Appeal No. 96-1368
Application 08/080,891
3. The rejections based on Iwanaga
Claim 6, which depends on claim 1, stands rejected under
§ 103 as unpatentable for obviousness over Iwanaga in view of
Murty, Rogers, and De Vaan. Claim 6 recites a device which
includes a light source for supplying a scanning beam, an
optical system for directing the scanning beam onto an
information plane of a record carrier, a photosensitive
detection system in the path of the scanning beam from the
record carrier, and a polarization-sensitive beam splitter as
claimed in claim 1 arranged in the path before the detection
system. Figure 6 of Iwanaga shows a device including all of
these elements except for a beam splitter that satisfies claim
1: a source 1 for generating a scanning laser beam, optical
elements 2, 4 and 5 for directing the laser beam to the
recording medium 6, a photodetectors 11 for receiving laser
light from the recording medium, and a polarization-sensitive
beam splitter 19 (a Wollaston prism) in the light path leading
to the photodetectors. The wedge-shaped elements of Iwanaga's
Wollaston prism are made of crystal (col. 5, lines 34-35)
rather than a polymerized liquid crystal monomer.
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