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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-3, 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by U.S. PGPub 2023/0055077 A1 by Shi et al.
Regarding claim 1, Shi teaches an electro-optic modulator (Fig. 7), comprising: a light splitting element (an optical splitter 501); a light combining element (an optical combiner 509); a first waveguide arm and a second waveguide arm (waveguide arms 510) that are arranged in parallel and are connected between the light splitting element and the light combining element (as illustrated in Fig. 7); and a first ground electrode (top 621, above the waveguide arms 510), a first signal electrode (top 625, between the waveguide arms 510), a second ground electrode (middle 621, between the waveguide arms 510), a second signal electrode (bottom 625, below the waveguide arms 510), and a third ground electrode (bottom 621, below the waveguide arms 510) that are arranged in sequence (top to bottom in Fig. 7), wherein the first signal electrode and the second signal electrode (625) are configured to receive differential signals (from an electrical driver 660 that provides differential drive signals), the first waveguide arm (upper 510) is located between the first ground electrode (top 621) and the first signal electrode (top 625), and the second waveguide arm (lower 510) is located between the second ground electrode (middle 621) and the second signal electrode (bottom 625).
Regarding claim 2, Shi further teaches a first independent waveguide section and a second independent waveguide section that are arranged in parallel with the first waveguide arm and the second waveguide arm (as show in Fig. 5, the waveguides may be a series of parallel or disconnected layers 410, 415, 430), respectively, wherein the first independent waveguide section is located between the first signal electrode and the second ground electrode, and the second independent waveguide section is located between the second signal electrode and the third ground electrode (the location of the waveguides, when viewed from top, do not change in a vertical direction, e.g., as in Fig. 7, and remain between the same signal and ground electrodes).
Regarding claim 3, Shi further teaches a substrate (101), an isolation layer (BOX layer 105), a waveguide layer (110), and an electrode layer (electrodes 120 are disposed in cladding 127) that are arranged in sequence (bottom to top, Fig. 1A), wherein the first waveguide arm and the second waveguide arm are located in the waveguide layer; and the first ground electrode, the first signal electrode, the second ground electrode, the second signal electrode, and the third ground electrode are located in the electrode layer (as described with reference to Fig. 1).
Regarding claim 14, Shi further teaches a dielectric layer (cladding 123) located between the waveguide layer (110) and the electrode layer (120), wherein a dielectric constant of the dielectric layer (that of silicon dioxide) is less than that of the waveguide layer (that of silicon), and the dielectric layer covers the first waveguide arm and the second waveguide arm (as the cladding layer for the waveguide 110).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4 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. Relevant prior art fails to further teach or suggest that the first signal electrode and the second signal electrode each comprise a first main electrode with a distance of h1 from the substrate, and the first ground electrode, the second ground electrode, and the third ground electrode each comprise a second main electrode with a distance of h2 from the substrate, wherein hl≠h2, when considered in view of the rest of the limitations of the claimed invention. USPub20240393626 discloses a similar subject matter (Fig. 1) as that claimed but all of the inventors of the corresponding publication appear as inventors in the instant application and therefore the ‘626 publication lacks another inventor as required and does not qualify as prior art.
Claims 5-13 are also considered as allowable as dependent claims of claim 4.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. USPub20240393626 as discussed above; US20140086523 discloses interlaced signal/ground electrodes for an MZI.
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/CHARLIE Y PENG/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874
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