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 .
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 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.
Information Disclosure Statement
Acknowledgment is made of Applicant’s Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) form PTO 1449.These IDS has been considered.
Examiner’s Note
The Examiner has pointed out particular references contained in the prior art of record within the body of this action for the convenience of the Applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages, paragraph and figures may apply. Applicant, in preparing the response, should consider fully the entire reference as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner.
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 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 of this title, 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.
Claim(s) 1-4 and 6-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over GUERINEAU et al. (US 20040239939 A1) (herein after GUERINEAU)[cited in the IDS field by the applicant] in view of Sundar et al. (US 20030142944 A1) (herein after Sundar).
As to claim(s) 1-4 and 6-14, GUERINEAU discloses an interference structure, applied to a spectrometer, wherein the interference structure is configured to receive incident light and output a plurality of beams of interference light corresponding to the incident light, and the interference structure comprises:
an interference film layer [plate L] comprising a plurality of regions [@fig.1], wherein the plurality of regions comprises a transparent region made of transparent material [a plate L made of a material substantially transparent to the incident radiation is superposed on the photosensitive element EPS. For example, the plate L is made from a crystalline compound including a semiconductor…¶0035], and
a thickness of at least one region in the plurality of regions is different from a thickness of a region other than the at least one region in the plurality of regions [the thickness e of the plate LC varies from one element to the other, for example in one direction, i.e. along the row of photosensitive elements of a linear detector or along each of the parallel rows, lines or columns, of photosensitive elements of a matrix detector…¶0039][¶0043,0050].
[Note: while each unit configured to perform as claimed may be recited either structurally or functionally, claims directed to an apparatus must be distinguished from the prior art in terms of structure rather than function, because apparatus claims cover what a device is, not what a device does].
The interference structure according to claim 1, a cross-section of the interference film layer comprises a stepped shape, and each step of the stepped shape corresponds to one region in the plurality of regions [The plate LC is wedge-shaped, i.e. has the shape of a dihedron having half-planes coplanar with the faces F1 and F2 and an angle .theta. of a few tens of milliradians. The thickness between the faces F1 and F2 of the plate is substantially constant in the region facing a photosensitive element EPS…¶0041].
The interference structure according to claim 2, each height difference between adjacent steps is the same [The height of the riser CM between two consecutive steps is then made substantially equal to .lambda..sub.min /4n, i.e. to the sampling step d.delta. defined above…¶0050].
The interference structure a plurality of height differences between adjacent steps are different [¶0050].
The interference structure according to claim 1, a cross-section of the interference film layer comprises a wedge shape [¶0042].
The interference structure according to claim 1, a side surface of the interference film layer is wavy [¶0036].
The interference structure according to claim 1, further comprising: a first transparent protection layer stacked with the interference film layer [¶0048].
The interference structure according to claim 8, further comprising:
a second transparent protection layer, disposed on a side, away from the first transparent protection layer, of the interference film layer [¶0044-0045].
The interference structure according to claim 1, wherein a thickness of the interference film layer ranges from 0 microns to 300 microns [¶0035].
The interference structure according to claim 1, wherein the transparent material comprises one or more of SiO2, SiO, Si, Ge, ZnS, BaF2, CaF2, MgF2, InGaAs, GaAs, InP, BN, mica, Al2O3, diamond, SiC, and GaN [¶0035].
A detection apparatus, comprising: the interference structure according to claim 1; and a detector stacked with the interference structure [¶0019], configured to detect the plurality of beams of interference light output by the interference structure and generate spectral response data corresponding to the plurality of beams of interference light [¶0037, 0039].
The detection apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the detector comprises any one of a charge coupled element detector [¶0015], a complementary metal oxide semiconductor detector, a gallium indium arsenide shortwave infrared detector, a thermal detector, a cadmium telluride mercury infrared detector, a type II superlattice infrared detector, and a quantum well infrared detector [¶0052].
A spectrometer, comprising:
the detection apparatus according to claim 12; and
a processor connected to the detection apparatus, configured to reconstruct the spectral response data to generate reconstructed spectral data [¶0035, 0057].
GUERINEAU discloses all the features of the claimed invention except the limitation such as: “a direction perpendicular to the interference film layer”.
However, Sundar from the same field of endeavor discloses a direction perpendicular to the interference film layer [The films were optically pumped perpendicular to the wave-guiding direction using a 100 fs, regeneratively-amplified Ti-sapphire laser (400 nm), which is focused down into a stripe using a cylindrical lens…¶0056 @fig,.1].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention was made to modify the device/method/system of GUERINEAU such that the direction perpendicular to the interference film layer; as taught by Sundar, for the advantages such as: provide high gain to produce optical amplification or lasing over short amplifier or cavity lengths…¶0013.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 5 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
As to claim 5, the prior arts alone or in combination fails to disclose the claimed limitations such as “wherein in the direction perpendicular to the interference film layer, a height difference between adjacent steps satisfies D≤1/(2×N×V), wherein D is the height difference, N is a refractive index of the transparent material, and V is a maximum wave number that the interference structure is capable of measuring” along with all other limitations of the claim.
Other prior art(s)
GANTZ et al. (US 20200305527 A1) only discloses: FIGS. 1N(a) and 1N(b) illustrate a perspective view and a side view of an article of footwear 100 that include a sole structure 104 and an upper 102. The structure including the inorganic optical element is represented by 122a and 122b. The sole structure 104 is secured to the upper 102 and extends between the foot and the ground when the article of footwear 100 is worn…¶0050.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MD M RAHMAN whose telephone number is (571)272-9175. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Thur.
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MD M. RAHMAN
Primary Patent Examiner
Art Unit 2886
/MD M RAHMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2877
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