Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Specification Objection
The specification is objected to because [0055] refers to "FIG. 13" instead of "FIG. 14".
Claim Objections
Claim 1 is objected to because:
line 7 is missing "of" between "plurality" and "phase";
lines 7 and 8 both end with a comma and a semicolon; and
line 11 includes an unnecessary instance of "and" before the semicolon.
Claim 19 is objected to because lines 2 and 4 recite "comprising" instead of "comprises".
Claim 21 is objected to because line 1 recites "capacitors" instead of "capacitor", and because line 2 includes a reference number "131" which is not in parentheses (see MPEP 608.01(m).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 9-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 9-11 are indefinite because there is insufficient antecedent basis for "the plurality of first inductors" as recited in each claim. It appears that claims 9-11 should each depend from claim 2 rather than claim 1.
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.
Claims 1-4, 9-10, 15, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Gill et al. (article in Optics Express, June 2015, citation "U" on attached 892 form).
Claim 1: Gill discloses an optical modulator comprising (see mainly figs. 1 and 3):
an input optical port (not labeled, but the origin of the "Optical input" in fig. 1(b)) for receiving an input light signal;
an output optical port (not labeled, but the destination of the "Optical output" in fig. 1(b)) for outputting a modulated light signal;
a first waveguide arm (the right waveguide arm depicted by the red paths in figs. 1(b) and 1(d)) and a second waveguide arm (the left waveguide arm which is not labeled in fig. 1(c) but is analogous to the left red path in fig. 3(a)) extending between the input optical port and the output optical port to guide the input light signal from the input optical port to the output optical port;
a first plurality of phase shifters (first paragraph of section 2, "series of 100-μm-long RF/optic interaction sections that contain two 100 μm Si rib waveguide PN junction optical phase shifters, each being wired from signal to ground on both sides of the central signal electrode") in the first waveguide arm[[,]] (there are 8 phase shifters along the first waveguide arm in figs. 1(b) and 1(c));
a second plurality of phase shifters in the second waveguide arm[[,]] (not labeled, but the 8 phase shifters along the left waveguide arm in fig. 1(c); note also the first paragraph of section 3 states that there are 0.8 mm (i.e. 800 µm) of the phase shifters in each MZM arm, and each phase shifter is 100 µm long for a total of 8 phase shifters in each arm);
a first transmission line (TL) (which receives "RF input" in fig. 1(b) and "RF in" in fig. 1(d)) extending along the first waveguide arm configured for transmitting an RF electrical signal to the first plurality of phase shifters and/or the second plurality of phase shifters for modulating the input optical signal [[and]]; and
a first inductor ("Integrated inductor" in fig. 1(d); section 2 first paragraph states that "One 385 pH inductor is periodically integrated into the electrode for every 400 μm of optical PN junction length"; thus there are two integrated inductors added to the first TL as shown in fig. 1(c)) in the first transmission line configured for increasing impedance of the optical modulator (second paragraph of section 2: "[the integrated inductors] facilitate a 50 Ω impedance match in the distributed electrode"; "This large capacitance requires additional inductance to realize a 50 Ω effective electrode characteristic impedance" (emphasis added)).
Claim 2: The first inductor comprises a plurality of first inductors spaced along the first transmission line (two inductors as shown in fig. 1(c)).
Claim 3: The plurality of first inductors are equally spaced along the first transmission line.
Claim 4: The plurality of first inductors each have a same inductance value (385 pH as stated in the first paragraph of section 2).
Claim 9: Each of the plurality of first inductors has a value of a 50 pH to 5000 pH (385 pH).
Claim 10: Each of the plurality of first inductors has a value of a 100 pH to 500 pH (385 pH).
Claim 15: The first plurality of phase shifters each comprise a plurality of series-connected phase shifter sections (the 8 100 µm long phase shifter sections of the first arm are arranged as 4 pairs of series-connected sections).
Claim 18: The optical modulator further comprising a termination resistor in the first transmission line with a resistance configured for providing velocity matching between the RF electrical signal and the input optical signal to compensate for delays caused by the first inductor (first sentence of section 3).
Claims 1-2 and 18-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 2019/0324345 A1.
Claim 1: '345 discloses an optical modulator comprising (see mainly figs. 2 and 7):
an input optical port 141 for receiving an input light signal 101;
an output optical port 142 for outputting a modulated light signal 103;
a first waveguide arm 111 and a second waveguide arm 112 extending between the input optical port and the output optical port to guide the input light signal from the input optical port to the output optical port;
a first plurality of phase shifters 121 in the first waveguide arm[[,]];
a second plurality of phase shifters 122 in the second waveguide arm[[,]];
a first transmission line (TL) 131 extending along the first waveguide arm configured for transmitting an RF electrical signal to the first plurality of phase shifters and/or the second plurality of phase shifters for modulating the input optical signal [[and]]; and
a first inductor MiM 328 (figs. 7A-7D) in the first transmission line configured for increasing impedance of the optical modulator ([0083] especially last sentence; and [0084] especially first sentence).
Claim 2: The first inductor comprises a plurality of first inductors spaced along the first transmission line (fig. 8A, [0084]).
Claim 18: The optical modulator further comprises a termination resistor 113 (fig. 2) in the first transmission line 131 with a resistance configured for providing velocity matching between the RF electrical signal and the input optical signal to compensate for delays caused by the first inductor.
Claim 19: Each of the first plurality of phase shifters 121 comprises a first anode electrode 121a and a first cathode electrode 121k;
each of the second plurality of phase shifters 122 comprises a second anode electrode 122a and a second cathode electrode 122k;
the first transmission line 131 is electrically coupled to the first anode electrode of each of the first plurality of phase shifters, and to the second cathode electrode of each of the second plurality of phase shifters (figs. 2-3);
the optical modulator further comprises:
a second transmission line (TL) 132, which extends along the second waveguide arm 112, and is electrically coupled to the first cathode electrode of each of the first plurality of phase shifters and to the second anode electrode of each of the second plurality of phase shifters;
a second inductor MiM 328 (figs. 7A-7D) in the second transmission line; and
a differential driver 135 configured to feed complementary electrical signals into the first transmission line and the second transmission line ([0071]).
Claim 20: The optical modulator further comprises:
electrical circuitry configured for providing a DC bias voltage to the first cathode electrodes or the first anode electrodes of each of the first plurality of phase shifters ([0008], [0077], [0079]-[0080], fig. 5A, etc.); and
AC coupling structures configured for AC-coupling each of the first cathode electrodes to the first transmission line or the second transmission line ([0077]-[0079], fig. 5A, etc.), wherein each of the first anode electrodes is either DC-coupled or AC coupled to the first transmission line or the second transmission line.
Claim 21: The optical modulator further comprises a first capacitor[[s]] and a second capacitor connecting the first transmission line and the second transmission lines [[131]] to a ground electrode configured for lowering an impedance of the first transmission line and the second transmission line ([0081]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-8, 11-14, and 16-17 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 claim 1 and all applicable intervening claims (and for claim 11, if the rewriting avoids the indefiniteness issues mentioned above). The applied references do not disclose or suggest an optical modulator which includes the additional features required by those claims in combination with all the limitations of their respective ancestor claims.
Conclusion
The additional references listed on the attached 892 form are considered generally relevant to the subject matter of this application. It is noted that JP 2015-129906 A was not applied because its phase shifters are essentially linear portions of the transmission line instead of being distinct elements as claim 1 requires.
Contact Information
Examiner: 571-272-2360
Examiner's direct supervisor: 571-272-2397
Official correspondence by fax: 571-273-8300
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/Michael Stahl/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2874
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