The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA first to invent provisions.
DETAILED ACTION
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on December 30, 2024 has been accepted.
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) 1-8, and 12 -14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Saracco et al. (US 9285541 B2).
Re claim 1, Saracco et al. (US 9285541 B2) disclosed:
A multi-mode optical fiber taper for forward inter-modal Brillouin scattering with
fundamental acoustic modes (FIM-FAM), comprising:
a first multi-mode fiber section having a first radius; e.g. Fig .7, col. 3 lines 28-35, col. 11 lines 54-67)
a second multi-mode fiber section having a second radius;
an axially homogencous waist section having a third radius, wherein the third radius is
smaller than the first radius and the second radius;
a first tapered transition section adiabatically connecting the first multi-mode fiber
section to the waist section; and
a second tapered transition section adiabatically connecting the waist section to the
second multi-mode fiber section. (e.g. col. 4, lines 14-19, col. 8 lines 60-67, col. 9 lines 1-11 )
Re claim 2, Saracco et al. (US 9285541 B2) disclosed:
The multi-mode optical fiber taper of Claim 1, wherein the first multi-mode optical
fiber is a two-mode optical fiber. (e.g. col 4 lines 1-17)
Re claim 3, Saracco et al. (US 9285541 B2) disclosed:
The multi-mode optical fiber taper of Claim 2, wherein the third radius is in a range
of 570nm - 900 nm. (e.g. col 9 lines 14-35)
Re claim 4, Saracco et al. (US 9285541 B2) disclosed:
The multi-mode optical fiber taper of Claim 1, wherein the first multi-mode optical fiber is able to carry more than two optical modes. . (e.g. col 4 lines 32-55)
Re claim 5, Saracco et al. (US 9285541 B2) disclosed:
The multi-mode optical fiber taper of Claim 3, wherein the first multi-mode optical fiber is a three-mode optical fiber. (e.g. col 4 lines 32-55)
Re claim 6, Saracco et al. (US 9285541 B2) disclosed:
6. The multi-mode optical fiber taper of Claim 5, wherein the third radius is in a range
greater than 900 nm. (e.g. col 9 lines 14-35)
Re claim 7, Saracco et al. (US 9285541 B2) disclosed:
The multi-mode optical fiber taper of any of Claims 1-6, wherein the axially
homogeneous waist section has a uniform radius across the waist section with a precision of
no more or no less than 10 nm. (e.g. col 4 lines 32-55, col.8 lines 20-40)
Re claim 8, Saracco et al. (US 9285541 B2) disclosed:
The multi-mode optical fiber taper of Claim 1, further comprising:
an air-material boundary or vacuum-material boundary for at least the waist section of the taper. (e.g. col.8 lines 20-40)
Re claim 12, Saracco et al. (US 9285541 B2) disclosed:
A system of generating a Brillouin signal resonance response by forward inter-
modal Brillouin scattering with fundamental acoustic modes (FIM-FAM), comprising:
the multi-mode optical fiber taper of Claim 1; and
a plurality of polarization controllers optically connected to the first multi-mode fiber
section of the taper. (e.g. col. 5 lines 65 – col.6 lines 15)
Re claim 13, Saracco et al. (US 9285541 B2) disclosed:
The system of Claim 12, further comprising: a mode selective coupler optically
connected to the first multi-mode fiber section of the taper, wherein said mode selective
coupler combines at least a first optical mode to a second optical mode to become combined
within the first multi-mode fiber section. (e,g, Fig. 7, e.g. col. 4, lines 14-19, col. 8 lines 60-67, col. 9 lines 1-11 )
Re claim 14, Saracco et al. (US 9285541 B2) disclosed:
The system of Claim 13, wherein the mode selective coupler is selected from one
of the group comprising: a mode converting device, a spatial light modulator, an on-chip mode splitter or a photonic lantern. (e.g. col. 16 lines 34-45)
Claim Objections
Claims 9, 10, and 11 are objected to under 37 CFR 1.75(c) as being in improper form because a multiple dependent claim 7. See MPEP § 608.01(n). Accordingly, the claims 9, 10, and 11 are not been further treated on the merits.
Claim 21 is objected to under 37 CFR 1.75(c) as being in improper form because a multiple dependent claim 7, 9, 10, and 11. See MPEP § 608.01(n). Accordingly, the claims 9, 10, and 11 are not been further treated on the merits.
It is noted that any citations to specific, pages, columns, lines, or figures in the prior
art references and any interpretation of the reference should not be considered to be
limiting in any way. A reference is relevant for all it contains and may be relied
upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in
the art. See MPEP 2123
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 15 – 20 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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/DAVID C PAYNE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2635
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