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 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.
Claim(s) 1, 9, 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102a1 as being anticipated by Hiramoto et al. (U.S. PGPUB 2014/0078355).
Regarding claims 1, 9, Hiramoto et al. disclose (Figs. 6a-6c) an image sensor comprising: a two-dimensional pixel array in which a plurality of pixels including photoelectric conversion elements (2a-2d) are arranged in a form of an array on a substrate; a transparent layer (6a) formed on the two-dimensional pixel array; and a two-dimensional spectroscopic element array in which a plurality of spectroscopic elements (1a-1d) are arranged in the form of an array inside or on the transparent layer, wherein each of the spectroscopic elements includes a plurality of microstructures (micro prisms are made up of microstructures, e.g. molecules, crystalline structures, etc. ) made of a material having a refractive index that is higher ([0106]) than a refractive index of the transparent layer, the plurality of microstructures have a microstructure pattern (patterned to yield a diffractive/dispersive effect), adjacent spectroscopic elements in a two-dimensional array direction (left/right and up/down) in the two-dimensional spectroscopic element array have no translation symmetry (each split light differently), and each of the spectroscopic elements splits incident light in two-dimensional directions (left, down, right; the directions form a plane), and the plurality of pixels detect the light split in the two-dimensional directions. Hiramoto et al. also disclose (Fig. 3) an image capture optical system (12) for forming an optical image on an image capture plane of the image sensor; and a signal processing unit (13, 400) configured to process an electrical signal output by the image sensor.
Regarding claim 10, Hiramoto et al. disclose (Figs. 6a-6c) a two-dimensional spectroscopic element array in which a plurality of spectroscopic elements (1a-1d) are arranged in a form of an array inside or on a transparent layer (6a), wherein each of the spectroscopic elements includes a plurality of microstructures (micro prisms are made up of microstructures, e.g. molecules, crystalline structures, etc.) made of a material having a higher ([0106]) refractive index than a refractive index of the transparent layer, the plurality of microstructures have a microstructure pattern (patterned to yield a diffractive/dispersive effect), adjacent spectroscopic elements in a two-dimensional array direction (left/right and up/down) in the two-dimensional spectroscopic element array have no translation symmetry (each split light differently), and each of the spectroscopic elements splits incident light in two-dimensional directions (left, down, right; the directions form a plane).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-8 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.
Conclusion
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/THANH LUU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2878
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