Appeal No. 96-3813
Application No. 08/248,937
review, we will reverse the obviousness rejection of claims
1,3, and 11 through 23.
The examiner combines the teachings of Nobuhara and
Laybourn for a coupler between a semiconductor waveguide and a
dielectric waveguide with a grating in between having a
mechanical wave vector equal to the difference between
propagation vectors of the two waveguides. Appellants do not
contest the combination of references.
Appellants do contend that Nobuhara and Laybourn teach a
round dielectric waveguide rather than a rectangular one. In
particular, appellants state (Brief, page 4) that "optical
fibers are round" and "Laybourn et al. teach a coupling
between a round transmission waveguide and a planar
waveguide." The examiner asserts (Supplemental Answer, page
2) that "it would have been an obvious matter of design choice
to utilize a dielectric waveguide with a roughly square cross
section since changes on size are recognized as being within
the level of ordinary skill in the art." The examiner
continues (Supplemental Answer, page 3) with
4
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