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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 3/12/2025 and 5/20/2025 was filed. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 20-37 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over WO 2020/254810 A1 to PALMER, Timothy John, BECK Michael(hereafter referenced as Palmer, in view of Pub.No.: US 2020/0284984 A1 to Nahmias
Regarding claim 20, Palmer discloses “A PUF system (present invention relates to a PUF device (pg.1/lines 1-7]) , comprising: a Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) adapted to generate a unique signature (i.e. identifying response unique to device (PUFs work by generating a key that is unique to the device [pg.1/lines 31-32]), wherein the signature has a bit width, “the PUF comprising:
:a photon source (Where the fibers come into close proximity with one another, photons may evanescently couple between fibers pg.5/lines 28-29]) ; a component chain having an input coupled to the photon source and an output, “wherein the component chain comprises an optical component (i.e. fibers and optical coupling [The invention employs optical fibers and has applications within device security, authentication, counterfeit protection and tamper-proofing pg.1/lines 5-7]).
Palmer does not explicitly disclose “and a value for a bit of the bit width of the signature of the PUF is based on the output”
However, Nahmias in an analogous art discloses “and a value for a bit of the bit width of the signature of the PUF is based on the output” each channel encodes a 4 - bit signal ( e.g. , 4 mantissa bits ) , a repetition rate of 5 or 10 GS / s can result in an input signal rate of over 5 or 10 Tbit / s , respectively Nahmias[par.0074])
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify Palmer’s physically unclonable function device with Nahmia’s system for photonic computing in order to provide additional security. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivate to combine the optical PUF system of Palmer with the photonic splitter network discussed in Nahmia to improve control and distribution of optical signals within the PUF architecture. Palmer teaches generating a unique device response based on light propagating through optical components and detected by sensors, but does not limit the specific internal splitter topology. Nahmia teaches cascaded splitter and coupler networks for distributing optical signals across multiple paths in integrated photonic circuits. Incorporating the spitter network of Nahmia into the optical PUF of Palmer would have predictably enabled controlled muti-path optical propagation and additional output channels for detection, thereby facilitating generation of multiple response buts using well known photonic components.
Regarding claim 21 in view of claim 20, Palmer discloses “The PUF system of claim 20, wherein the PUF system further comprises challenge and response logic adapted to determine a response to a challenge based on the signature and a value associated with the challenge.(The response of the PUF to a given challenge could be used to form a private encryption key. Again, the key would not be stored within the PUF itself, rendering it robust to invasive attacks pg.3/lines 1-4]).
Regarding claim 22 in view of claim 20, the references combined disclose “ “further comprising a photodetector coupled to the output of the component chain(photodetector coupled to component chain Nahmias[Fig.5d]) , wherein the value for the bit of the bit width of the signature is based on the output of the photodetector”(balanced photodetector pair Nahmias[Fig.5d] also see The channels which are preferably non - overlapping , more preferably having at least ( and / or at most ) a threshold spacing ( e.g. , threshold amount relative to the channel width Nahmias [par.0023]).
Regarding claim 23 in view of claim 22, the references combined disclose “wherein the component chain is adapted to operate as a splitter”(tree splitter network, the splitter is a tree splitter , including a plurality of splitter elements in a tree configuration ( e.g. , including a plurality of two - way splitters arranged in a binary tree Nahmias [par.0047]).
Regarding claim 24 in view of claim 23, the references combined disclose
“wherein the component chain is a composite splitter comprising a Y splitter, a first 4-port coupler coupled to an output of the Y splitter, and a second 4-port coupler coupled to an output of the first 4-port coupler” (splitter Nahmias[Fig.3a]).
Regarding claim 25 in view of claim 24, the references combined disclose “wherein the output of the component chain comprises a first output and a second output and the photodetector comprises a first photodetector coupled to the first output of the component chain and a second photodetector coupled to the second output of the component chain” (photodetector coupled to component chain Nahmias[Fig.5d]).
Regarding claim 26 in view of claim 25, the references combined disclose “wherein the bit value for the bit of the bit width of the signature of the PUF is based on an output of a differential amplifier having a first input coupled to an output of the first photodetector and a second input coupled to an output of the second photodetector” (photodetector coupled to component chain Nahmias[Fig.5d])
Regarding claim 27 in view of claim 20, the references combined disclose “wherein the photon source comprises a photon pump and the hybrid PUF system is adapted to operate in a classical domain or in a quantum domain” (the derived signals can be generated in the analog domain and / or in the digital domain Nahmias[par.0072]).
Regarding claim 28 in view of claim 27, the references combined disclose “wherein the photon source comprises a photon pump or a single photon source”(system 100 for photonic computing preferably includes an input module 110 , computation module 120 , and / or control module 130 ( e.g. , as shown in FIGS . 1A - 1B Nahmias[par.0019]).
Regarding claim 29, Palmer discloses “a method, comprising: generating a signature associated with a Physical Unclonable Function (PUF), wherein
the signature has a bit width(i.e. identifying response unique to device (PUFs work by generating a key that is unique to the device [pg.1/lines 31-32]),, by: producing a photon from a photon source” (Where the fibers come into close proximity with one another, photons may evanescently couple between fibers pg.5/lines 28-29]); providing the photon to an input of a component chain, the component chain having an optical component and an output” (i.e. fibers and optical coupling [The invention employs optical fibers and has applications within device security, authentication, counterfeit protection and tamper-proofing pg.1/lines 5-7]).
Palmer does not explicitly disclose “and determining a value for a bit of the bit width of the signature of the PUF based on the output.”
However, Nahmias in an analogous art discloses “and determining a value for a bit of the bit width of the signature of the PUF based on the output” each channel encodes a 4 - bit signal ( e.g. , 4 mantissa bits ) , a repetition rate of 5 or 10 GS / s can result in an input signal rate of over 5 or 10 Tbit / s , respectively Nahmias[par.0074])
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify Palmer’s physically unclonable function device with Nahmia’s system for photonic computing in order to provide additional security. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivate to combine the optical PUF system of Palmer with the photonic splitter network discussed in Nahmia to improve control and distribution of optical signals within the PUF architecture. Palmer teaches generating a unique device response based on light propagating through optical components and detected by sensors, but does not limit the specific internal splitter topology. Nahmia teaches cascaded splitter and coupler networks for distributing optical signals across multiple paths in integrated photonic circuits. Incorporating the spitter network of Nahmia into the optical PUF of Palmer would have predictably enabled controlled muti-path optical propagation and additional output channels for detection, thereby facilitating generation of multiple response buts using well known photonic components.
Regarding claim 30 in view of claim 29, the references combined disclose “further comprising determining a response to a challenge based on the signature and a value associated with the challenge” (The response of the PUF to a given challenge could be used to form a private encryption key. Again, the key would not be stored within the PUF itself, rendering it robust to invasive attacks pg.3/lines 1-4]).
Regarding claim 31 in view of claim 29, the references combined disclose “wherein the value for the bit of the bit width of the signature is based on an output of a photodetector coupled to the output of the component chain” (photodetector coupled to component chain Nahmias[Fig.5d])
Regarding claim 32 in view of claim 31, the references combined disclose “wherein the component chain is adapted to operate as a splitter”(tree splitter network, the splitter is a tree splitter , including a plurality of splitter elements in a tree configuration ( e.g. , including a plurality of two - way splitters arranged in a binary tree Nahmias [par.0047]).
Regarding claim 33 in view of claim 32, the references combined disclose “wherein the component chain is a composite splitter comprising a Y splitter, a first 4-port coupler coupled to an output of the Y splitter, and a second 4-port coupler coupled to an output of the first 4-port coupler” (splitter Nahmias[Fig.3a]).
Regarding claim 34 in view of claim 33, the references combined disclose “wherein the output of the component chain comprises a first output and a second output and the photodetector comprises a first photodetector coupled to the first output of the component chain and a second photodetector coupled to the second output of the component chain” (photodetector coupled to component chain Nahmias[Fig.5d]).
Regarding claim 35 in view of claim 34, the references combined disclose “wherein the bit value for the bit of the bit width of the signature of the PUF is based on an output of a differential amplifier having a first input coupled to an output of the first photodetector and a second input coupled to an output of the second photodetector” (balanced photodetector pair Nahmias[Fig.5d] also see The channels which are preferably non - overlapping , more preferably having at least ( and / or at most ) a threshold spacing ( e.g. , threshold amount relative to the channel width Nahmias [par.0023]).
Regarding claim 36 in view of claim 29, the references combined disclose “wherein the signature is generated according to the PUF operating in a classical domain or in a quantum domain”(the derived signals can be generated in the analog domain and / or in the digital domain Nahmias[par.0072]).
Regarding claim 37 in view of claim 36, the references combined disclose “wherein the photon source comprises a photon pump or a single photon source” (system 100 for photonic computing preferably includes an input module 110 , computation module 120 , and / or control module 130 ( e.g. , as shown in FIGS . 1A - 1B Nahmias[par.0019]).
Conclusion
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/MICHAEL D ANDERSON/ Examiner, Art Unit 2433
/JEFFREY C PWU/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2433