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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of pre-AIA 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.
Claim(s) 1, 3-6, 16 and 18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Jiao et al CN 105244591 A.
Jiao et al discloses in figure 4, a power distributor of a radio frequency communication system comprising a first port D41 (i.e.an input port) : a second port D42 (i.e. a first output port) and a third port D43 (i.e. a second output port) ; a first signal path ( signal conductors L1a, L1b, L3b L3a) implemented between the first port and the second port, and a second signal path ( signal conductors L2a L2b L4b La1) implemented between the first port and the third port, each of the first and second signal paths including a variable capacitor (C31 C32) (i.e. a variable capacitance circuit ) ; and a resistor (R32) that couples the second and third ports. (per claim 1)
With regards to claim 3, each of the first and second signal path includes a fixed capacitance circuit (C43 C44 C45 C46) and the respective variable capacitance circuit, the fixed capacitance circuit is configured to provide a fixed capacitance value.
With regards to claim 4, each of the first and second signal paths further includes an inductance(L35 L36) that couples a node between the respective fixed capacitance circuit and the variable capacitance circuit to a ground.
With regards to claim 5, the fixed capacitance value of the first signal path the same as the fixed capacitance value of the second path.
Jiao et al states that the capacitance value of all DC blocking capacitors (C41, C42, C43, C44, C45, C46, C47, C48) is set to 1000pF, and the inductance of all inductors (L31, L32, L33, L34, L35, L36, L37, L38) are all set to 10nH
With regards to claims 6 and 18 , a control circuit configured to provide control signal to the first and second paths to thereby provide a selected capacitance value for the variable capacitance circuit of the respective signal path.
Jiao et al states “ Let one end of C31 be grounded, and the other end be connected to the DC bias voltage V3; Let one end of C32 be grounded, and the other end be connected to the DC bias voltage V4.” In this way, the capacitance values of C33, C34, C31, C32, C35, and C36 can be adjusted by adjusting the voltages of V1, V2, V3, V4, V5, and V6 respectively.
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Jiao et al states “Construct the detailed parameters on the circuit board diagram in Figure 4 based on the above parameters. The high-frequency circuit board used in this embodiment is Rogers RO4350B, the dielectric constant of the board is 3.48, the loss tangent is 0.0037, and the board thickness is 0.76 mm.” Therefore, the power distributor is formed on circuit board (i.e. a packaging substrate) . (per claim 16)
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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, 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) 19 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Arslan et al 6,108,517 in view of Jiao et al CN105244591A.
Arslan et al discloses in figure 2, a radio communications system (wireless) 200 comprising a first radio transmitter 202 having a first transmit antenna 206, a second radio transmitter 204 having a second transmit antenna 208, and a radio receiver. The radio receiver includes a receive antenna 210, a radio frequency processor 211, and a baseband processor 218. The radio frequency processor 211 includes a power splitter 212, a first radio processor 214, and a second radio processor 216.
An output of the first radio transmitter 202 is coupled to the first transmit antenna 206 and an output of the second radio transmitter 204 is coupled to the second transmit antenna 208. The receive antenna 210 is coupled to an input of the power splitter 212 and an output of the power splitter 212 is coupled to inputs of the first and second radio processors 214, 216. Outputs of the first and second radio processors 214, 216 are coupled to inputs of the baseband processor 218.
With regards to claim 20, Arslan et al states that the present invention relates to digital communications and, in particular, to the demodulation of adjacent channel signals in digital communications systems. Therefore, the received signal are capable having frequencies within a cellular frequency band.
Thus, Arslan et al is shown to teach all the limitation of the claim with the exception of a power splitter circuit including an input port for receiving the received signal from antenna, the power splitter circuit further including a first signal path implemented between the input port and a first output port and a second signal path implemented between the input port and a second output port, a variable capacitance circuit, the power splitter circuit further including a resistance that couples the first and second output ports.
Jiao et al discloses in figure 4, a power distributor comprising a first port D41 (i.e.an input port) : a second port D42 (i.e. a first output port) and a third port D43 (i.e. a second output port) ; a first signal path ( signal conductors L1a, L1b, L3b L3a) implemented between the first port and the second port, and a second signal path ( signal conductors L2a L2b L4b La1) implemented between the first port and the third port, each of the first and second signal paths including a variable capacitor (C1 C2) (i.e. a variable capacitance circuit ) ; and a resistor (R3) that couples the second and third ports.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have found it obvious to replace the general power splitter of Arslan et al with the power distributor as taught by Jiao et al .
The motivation for this modification would have been to provide the advantageous benefit of a simple, symmetrical, compact and practical design, and a power distributor capable of realizing complex impedance transformation from source to load
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2, 7-15 and 17 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KIMBERLY E GLENN whose telephone number is (571)272-1761. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00 AM-5:00 PM.
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November 14, 2025
/K.E.G/Examiner, Art Unit 2843
/ANDREA LINDGREN BALTZELL/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2843
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