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 .
Status of the Claims
Claims 1-20 are currently pending.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The claims in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation using the plain meaning of the claim language in light of the specification as it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim element (also commonly referred to as a claim limitation) is limited by the description in the specification when 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is invoked.
As explained in MPEP § 2181, subsection I, claim limitations that meet the following three-prong test will be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
(A) the claim limitation uses the term “means” or “step” or a term used as a substitute for “means” that is a generic placeholder (also called a nonce term or a non-structural term having no specific structural meaning) for performing the claimed function;
(B) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is modified by functional language, typically, but not always linked by the transition word “for” (e.g., “means for”) or another linking word or phrase, such as “configured to” or “so that”; and
(C) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is not modified by sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function.
Use of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim with functional language creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites sufficient structure, material, or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Absence of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is not to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is not interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites function without reciting sufficient structure, material or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Claim limitations in this application that use the word “means” (or “step”) are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action. Conversely, claim limitations in this application that do not use the word “means” (or “step”) are not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action.
This application includes one or more claim limitations that do not use the word “means,” but are nonetheless being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, because the claim limitation(s) uses a generic placeholder that is coupled with functional language without reciting sufficient structure to perform the recited function and the generic placeholder is not preceded by a structural modifier. Such claim limitation(s) is/are:
emitting unit in claims 1-7 and 12-18;
receiving unit in claims 1-7 and 12-18; and
detection module in claims 3 and 14.
Because this/these claim limitation(s) is/are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, it/they is/are being interpreted to cover the corresponding structure described in the specification as performing the claimed function, and equivalents thereof.
If applicant does not intend to have this/these limitation(s) interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, applicant may: (1) amend the claim limitation(s) to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph (e.g., by reciting sufficient structure to perform the claimed function); or (2) present a sufficient showing that the claim limitation(s) recite(s) sufficient structure to perform the claimed function so as to avoid it/them being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 4 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claims 4 and 15 recite “wherein the emitting unit is provided with multiple”. It is unclear what the emitting unit is provide “multiple” of. The claims are rejected as being indefinite.
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 10 recites “wherein the emitting unit is provided with one”. It is unclear what the emitting unit is provide “one” of. The claims are rejected as being indefinite.
Claims 1-7 and 12-18 include the limitations “emitting unit configured to”, “receiving unit configured to”, and “detection module configured to” that invoke 35 U.S.C. 112(f). However, the written description fails to disclose the corresponding structure, material, or acts for performing the entire claimed functions and to clearly link the structure, material, or acts to the function. In this case, the written description is devoid of any adequate structure to perform the functions in the claim. Therefore, the claims are indefinite and are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, second paragraph.
Applicant may:
(a) Amend the claims so that the claim limitations will no longer be interpreted as a limitation under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph;
(b) Amend the written description of the specification such that it expressly recites what structure, material, or acts perform the entire claimed functions, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)); or
(c) Amend the written description of the specification such that it clearly links the structure, material, or acts disclosed therein to the functions recited in the claims, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)).
If applicant is of the opinion that the written description of the specification already implicitly or inherently discloses the corresponding structure, material, or acts and clearly links them to the functions so that one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize what structure, material, or acts perform the claimed functions, applicant should clarify the record by either:
(a) Amending the written description of the specification such that it expressly recites the corresponding structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed functions and clearly links or associates the structure, material, or acts to the claimed functions, without introducing any new matter (35 U.S.C. 132(a)); or
(b) Stating on the record what the corresponding structure, material, or acts, which are implicitly or inherently set forth in the written description of the specification, perform the claimed functions. For more information, see 37 CFR 1.75(d) and MPEP §§ 608.01(o) and 2181.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 3 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention. The disclosure does not provide adequate structure to perform the claimed functions of “receiving the beat-frequency signal” and “converting the beat-frequency signal into a difference-frequency electrical signal”. The specification does not demonstrate that applicant has made an invention that achieves the claimed function because the invention is not described with sufficient detail so that one of ordinary skill in the art can reasonably conclude that the inventor had possession of the claimed invention.
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.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-5, 8, 10, 12-16, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guglielmon et al. [US 20250004350 A1 (claiming benefit to provisional application 63/523,685 (Jun. 28, 2023)), hereinafter Guglielmon] in view of Liu [US 20260153602 A1 (claiming benefit to foreign application (Jul. 25, 2023)].
Concerning claim 1, Guglielmon teaches a phased array lidar chip, comprising:
an input coupler, configured to couple a laser beam to the phased array lidar chip, and provide the laser beam to an emitting module (fig. 3B & ¶0081: coupling of an optical source (e.g., a laser system) to a photonic chip, wherein the beam from the optical source is provided to the phased arrays);
the emitting module, comprising at least one emitting unit, wherein the emitting unit is configured to emit the laser beam to a detection space (¶0074: “light emitted from one or more optical phased arrays to individually or collectively cover the volume of an entire hemisphere”); and
a receiving module, comprising multiple receiving units (¶0082: “RX optical phased arrays with multiple beam reception may be used”), wherein the receiving units are configured to receive a return signal within the detection space (¶0079: “return signal from an object”), and each receiving unit corresponds to a different scanning range (¶0082: “ In some examples, RX optical phased arrays with multiple beam reception may be used, similar to the TX optical phased array 322. However, it may be difficult for such an optical transceiver to differentiate which of the multiple beams are being received by such an RX optical phased array. In such cases, the RX optical phased arrays shown in FIG. 3C can allow for differentiation of multiple beams by having a receiving angle that only substantially overlaps with one beam from the TX optical phased array 322”). Not explicitly taught is wherein the receiving units are configured to receive an echo signal within the detection space.
Liu, in the same field of endeavor, teaches a transmit-receive coaxial phased array lidar chip and control method, wherein a transmit-receive phased array is configured to receive an echo signal within the detection space (¶0043: “transmit-receive phased array 3 receives an echo signal reflected by a target in the detection region”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the teachings of Liu into the Guglielmon invention in order to determine at least one of three-dimensional depth information or velocity information of an object in a detection region based on a time difference between the optical signal output by a laser emitting unit and the echo signal (Liu, ¶0043).
Concerning claim 2, Guglielmon further teaches the chip according to claim 1, wherein the phased array lidar chip further comprises: a first beam splitter, configured to receive the laser beam by the input coupler (fig. 3B: optical splitter 316).
Liu further teaches the beam splitter (fig. 1: main beam splitter 3) dividing the laser beam into a detection light and a reference light (¶0035 & ¶0040: “split the optical signal into the signal light and the reference light”), and providing the detection light to the emitting module, emitting the detection light to the detection space by the emitting module (¶0035 & ¶0040: “then the signal light is coupled into free space”); and
a first beam combiner, configured to receive the reference light and the echo signal, wherein the reference light and the echo signal are combined in the first beam combiner to generate a beat-frequency signal (¶0037: “optical mixer is configured to mix the echo signal and the reference light to generate the beat signal”).
Concerning claim 3, Liu further teaches the chip according to claim 2, wherein the phased array lidar chip further comprises a detection module, the detection module is configured to receive the beat-frequency signal and convert the beat-frequency signal into a difference-frequency electrical signal (¶0043: “The balanced detector array 4 converts the beat signal carrying echo signal information into an electrical signal and outputs the electrical signal to the signal processing and control unit 5. The signal processing and control unit 5 processes the electrical signal and determines at least one of three-dimensional depth information or velocity information of the target in the detection region based on a time difference between the optical signal output by the laser emitting unit 1 and the echo signal”).
Concerning claim 4, Guglielmon further teaches the chip of claim 2, wherein the emitting unit is provided with multiple, the receiving units and the emitting units are provided in one-to-one correspondence, and a receiving unit and an emitting unit that are provided in correspondence have a same scanning range and form a transceiver unit (¶0080: four pairs of TX and RX optical phased arrays; fig. 3B: optical transceiver system 300B).
Concerning claim 5, Liu further teaches the chip of claim 4, wherein the phased array lidar chip further comprises a second beam splitter, the second beam splitter is located between the first beam splitter and the emitting module, the second beam splitter is configured to divide the detection light into multiple beams and respectively provide the multiple beams to the multiple emitting units (¶0066 & fig. 4: S2 teaches splitting an optical signal from the laser transmitter in to N channels, then further splitting the N channels of the optical signals to obtain N channels of phase-modulated reference light and N channels of phase-modulated signal light. Based on the claim language, the second splitting corresponds to the claims “first beam splitter” and the first splitting corresponds to the claimed “second beam splitter”).
Concerning claim 8, Guglielmon and Liu further teach the chip of claim 2, wherein the emitting unit comprises an emitting beam splitter, a first phase shifter group and a first grating antenna that are sequentially connected (Guglielmon, figs. 1-2 & ¶¶0077-0079; Liu, fig. 2 & ¶¶0051-0052); the laser beam is capable of sequentially passing through the emitting beam splitter, the first phase shifter group and the first grating antenna to emit to the detection space (Guglielmon, ¶0077: “Light can be transmitted from or received into grating elements”; Liu, ¶0054: “signal light is projected to the detection region”);
the receiving unit comprises a receiving beam combiner, a second phase shifter group and a second grating antenna that are sequentially connected, the echo signal is capable of sequentially passing through the second grating antenna (Guglielmon, figs. 1-2 & ¶¶0077-0079; Liu, fig. 2 & ¶¶0051-0052: transmission & reception paths), the second phase shifter group and the receiving beam combiner to be received (Guglielmon, ¶0077: “Light can be transmitted from or received into grating elements”; Liu, ¶0054: “signal light is projected to the detection region”).
Concerning claim 10, Guglielmon further teaches the chip of claim 8, wherein the emitting unit is provided with one, the first grating antenna is provided with multiple areas, and each area corresponds to a different scanning range (fig. 1: grating antenna 102; ¶0040: “a plurality of optical grating antennas, including two or more optical grating antennas each coupled to a different respective one of the optical phase shifters, and being configured to receive optical waves from a set of receiving angles characterized by a wavelength-controlled angular tuning range within the first plane and a phase-shift-controlled angular tuning range within a plane perpendicular to the first plane”).
Concerning claim 12, Guglielmon teaches a lidar (¶0081: LIDAR application), comprising a laser and a phased array lidar chip (¶0081: laser system and photonic chip), the lidar is configured to provide a laser beam (¶0042: light beam);
wherein the phased array lidar chip comprises:
an input coupler, configured to couple a laser beam to the phased array lidar chip, and provide the laser beam to an emitting module (fig. 3B & ¶0081: coupling of an optical source (e.g., a laser system) to a photonic chip, wherein the beam from the optical source is provided to the phased arrays);
the emitting module, comprising at least one emitting unit, wherein the emitting unit is configured to emit the laser beam to a detection space (¶0074: “light emitted from one or more optical phased arrays to individually or collectively cover the volume of an entire hemisphere”); and
a receiving module, comprising multiple receiving units (¶0082: “RX optical phased arrays with multiple beam reception may be used”), wherein the receiving units are configured to receive a return signal within the detection space (¶0079: “return signal from an object”), and each receiving unit corresponds to a different scanning range (¶0082: “ In some examples, RX optical phased arrays with multiple beam reception may be used, similar to the TX optical phased array 322. However, it may be difficult for such an optical transceiver to differentiate which of the multiple beams are being received by such an RX optical phased array. In such cases, the RX optical phased arrays shown in FIG. 3C can allow for differentiation of multiple beams by having a receiving angle that only substantially overlaps with one beam from the TX optical phased array 322”). Not explicitly taught is wherein the receiving units are configured to receive an echo signal within the detection space.
Liu, in the same field of endeavor, teaches a transmit-receive coaxial phased array lidar chip and control method, wherein a transmit-receive phased array is configured to receive an echo signal within the detection space (¶0043: “transmit-receive phased array 3 receives an echo signal reflected by a target in the detection region”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the teachings of Liu into the Guglielmon invention in order to determine at least one of three-dimensional depth information or velocity information of an object in a detection region based on a time difference between the optical signal output by a laser emitting unit and the echo signal (Liu, ¶0043).
Concerning claim 13, Guglielmon further teaches the lidar according to claim 12, wherein the phased array lidar chip further comprises: a first beam splitter, configured to receive the laser beam by the input coupler (fig. 3B: optical splitter 316).
Liu further teaches the beam splitter (fig. 1: main beam splitter 3) dividing the laser beam into a detection light and a reference light (¶0035 & ¶0040: “split the optical signal into the signal light and the reference light”), and providing the detection light to the emitting module, emitting the detection light to the detection space by the emitting module (¶0035 & ¶0040: “then the signal light is coupled into free space”); and
a first beam combiner, configured to receive the reference light and the echo signal, wherein the reference light and the echo signal are combined in the first beam combiner to generate a beat-frequency signal (¶0037: “optical mixer is configured to mix the echo signal and the reference light to generate the beat signal”).
Concerning claim 14, Guglielmon further teaches the lidar according to claim 13, wherein the phased array lidar chip further comprises a detection module, the detection module is configured to receive the beat-frequency signal and convert the beat-frequency signal into a difference-frequency electrical signal (¶0043: “The balanced detector array 4 converts the beat signal carrying echo signal information into an electrical signal and outputs the electrical signal to the signal processing and control unit 5. The signal processing and control unit 5 processes the electrical signal and determines at least one of three-dimensional depth information or velocity information of the target in the detection region based on a time difference between the optical signal output by the laser emitting unit 1 and the echo signal”).
Concerning claim 15, Guglielmon further teaches the lidar according to claim 13, wherein the emitting unit is provided with multiple, the receiving units and the emitting units are provided in one-to-one correspondence, and a receiving unit and an emitting unit that are provided in correspondence have a same scanning range and form a transceiver unit (¶0080: four pairs of TX and RX optical phased arrays; fig. 3B: optical transceiver system 300B).
Concerning claim 16, Guglielmon further teaches the lidar according to claim 15, wherein the phased array lidar chip further comprises a second beam splitter, the second beam splitter is located between the first beam splitter and the emitting module, the second beam splitter is configured to divide the detection light into multiple beams and respectively provide the multiple beams to the multiple emitting units (¶0066 & fig. 4: S2 teaches splitting an optical signal from the laser transmitter in to N channels, then further splitting the N channels of the optical signals to obtain N channels of phase-modulated reference light and N channels of phase-modulated signal light. Based on the claim language, the second splitting corresponds to the claims “first beam splitter” and the first splitting corresponds to the claimed “second beam splitter”).
Concerning claim 19, Guglielmon and Liu further teach the lidar according to claim 13, wherein the emitting unit comprises an emitting beam splitter, a first phase shifter group and a first grating antenna that are sequentially connected (Guglielmon, figs. 1-2 & ¶¶0077-0079; Liu, fig. 2 & ¶¶0051-0052); the laser beam is capable of sequentially passing through the emitting beam splitter, the first phase shifter group and the first grating antenna to emit to the detection space (Guglielmon, ¶0077: “Light can be transmitted from or received into grating elements”; Liu, ¶0054: “signal light is projected to the detection region”);
the receiving unit comprises a receiving beam combiner, a second phase shifter group and a second grating antenna that are sequentially connected, the echo signal is capable of sequentially passing through the second grating antenna (Guglielmon, figs. 1-2 & ¶¶0077-0079; Liu, fig. 2 & ¶¶0051-0052: transmission & reception paths), the second phase shifter group and the receiving beam combiner to be received (Guglielmon, ¶0077: “Light can be transmitted from or received into grating elements”; Liu, ¶0054: “signal light is projected to the detection region”).
Claims 6-7 and 17-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guglielmon et al. [US 20250004350 A1 (claiming benefit to provisional application 63/523,685 (Jun. 28, 2023)), hereinafter Guglielmon] in view of Liu [US 20260153602 A1 (claiming benefit to foreign application (Jul. 25, 2023)] and Zheng et al. [US 20260016572 A1 (claiming benefit to foreign application (Jun. 6, 2023)), hereinafter Zheng].
Concerning claim 6, Guglielmon in view of Liu teaches the phased array lidar chip according to claim 4. Not explicitly taught is the chip, wherein the phased array lidar chip further comprises multiple first optical switches, the first optical switches are located between the input coupler and the first beam splitters, the multiple first optical switches and the multiple emitting units are provided correspondingly, and the first optical switches are configured to control conduction of corresponding transceiver units.
Zheng, in the same field of endeavor, teaches a lidar chip and lidar, wherein the phased array lidar chip further comprises multiple first optical switches, the first optical switches are located between the input coupler and the first beam splitters, the multiple first optical switches and the multiple emitting units are provided correspondingly (fig. 1: optical switches 310; ¶0050), and the first optical switches are configured to control conduction of corresponding transceiver units (¶¶0052-0053: “optical switches are used to control the optical path of transmission of the measurement light”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the teachings of Zheng into the Guglielmon in view of Liu invention in order to control the optical path of transmission of the measurement light.
Concerning claim 7, Guglielmon in view of Liu teaches the phased array lidar chip according to claim 4. Not explicitly taught is the chip, wherein the phased array lidar chip further comprises multiple second optical switches and multiple third optical switches; the second optical switches are located between the input coupler and the emitting units, the multiple second optical switches and the multiple emitting units are provided correspondingly, the second optical switches are configured to control conduction of corresponding emitting units; the multiple third optical switches and the multiple receiving units are provided correspondingly, the third optical switches are located between the first beam combiner and the receiving units, the third optical switches are configured to control conduction of corresponding receiving units.
Zheng, in the same field of endeavor, teaches a lidar chip and lidar, wherein the phased array lidar chip further comprises multiple second optical switches and multiple third optical switches (fig. 1: optical switches 310; ¶0050); the second optical switches are located between the input coupler and the emitting units, the multiple second optical switches and the multiple emitting units are provided correspondingly, the second optical switches are configured to control conduction of corresponding emitting units (fig. 1: optical switches 310; ¶0050); the multiple third optical switches and the multiple receiving units are provided correspondingly, the third optical switches are located between the first beam combiner and the receiving units (fig. 1: optical switches 310; ¶0050; fig. 9: optical switches 320, beam combiner 380), the third optical switches are configured to control conduction of corresponding receiving units (¶¶0052-0053: “optical switches are used to control the optical path of transmission of the measurement light”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the teachings of Zheng into the Guglielmon in view of Liu invention in order to control the optical path of transmission of the measurement light.
Concerning claim 17, Guglielmon in view of Liu teaches the lidar according to claim 15. Not explicitly taught is the lidar, wherein the phased array lidar chip further comprises multiple first optical switches, the first optical switches are located between the input coupler and the first beam splitters, the multiple first optical switches and the multiple emitting units are provided correspondingly, and the first optical switches are configured to control conduction of corresponding transceiver units.
Zheng, in the same field of endeavor, teaches a lidar chip and lidar, wherein the phased array lidar chip further comprises multiple first optical switches, the first optical switches are located between the input coupler and the first beam splitters, the multiple first optical switches and the multiple emitting units are provided correspondingly (fig. 1: optical switches 310; ¶0050), and the first optical switches are configured to control conduction of corresponding transceiver units (¶¶0052-0053: “optical switches are used to control the optical path of transmission of the measurement light”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the teachings of Zheng into the Guglielmon in view of Liu invention in order to control the optical path of transmission of the measurement light.
Concerning claim 18, Guglielmon in view of Liu teaches the lidar according to claim 15. Not explicitly taught is the lidar, wherein the phased array lidar chip further comprises multiple second optical switches and multiple third optical switches; the second optical switches are located between the input coupler and the emitting units, the multiple second optical switches and the multiple emitting units are provided correspondingly, the second optical switches are configured to control conduction of corresponding emitting units; the multiple third optical switches and the multiple receiving units are provided correspondingly, the third optical switches are located between the first beam combiner and the receiving units, the third optical switches are configured to control conduction of corresponding receiving units.
Zheng, in the same field of endeavor, teaches a lidar chip and lidar, wherein the phased array lidar chip further comprises multiple second optical switches and multiple third optical switches (fig. 1: optical switches 310; ¶0050); the second optical switches are located between the input coupler and the emitting units, the multiple second optical switches and the multiple emitting units are provided correspondingly, the second optical switches are configured to control conduction of corresponding emitting units (fig. 1: optical switches 310; ¶0050); the multiple third optical switches and the multiple receiving units are provided correspondingly, the third optical switches are located between the first beam combiner and the receiving units (fig. 1: optical switches 310; ¶0050; fig. 9: optical switches 320, beam combiner 380), the third optical switches are configured to control conduction of corresponding receiving units (¶¶0052-0053: “optical switches are used to control the optical path of transmission of the measurement light”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to incorporate the teachings of Zheng into the Guglielmon in view of Liu invention in order to control the optical path of transmission of the measurement light.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guglielmon et al. [US 20250004350 A1 (claiming benefit to provisional application 63/523,685 (Jun. 28, 2023)), hereinafter Guglielmon] in view of Liu [US 20260153602 A1 (claiming benefit to foreign application (Jul. 25, 2023)] and Lu et al. [US 20210018603 A1, hereinafter Lu].
Concerning claim 11, Guglielmon teaches the phased array lidar chip according to claim 8. Not explicitly taught is the chip, wherein both the first grating antenna and the second grating antenna are any one of a sidewall-etched grating, a shallow-etched grating, a full-etched grating and a loading-type grating.
Lu, in the same field of endeavor, teaches LiDAR emitters comprising grating-based optical antennas, wherein the grating antennas are double-layer silicon nitride gratings or shallow-etching silicon waveguide gratings (¶0015). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to combine the teachings of Guglielmon, Liu and Lu in order to enable a wider steering angle and a smaller light beam divergence (Lu, ¶0049).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9 and 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMES M ANDERSON II whose telephone number is (571)270-1444. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 10AM-6PM.
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/James M Anderson II/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2425
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