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 .
Drawings
Color photographs and color drawings are not accepted in utility applications unless a petition filed under 37 CFR 1.84(a)(2) is granted. Any such petition must be accompanied by the appropriate fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(h), one set of color drawings or color photographs, as appropriate, if submitted via the USPTO patent electronic filing system or three sets of color drawings or color photographs, as appropriate, if not submitted via the via USPTO patent electronic filing system, and, unless already present, an amendment to include the following language as the first paragraph of the brief description of the drawings section of the specification:
The patent or application file contains at least one drawing executed in color. Copies of this patent or patent application publication with color drawing(s) will be provided by the Office upon request and payment of the necessary fee.
Color photographs will be accepted if the conditions for accepting color drawings and black and white photographs have been satisfied. See 37 CFR 1.84(b)(2).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 322-327 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Salafsky (US 2003/0148391), hereinafter Salafsky.
Claim 322: Salafsky discloses a system (Fig. 1) for optically interrogating a surface of a sample (30), the system comprising:
a tunable wavelength optical source (5) configured to emit optical electromagnetic radiation to illuminate a region of the sample (30) (“Light source 5 provides the fundamental light necessary to generate second harmonic light at the sample. Typically this will be a picosecond or femtosecond laser, either wavelength-tunable” [0392]);
at least one optical detector (65) configured to detect second harmonic generated light from the sample (30) (“The second harmonic is reflected from mirror 40, its polarization selected if necessary by polarizing optic 50, and is focused using a lens 55 onto a detector 60 [sic, 65]” [0392]); and
a scanning stage (35) configured to move the sample (30) to change the illuminated region (“The sample surface 30 can be mounted on an x-y translation stage 35 (computer controlled) to select a specific location on the surface for generation of the second harmonic beam” [0392]);
wherein the emitted optical electromagnetic comprises at least two different wavelengths (inherent since the optical source is wavelength-tunable [0392]).
Claim 323: Salafsky further discloses wherein the tunable wavelength optical source (5) comprises a pulsed optical source (inherent, “Typically this will be a picosecond or femtosecond laser” [0392]; “a fundamental beam (e.g., output of ~1W avg. Power, ~150 fs pulses from a Ti:Sapphire system such as the Verdi-Mira commercial system from Coherent Inc.)” [0516]).
Claim 324: Salafsky further discloses wherein the tunable wavelength optical source (5) comprises a tunable laser (“Typically this will be a picosecond or femtosecond laser, either wavelength-tunable or not tunable” [0392]).
Claim 325: Salafsky further discloses wherein the tunable laser (5) comprises a Ti:Sapphire laser, a fiber laser, or a solid state laser (“a fundamental beam (e.g., output of ~1W avg. Power, ~150 fs pulses from a Ti:Sapphire system such as the Verdi-Mira commercial system from Coherent Inc.)” [0516]).
Claim 326: Salafsky further discloses wherein the tunable wavelength optical source (5) comprises a pulsed laser (“Typically this will be a picosecond or femtosecond laser” [0392]; “a fundamental beam (e.g., output of ~1W avg. Power, ~150 fs pulses from a Ti:Sapphire system such as the Verdi-Mira commercial system from Coherent Inc.)” [0516]).
Claim 327: Salafsky further discloses wherein the emitted optical electromagnetic radiation comprises a first wavelength at a first time and a second wavelength at a second time after the first time (inherent, “Typically this will be a picosecond or femtosecond laser, either wavelength-tunable” [0392]).
Claims 322-327 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Zeng et al. (US 2014/0023993), hereinafter Zeng.
Claim 322: Zeng discloses a system (100, Fig. 2A) for optically interrogating a surface of a sample (SA, the system (100) comprising:
a tunable wavelength optical source (102) configured to emit optical electromagnetic radiation to illuminate a region of the sample (SA) [0060];
at least one optical detector (118) configured to detect second harmonic generated light from the sample (SA) [0064]; and
a scanning stage (156) configured to move the sample (SA) to change the illuminated region (the scanning state 156 provides relative movement of the sample so that various areas of the sample are irradiated [0071]);
wherein the emitted optical electromagnetic comprises at least two different wavelengths (inherent, “The laser may be tunable, for example from 720 nm-950 nm” [0060]).
Claim 323: Zeng further discloses wherein the tunable wavelength optical source (102) comprises a pulsed optical source (“The laser may be a femtosecond laser. The pulse frequency of the femtosecond laser may for example be 80 MHz” [0060]).
Claim 324: Zeng further discloses wherein the tunable wavelength optical source (102) comprises a tunable laser (“Excitation light source may be a laser” [0060]).
Claim 325: Zeng further discloses wherein the tunable laser (102) comprises a Ti:Sapphire laser, a fiber laser, or a solid state laser (“Some in vivo MPM systems have imaging rates varying from 1 s to 24 s per frame for titanium sapphire laser systems based at 800 nm” [0007]).
Claim 326: Zeng further discloses wherein the tunable wavelength optical source (102) comprises a pulsed laser (“The laser may be a femtosecond laser. The pulse frequency of the femtosecond laser may for example be 80 MHz” [0060]).
Claim 327: Zeng further discloses wherein the emitted optical electromagnetic radiation comprises a first wavelength at a first time and a second wavelength at a second time after the first time (inherent, “The laser may be tunable, for example from 720 nm-950 nm” [0060]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 328 is 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Claim 328: None of the prior art, alone or in combination, teaches or discloses the system of Claim 327, wherein signals received from the at least one optical detector at the first and second times comprise information for determining an energy threshold for photo-induced charge carrier injection into a dielectric layer of the sample.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the Examiner should be directed to HINA F AYUB whose telephone number is (571)270-3171. The Examiner can normally be reached on 9am-5pm ET Mon-Fri.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, Applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the Examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the Examiner’s supervisor, Tarifur Chowdhury can be reached on 571-272-2287. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Hina F Ayub/
Primary Patent Examiner
Art Unit 2877
Prosecution Insights