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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-20 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Claim(s) 1-5,7,10-13,15,17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oh et al (US 20230408826) in view of Rao et al (US 11573445)
Regarding Claim 1,
Oh et al discloses a (Fig. 1-6) near-eye display (NED) comprising: a display panel (80,180) including a plurality of regions (“each pixel has a first region and a second region” column 1, lines 35-40), wherein: each region includes respective black matrix elements (320), and the respective black matrix elements are shifted (column 12, lines 7-16) with respect to corresponding light shield structures by respective offsets that vary for the plurality of region, wherein each offset is determined using a luminance angle specific to a respective region of the plurality of regions that corresponds to respective chief ray angle specific to the respective region of the plurality of regions (column 1, lines 30-50); and display optics configured to project images to a user’s eye.
Oh et al does not disclose light shield structures as TFT related structures.
Rao et al discloses that TFT electrodes on an opposing substrate function as light shield structures relative to black matrix elements in an LCD panel.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to implement Oh et al’s region dependent black matrix offset technique in the LCD structure of Roa et al, because both references address controlling light leakage and luminance uniformity, combining these two references merely applies a known angular-compensation technique to a known LCD panel structure.
Regarding Claim 2,
In addition to Oh et al and Roa et al, Oh et al discloses (Fig. 34) the display panel includes a liquid crystal display panel that includes a black matrix (3432) formed on a first substrate (TFT Array) and light shield structures (the TFT electrodes and associated light blocking structures form on the second substrate (TFT substrate) functions as alight shield structure).
Regarding Claim 3,
In addition to Oh et al and Roa et al, Oh et al discloses (Fig. 5D) wherein an amount of shift gradually increases from a center region of the display panel to peripheral regions of the display panel.
Regarding Claim 4,
In addition to Oh et al and Roa et al, Oh et al discloses (Fig. 5D) wherein an amount of shift gradually increases from a center region of the display panel to peripheral regions of the display panel along a horizontal direction, a vertical direction, both the horizontal direction and the vertical direction, or a radial direction.
Regarding Claim 5,
In addition to Oh et al and Roa et al, Rao et al discloses (Fig.2b) the LCD panel includes thin-film transistor circuits (230) formed on the second substrate (240); and the light shield structures include electrodes of the thin-film transistor circuits (265).
Regarding Claim 7,
In addition to Oh et al and Roa et al, Rao et al discloses (Fig.2b) wherein the light shield structures (320) include light shields above or below the electrodes of the thin-film transistor circuits (240), the light shields aligned with the electrodes of the thin-film transistor circuits.
Regarding Claim 10,
In addition to Oh et al and Roa et al, Oh et al discloses wherein the display optics include one or more lenses [0109].
Regarding Claim 11,
Oh et al discloses (Fig. 34) A display assembly: a first assembly including a first substrate (TFT Array) and light shield structures (3432) formed on the first substrate; a second assembly including a second substrate (CF/BM Array) and black matrix elements (3442) formed on the second substrate; and a liquid crystal layer (LC) between the first assembly and the second assembly, wherein: black matrix elements (3432) at a center region of the display panel align with corresponding light shield structures (3442) on the first substrate; and black matrix elements (3432) at peripheral regions of the display panel are offset with respect to corresponding light shield structures on the first substrate, the offset being determined using a peak luminance angel specific to a respective peripheral region of the peripheral regions that corresponds to a respective chief ray angle specific to the respective peripheral region of the peripheral regions (column 1, lines 30-50).
Regarding Claim 12,
In addition to Oh et al and Roa et al, Oh et al discloses (Fig. 5D) wherein an amount of offset of the black matrix elements with respect to the light shield structures gradually increases from the center region of the display panel to the peripheral regions of the display panel.
Regarding Claim 13,
In addition to Oh et al and Roa et al, Oh et al discloses (Fig. 5D) wherein the amount of offset gradually increases from the center region of the display panel to the peripheral regions of the display panel along a horizontal direction, a vertical direction, both the horizontal direction and the vertical direction, or radial direction.
Regarding Claim 15,
In addition to Oh et al and Roa et al, Oh et al discloses (Fig. 5D) wherein the black matrix elements include a first plurality of black matrix elements along a first direction, the first plurality of black matrix elements having a nonuniform pitch that gradually decreases and then gradually increases along the first direction.
Regarding Claim 17,
Oh et al discloses a (Fig. 1-6) A method of improving brightness uniformity of a near-eye display (NED), the method comprising, for each region of a plurality of regions (“each pixel has a first region and a second region” column 1, lines 35-40)of a liquid crystal display panel of the near-eye display: determining a chief ray angle (column 1, lines 30-50) of the region seen through display optics of the near-eye display; determining using a peak luminance angle specific to the region that corresponds to the chief ray angle of the region, an offset between black matrix elements (320) on a first substrate (TFT Array) of the LCD panel and light shield structures (electrodes) on a second substrate (CF/BM Array) of the LCD panel at the region and shifting (column 12, lines 7-16) the black matrix elements (320) with respect to the light shield structures at the region based on the determined offset.
Oh et al does not disclose light shield structures as TFT related structures.
Rao et al discloses that TFT electrodes on an opposing substrate function as light shield structures relative to black matrix elements in an LCD panel.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to implement Oh et al’s region dependent black matrix offset technique in the LCD structure of Roa et al, because both references address controlling light leakage and luminance uniformity, combining these two references merely applies a known angular-compensation technique to a known LCD panel structure.
Regarding Claim 18,
In addition to Oh et al and Roa et al, Roa et al discloses wherein the light shield structures on the second substrate include gate electrodes of thin-film transistor circuits (TFT. Gate and source electrodes) formed on the second substrate, source electrodes of the thin-film transistor circuits, top light shields, bottom light shields, or a combination thereof.
Regarding Claim 19,
In addition to Oh et al and Roa et al, Oh et al discloses (Fig. 5D) wherein the offset gradually increases from a center region of the LCD panel to peripheral regions of the LCD panel along a horizontal direction, a vertical direction, both the horizontal direction and the vertical direction, or a radial direction.
Regarding Claim 20,
In addition to Oh et al and Roa et al, Roa et al discloses (Fig. 2b) the light shield structures include: a first plurality of electrodes uniformly positioned along a first direction; and a second plurality of electrodes uniformly positioned along a second direction that is perpendicular to the first direction (Fig. 2b, 240); and the black matrix elements include: a first plurality of black matrix elements positioned along the first direction (Fig. 5d), the first plurality of black matrix elements having a nonuniform pitch along the first direction; and a second plurality of black matrix elements positioned along the second direction, the second plurality of black matrix (Although neither references explicitly describes nonuniform pitch in both directions, it would have been obvious o apply the nonuniform pitch taught by Roa et al in both orthogonal directions when implementing the two dimensional luminance compensation taught by Oh et al, as doing so presents a predictable design choice to achieve region specific optical performance..
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Claim(s) 6,16, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oh et al (US 20230408826) and of Rao et al (US 11573445) in view of Han (US 20150177884)
Regarding Claim 6,
Oh et al and Roa et al discloses everything as disclosed above.
Oh et al and Roa et al does not disclose wherein the electrodes of the thin-film transistor circuits include: a first plurality of electrodes uniformly positioned along a first direction; and a second plurality of electrodes uniformly positioned along a second direction that is perpendicular to the first direction.
Han discloses (Fig. 8a) wherein the electrodes of the thin-film transistor circuits include: a first plurality of electrodes (815) uniformly positioned along a first direction; and a second plurality of electrodes (811) uniformly positioned along a second direction that is perpendicular to the first direction [0009].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Oh et al and Roa et al’s first plurality of electrodes uniformly positioned along a first direction; and a second plurality of electrodes uniformly positioned along a second direction that is perpendicular to the first direction motivated by the desire to provide an efficient fingerprinted sensing region by increasing the sensitivity of the touch sensor [0052][0077].
Regarding Claim 16,
In addition to Oh et al and Roa et al and Han, Han discloses wherein the black matrix elements further include a second plurality of black matrix elements along a second direction that is perpendicular to the first direction, the second plurality of black matrix elements having a nonuniform pitch along the second direction (Abstract).
Claim(s) 8,9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oh et al (US 20230408826) and of Rao et al (US 11573445) in view of Kim et al (US 20130155504)
Regarding Claim 8,9,
Oh et al and Roa et al discloses everything as disclosed above.
Oh et al and Roa et al does not disclose wherein the black matrix elements include a first plurality of black matrix elements along a first direction, the first plurality of black matrix elements having a nonuniform pitch that gradually decreases and then gradually increases along the first direction.
Kim et al discloses (Fig. 26) wherein the black matrix elements (165) include a first plurality of black matrix elements along a first direction, the first plurality of black matrix elements having a nonuniform pitch that gradually decreases and then gradually increases along the first direction.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Oh et al and Roa et al to include Kim et al’s black matrix elements include a first plurality of black matrix elements along a first direction, the first plurality of black matrix elements having a nonuniform pitch that gradually decreases and then gradually increases along the first direction [0118] motivated by the desire to improve luminance uniformity and widen the viewable ranges of the display panel.
Claim(s) 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
Oh et al (US 20230408826) and of Rao et al (US 11573445) in view of Han (US 20150177884)
Regarding Claim 14,
Oh et al and Roa et al discloses everything as disclosed above.
Oh et al and Roa et al does not disclose wherein the electrodes of the thin-film transistor circuits include: a first plurality of electrodes uniformly positioned along a first direction; and a second plurality of electrodes uniformly positioned along a second direction that is perpendicular to the first direction.
Han discloses (Fig. 8a) the first assembly includes thin-film transistor circuits [0043] formed on the first substrate; and the light shield structures (130) include electrodes of the thin-film transistor circuits, the electrodes of the thin-film transistor circuits wherein the electrodes of the thin-film transistor circuits include: a first plurality of electrodes (815) uniformly positioned along a first direction; and a second plurality of electrodes (811) uniformly positioned along a second direction that is perpendicular to the first direction [0009].
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Oh et al and Roa et al to include Han’s first plurality of electrodes uniformly positioned along a first direction; and a second plurality of electrodes uniformly positioned along a second direction that is perpendicular to the first direction motivated by the desire to provide an efficient fingerprinted sensing region by increasing the sensitivity of the touch sensor [0052][0077].
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/LUCY P CHIEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2871