Appeal No. 1999-0360
Application No. 08/810,591
single plane. Appellants contend that to produce
independent deflection in two planes requires two such
devices, stacked orthogonally.
We are not persuaded by appellants’ arguments and
will sustain the rejection of claims 37-39. It is true
that Grinberg is concerned with the deflection of optical
beams of relatively large diameter and high energy in
high power laser communications and weapons systems and,
thus, is concerned with maintaining high phase coherence
and low beam scattering. Nevertheless, there is no
evidence or rationale set forth by appellants to support
their bare conclusion that Grinberg is incapable of
proper operation with incoherent, partially-coherent or
polychromatic light. To the contrary, both appellants
and Grinberg utilize the same kind of apparatus, liquid
crystal birefringent material, to form their light
steering apparatus. Such being the case, it is to be
expected that both appellants’ device and that of
Grinberg would exhibit the same operational capabilities.
With respect to the second argument, it is
unquestioned that Grinberg’s two arrays 2 and 30 of
Figure 2 cooperate to produce deflection in two planes.
Collectively, the two arrays are a device, which produces
independent deflection in two planes.
The Rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a)
of Claims 4, 5, 8, 14-19, 23-27, 34 and 35
over Grinberg and Buchan, and of Claims 6, 7, 10,
6
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