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 –
Claims 1, 4, 9, 11, 14-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2018/0278877 to Yamahira (“Yamahira”).
Regarding claim 1, Yamahira teaches an apparatus comprising:
a photodiode including a first terminal and a second terminal (reference number 101 is a photodiode, Figure 1 shows a first and second terminal connected to the photodiode);
a detection circuit configured to detect whether an event has occurred based on whether an amount of change in an amount of incident light exceeds a predetermined threshold (paragraph [0096] describes a detection of a photon incident event; the events are detected during the exposure period, see paragraph [0196]);
a counting circuit configured to count the number of incident photons within a predetermined exposure period (paragraph [0082] teaches the photon counting mode);
a first switch configured to switch between a first mode in which the photodiode and the detection circuit are connected to each other and a second mode in which the photodiode and the counting circuit are connected to each other (switch transistor M5 is set in a conductive state for a photon counting mode, see paragraph [0122], the second mode is electric charge accumulation mode, see description starting from paragraph [0062]; and
a mode control circuit configured to control the first switch (paragraph [0209] teaches that switching can be performed between the two modes).
Regarding claim 4, Yamahira teaches the apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a third switch between the second terminal of the photodiode and a power supply voltage, wherein the third switch switches between a charged state and a non-charged state of the photodiode (switch M1 connected to a terminal of the photodiode 101).
Regarding claim 9, Yamahira teaches wherein the photodiode is an avalanche photodiode (see paragraph [0082] regarding avalanche photodiode).
Regarding claim 11, Yamahira teaches a system comprising: the apparatus according to claim 1; and a processing unit configured to generate an image using a signal output from the apparatus (circuitry to process output signals to generate an image is discussed in paragraph [0152]).
Regarding claim 14, Yamahira teaches the system according to claim 11, further comprising a third switch between the second terminal of the photodiode and a power supply voltage, wherein the third switch switches between a charged state and a non-charged state of the photodiode (switch M1 connected to a terminal of the photodiode 101).
Regarding claim 15, Yamahira teaches the system according to claim 11, wherein the photodiode is an avalanche photodiode (see paragraph [0082]).
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 16, 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yamahira as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0396893 to Hwang et al. (“Hwang”).
Regarding claim 16, Yamahira teaches the apparatus according to claim 1,and further teaches that the photon counting mode is used because the number of photon incident events increases as the distance to the target object is shorter, so the voltage decreases according to a voltage count difference that is the amount of voltage change for each photon incident event (see paragraph [0109]). Based on this teaching, it would be obvious to apply the system to an environment that deals with movement such as for vehicles.
Hwang teaches an example of applying the avalanche photodiode in the context of moving vehicles (see paragraph [0024]).
It 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 to modify the teaching of Yamahira with that of Hwang to apply the system using the avalanche photodiode to an environment where movement of objects is concerned including in the control of vehicles.
Regarding claim 19, Yamahira in view of Hwang teach the moving object according to claim 16, further comprising a third switch between the second terminal of the photodiode and a power supply voltage, wherein the third switch switches between a charged state and a non-charged state of the photodiode (Yamahira teaches switch M1 connected to a terminal of the photodiode 101).
Regarding claim 20, Yamahira in view of Hwang teach the moving object according to claim 16, wherein the photodiode is an avalanche photodiode (see paragraph [0082]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-3, 5-8, 10, 12-13, 17-18 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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AMY R. HSU
Examiner
Art Unit 2664
/AMY R HSU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2638