the moveable mirror (25) pass through one (50) or two moveable mirror focusing MMF (22a-22b, 22c-22d), lenses, wherein an MMF lens (22a-22b, 22c-22d, 50) is a lens or lens group separated from the moveable mirror by its focal length (page 11, lines 4-6, lines 22-25; page 12, lines 39-page 13, line 13). The moveable mirror (25) is separated by at least the focal length of relay mirror (22a) and relay mirror (22c).
Re claim 2, Manders et al. discloses the device wherein: the IL (16) propagates along an IL optical path and the SL (46) propagates along an SL optical path; a part of the IL optical path propagates along an IL incident light path and is reflected by the moveable mirror (25) along an IL reflected light path for scanning illumination light over and/or through the sample (34) (Fig. 1, 2); a part of the SL optical path propagates along an SL first incident light path and is reflected by the moveable mirror (25) along a SL first reflected light path thereby scanning the SL (Figs. 1 and 2), and a part of the SL optical path propagates along a SL second incident path and is reflected by the moveable mirror (25) along a SL reflected light path thereby re-scanning the SL towards the imaging plane (Figs. 1 and 2), wherein a first group of light paths comprises the IL incident light path, the SL first reflected light path and the SL second incident light paths, a second group of light paths comprises the IL reflected light path, the SL first incident light path, and the SL second reflected light path, and the first group and the second group of lights paths pass through the one or two MMF lenses (22022B, 22C-22D, 50) (Figs. 1 and 2).
Re claim 3, Manders et al. discloses the device wherein the first group of lights paths pass through one or two MMF lenses (22a, 22c), a first MMF lens (22a), separated from the movable mirror (25) by its focal length, and the second group of light paths passes the other of the two MMF Lenses (22a, 22c), a second (22c) MMF lens, different from the first MMF lens, separated from the moveable mirror by its focal length.
Re claim 4, Manders et al. discloses the device wherein both the first group of light paths and the second group of light paths pass the (only) one MMF lens separated from the moveable mirror by its focal length
Re claim 5, Manders et al. discloses the device further comprising an offset reflector (38, 44), wherein: the SL first reflected light path is a part of a first static light path propagating de- scanned SL from the sample (32), the first static light path (46) is reflected back towards the moveable mirror (25) by the offset reflector (38, 44) along a second static light path (46), wherein the first static light path (46; light path after reflected from 24a) is offset from the second static light path (46; light path after reflecting from 44), the second static light path (166) passes through the same MMF lens (22a-22c) and is incident with the moveable mirror (25) along the SL second incident path.
Re claim 9, Manders et al. discloses the device comprising an optical slit (42), wherein the first static light path and second static light path pass through the optical slit (Fig. 1, ref. 46).
Re claim 10, Manders et al. discloses the device wherein an angle of incidence of the IL incident light path with the moveable mirror and an angle of reflection of the SL first reflected light path with the moveable mirror are the same (Fig. 1, ref. 16, 46).
Re claim 11, Manders et al. discloses a confocal microscope incorporating the re-scan optical system (page 10, lines 38-page 11, lines 1-2; page 14, lines 12-13)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6-8 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to RICHARD H KIM whose telephone number is (571)272-2294. The examiner can normally be reached M-F, 10 am-6:30 pm.
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/RICHARD H KIM/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2871