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 .
Drawings
The drawings submitted have been reviewed and determined to facilitate understanding of the invention. The drawings are accepted as submitted.
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 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US Patent Application Publication US 2022/0075133 A1 to Lin et al. (“US1”).
US1 describes an optical module with Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) configuration (see Figs 1-6), comprising:
a housing (10);
a substrate (310), disposed in the housing;
a plurality of optical communication assemblies (320), disposed on a mounting surface of the substrate; and
a plurality of heat dissipation components (210, 210a, 220, 250), spaced apart from each other and located between the mounting surface of the substrate and the housing, wherein the plurality of heat dissipation components are disposed to be corresponding to the plurality of optical communication assemblies, respectively (shown in Figs 2-6).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 2, 12, and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US1.
Regarding Claim 2, US1 describes an optical module as set forth above with respect to Claim 1. US1 further describes an electrical coupling surface of the substrate having a plurality of conductive terminals (shown in Figs 1, 2, 5). US1 does not describe the electrical coupling surface located opposite to the mounting surface. However, it is well-known in the art for form terminal pads, such as those shown in US1, on either side of a printed circuit board. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to form the conductive terminals of US1 located opposite to the mounting surface. The motivation for doing so would have been to allow for electrical connection in a desired orientation/position.
Regarding Claim 12, US1 describes an optical communication system, comprising:
a carrier (“cage” or “communication facility”, see [0002], [0015]); and
an optical module with CPO configuration, disposed on the carrier, wherein the optical module comprises:
a housing (10);
a substrate (310), disposed in the housing, wherein the substrate has a mounting surface (see Figs 2-6) and an electrical coupling surface (shown in Figs 2 and 5), and the electrical coupling surface has a plurality of conductive terminals (shown in Figs 2 and 5);
a plurality of optical communication assemblies (320), disposed on the mounting surface of the substrate; and
a plurality of heat dissipation components (210, 210a, 220, 250), spaced apart from each other and located between the mounting surface of the substrate and the housing, wherein the plurality of heat dissipation components are disposed to be corresponding to the plurality of optical communication assemblies (shown in Figs 2-6).
US1 does not describe:
the carrier comprising an application-specific integrated circuit chip;
the optical module disposed on the carrier and in communication with the application-specific integrated circuit chip;
the mounting surface and electrical coupling surface located opposite to each other; or
a plurality of conductive terminals in contact with the carrier.
It is well known for communication facilities utilizing optical transceivers, such as those described by US1 (see [0002]), to contain application-specific integrated circuit chips (ASICs) to manage and/or facilitate the operation of the transceivers in a communications system. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to form the carrier of US1 with an ASIC such that the optical module of US1 is in communication with the ASIC. The motivation for doing so would have been to manage and/or facilitate the operation of the transceivers in a communications system.
Further, it is well-known in the art for form terminal pads, such as those shown in US1, on either side of a printed circuit board. Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to form the conductive terminals of US1 on an electrical coupling surface located opposite to the mounting surface. The motivation for doing so would have been to allow for electrical connection in a desired orientation/position.
Further, the insertion of the optical module of US1 into a cage in a pluggable manner (see [0015]) would inherently result in the plurality of conductive terminals of US1 (shown in Figs 2 and 5) in contact with the carrier.
Regarding Claim 13, US1 describes a part of at least one of the plurality of heat dissipation components located between the housing and the corresponding optical communication assembly (see Figs 2-6).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 15-18 are allowed.
Claims 3-11 and 14 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.
Claims 3 and 14 each describe:
an orthogonal projection of at least one of the plurality of heat dissipation components onto the electrical coupling surface overlaps at least some of the plurality of conductive terminals.
Claim 4 describes
a second optical communication assembly located farther away from the optical coupler than a first optical communication assembly, and
a third optical communication assembly located farther away from the optical coupler than the second optical communication assembly.
Claim 15 describes
a substrate comprising a motherboard and a daughter board, each of the motherboard and the daughter board having a mounting surface, and the daughter board is disposed on the mounting surface of the motherboard; and
a second optical communication assembly, disposed on the mounting surface of the daughter board.
These limitations represent subject matter not described or reasonably suggested, in conjunction with the further limitations of the present claims, by the prior art of record.
Claims 5-11 depend from Claim 4 and therefore contain at least the same allowable subject matter.
Claims 16-18 depend from Claim 15 and therefore contain at least the same allowable subject matter.
Conclusion
The prior art cited in the attached form PTO-892 are made of record and considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The cited prior art describes various optical modules including housings, substrates, and optical communication assemblies.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JERRY RAHLL whose telephone number is (571)272-2356. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00am-5:00pm.
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.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Uyen-Chau Le can be reached at 571-272-2397. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JERRY RAHLL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874
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