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 § 103
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.
Claims 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oshima (US 20220043150 A1) in view of Bayer (US 20230131584 A1).
Claim 1: Oshima teaches a shape measuring device comprising:
[…] a light source […] (Fig. 1, laser oscillator 1)
a light dividing configured to split the light emitted from the wavelength swept light source into measurement light and reference light (Fig. 1, optical splitter 3a, [0050]);
a probe configured to emit the measurement light split by the light dividing unit toward a surface to be measured and receive the measurement light reflected on the surface to be measured (Fig. 1, measuring head 5);
a reference surface configured to reflect the reference light split by the light dividing unit;
a multiplexing unit configured to generate multiplexed light of the measurement light reflected on the surface to be measured and received by the probe, and the reference light reflected on the reference surface (Fig. 1, coupler 6 and detection unit 7);
a relative movement unit configured to relatively move the probe along the surface to be measured in a state of being spaced an interval apart from the surface to be measured, and scan the surface to be measured with the measurement light ([0053] - moving target surface);
a detecting unit configured to, while relative movement of the prove is performed, repeatedly detect the multiplexed light generated by the multiplexing unit, for each measurement point on the surface to be measured on which the measurement light is incident (Fig. 1, detection unit 7 and [0057]);
a distance calculating unit configured to detect a beat frequency from a detection signal of the multiplexed light detected by the detecting unit and calculate a distance from the probe to the measurement point based on the beat frequency, for each measurement point ([0057] - beat signal);
a position calculating unit configured to calculate a position of the measurement point based on a calculation result of the distance calculating unit corresponding to the measurement point, for each measurement point ([0058] - measuring distance);
a position correcting unit configured to correct the position of the measurement point calculated by the position calculating unit based on a Doppler shift amount of the measurement light reflected at the measurement point, for each measurement point ([0094]);
and a scanning direction vector calculating unit configured to calculate, for each measurement point, a magnitude of a scanning direction vector of the measurement light for scanning the surface to be measured ([0146], finding angle),
the scanning direction vector being parallel to a tangential direction of the surface to be measured at the measurement point ([0053]),
wherein in a case where a direction of the measurement light between the probe and the measurement point is represented as a measurement light direction, the position correcting unit calculates, for each measurement point, the Doppler shift amount based on a component parallel to the measurement light direction of the scanning direction vector calculated by the scanning direction vector calculating unit and a wavelength or a frequency of the measurement light ([0069]-[0070], expression 1).
Oshima does not teach, but Bayer does teach, where the light source is a wavelength swept light source ([0106] – note as frequency and wavelength are related, frequency swept means wavelength swept) configured to emit light whose frequency is modulated to have a sinusoidal waveform (abstract – frequency domain sinusoidal wave).
It would have been prima facie obvious to someone having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use the wave, as taught by Bayer, in the device as taught by Oshima, because, as Bayer teaches, this makes the system more robust and sensitive ([0010]).
Claim 2: Oshima, as modified, teaches the shape measuring device according to claim 1, wherein, based on shape data of the surface to be measured created in advance, the relative movement unit relatively moves the probe along the surface to be measured in a state of being spaced a fixed interval apart from the surface to be measured which is assumed from the shape data. ([0015] - constant velocity means equal intervals)
Claim 3: Oshima, as modified, teaches the shape measuring device according to claim 1, wherein the probe makes the measurement light incident on the surface to be measured from an oblique direction ([0146] - angle).
Claim 4: Claim 4 is a method claim corresponding to Claim 1. Thus, see rejection above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CLARA CHILTON whose telephone number is (703)756-1080. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 6-2 MT.
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/CLARA G CHILTON/Examiner, Art Unit 3645
/HELAL A ALGAHAIM/SPE , Art Unit 3645
