DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Election/Restrictions
2. Applicant’s election without traverse of Group 1, claims 1-11 in the reply filed on 8/29/2025 is acknowledged. Claims 12-18 are withdrawn.
Information Disclosure Statement
3. The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 7/23/2024 was filed timely. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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.
5. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
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.
6. Claims 1-4 and 9-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over (US 2016/0018949 A1) to Lambricht et al. (hereinafter Lambricht) in view of the teachings of (US 2008/0264107 A1) to Malinovich et al. (hereinafter Malinovich) in further view of (US 5,991,490) to Mizuuchi et al. (hereinafter Mizuuchi).
Lambricht is directed toward a glass substrate configured as a waveguide. Lambricht discloses at paragraph [0003] that the substrate is glass and acts as a waveguide. Lambricht discloses at paragraph [0025] that Na2O is 0-10%, which reads on applicants range of 3 mol% to 15 mol%. Lambricht discloses at paragraph [0025] that Fe concentration is 0-5%, which reads on 20 ppm or less. Lambricht discloses at paragraph [0025] that the glass substrate is an aluminosilicate. Lambricht discloses at paragraph [0045] that the glass may have layers of high and low refractive indexes to form an antireflective surface on the glass. Lambricht discloses at paragraph [0009] that the glass substrate is connected to an electronic device. Lambricht discloses at paragraph [0019] that SiO2 is 55-78%, which reads on Applicants range of 65.79 mol% to 78.17 mol%. Lambricht discloses at paragraph [0019] that Al2O3 is 0-18%, which reads on Applicants range of 2.94 mol% to 12.12 mol%. Lambricht discloses at paragraph [0019] that Na2O is 5-20%, which reads on Applicants range of 3.52 mol% to 13.25 mol%.
Malinovich is directed toward a glass substrate configured as a waveguide. Lambricht and Malinovich are both directed toward a glass substrate configured as a waveguide and therefore are analogous art. Malinovich teaches at paragraph [0014] that ion exchange is used to form high refractive indexes at predetermined portion of the substrate. Malinovich teaches at paragraph [0013] that a birefringence free product is made, which reads on Applicants magnitude of less than 0.001.
Mizuuchi is directed toward a glass substrate configured as a waveguide. Lambricht and Mizuuchi are both directed toward a glass substrate configured as a waveguide and therefore are analogous art. Mizuuchi teaches at (C4, L43) that a waveguide is formed in a glass substrate. Mizuuchi teaches at (C26, L19) that the buried waveguide has a loss less than 1 db/cm that overlaps loss of 0.05 db/cm.
It would be obvious to one skilled in the art at the time of the filing of the disclosure of Lambricht in view of the teachings of Malinovich and Mizuuchi to produce a buried optical waveguide having low losses that forms a prime facie case of obviousness for claims 1-4 and 9-11.
Allowable Subject Matter
7. Claims 5-8 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.
8. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art does not teach an optical waveguide having the refractive indexes at the claimed depth and bulk refractive index.
Conclusion
9. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JEFFREY D WASHVILLE whose telephone number is (571)270-3262. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
10. 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.
11. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Randy Gulakowski can be reached at 571-272-1302. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JEFFREY D WASHVILLE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1766
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