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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 2-6, 9-14, 17-20, 22-28 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b), as being drawn to a nonelected species, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant timely traversed the restriction (election) requirement in the reply filed on 5/19/2026.
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, 7, 15, 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2017/0244921 to Velichko (“Velichko”).
Regarding claim 1, Velichko teaches an imaging element, comprising:
a plurality of photoelectric conversion sections that performs photoelectric conversion of incident light to generate a charge (see pixel array 22 in Figure 2);
a charge holding section that holds the charge generated (capacitor 66 is a charge holding section that holds the charges generated by reference number 40 photodiode, see Figure 4);
a plurality of charge transfer sections that is arranged for each of the photoelectric conversion sections and transfers the charge generated to the charge holding section (TX1, reference number 44 and TX2 reference number 60 and TX3 reference number 90 are a plurality of charge transfer transistors that are arranged for one photoelectric conversion section 40, as seen in Figure 4);
an image signal generation section that generates an image signal according to the charge held (see paragraph [0018]); and
a plurality of capacitive coupling wirings that is capacitively coupled to the charge holding section and to which an adjustment signal for adjusting a potential of the charge holding section is individually applied (paragraph [0039] teaches the TX3 may be controlled to adjust the amount of charge transfer and allows for flexible control of charge transfer onto capacitor 66).
Regarding claim 7, Velichko teaches the imaging element according to claim 1, further comprising a charge holding section wiring that connects the charge holding section and the image signal generation section, wherein the capacitive coupling wiring is capacitively coupled to the charge holding section wiring (see Figure 7 showing the charge holding section wiring 66-1 and 66-2).
Regarding claim 15, Velichko teaches the imaging element according to claim 1, further comprising a control section that supplies an adjustment signal to the plurality of capacitive coupling wirings (paragraph [0039] teaches a charge transfer control signal to adjust transistor 90 which transfer charge to the capacitor 66).
Claim 21 is rejected similarly to claim 1.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8, 16 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AMY R HSU whose telephone number is (571)270-3012. The examiner can normally be reached 9am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Lin Ye can be reached at (571)272-7372. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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AMY R. HSU
Examiner
Art Unit 2664
/AMY R HSU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2638
